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"U.S. Army records explicitly declare that the comfort women were prostitutes, and found no instances of 'kidnapping' by the Japanese authorities," the article says. "Many Japanese politicians have also come to believe that the Nanking Massacre was a fabrication of the Chinese, who are using it to pressure Japan into granting concessions in other areas."

The historian has in the past championed Japan's engagement in World War II and praised the kamikaze suicide pilots.

In the article, Kase says that a resolution before the U.S. Congress condemning Japan's wartime sex enslavement of Asian women "has taken the Japanese government by surprise, especially given its unprecedented support for Washington in Iraq and the war on terrorism."

"Most Japanese can't understand why issues like the comfort women or the Nanking Massacre have resurfaced at all. Since World War II, the country has abided by the pacifism forced on it by the U.S. occupation," the article says.

"In 1993, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologized for Japan's having coerced women into prostitution during the war. Three years later, on the 50th anniversary of Japan's surrender, the Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama acknowledged that Japanese aggression during the war had caused 'tremendous damage and suffering' to many Asian countries," Kase wrote.

The article wasn't published in the U.S. edition of the magazine, but it is freely available on the magazine's website. Netizens, angered by the article, have denounced both Japan and Newsweek, saying that the country must have "forgotten" its war crimes.

The Korean embassy in the U.S. said that the article was apparently intended for the Asia region or the online edition of the magazine given that it did not appear in the U.S. edition. The embassy pledged to respond strongly and possibly issue an official complaint to the magazine after discussing the matter with Seoul.

(englishnews@chosun.com )