Opposition lawmaker urges Abe to stay with 1993 sex slave apology

I honestly don't think that Abe himself cares. I think that people behind the scenes who pulled strings to get him back into power are now calling in their favours to get their agenda up front. I mean, with the economy in the state it is, with the amount of work on getting the spending plans in place to make sure the huge volume of money they intend to use gets put in the right places and not as it was done before, rebuilding Tohoku, getting a strong compliance culture around the nuclear industry, working out what to do with TPP, etc, etc, etc. How in the world does he even have time to even consider this farcical move?

Agree with the passage. Note that Abe has been fairly careful with his statements separating those indicatives he "will" work on those he "may" work on. This issue clearly belongs to the latter and was referred to only to keep certain supporters happy while not committing to do anything. Abe is not stupid.

I hope he's not the idiot I truly believe he is. Leave it as it is. Doing anything else will just make more issues and cause more problems which is the last thing this country needs.

If it was made by the govt of the day why would there be a need to revise it now?

"...said that views on history should be left to academics."

As well as the victims and Imperial troops who were there themselves and no it happened; it should NEVER be left to right-wing politicians who's grandfathers were war criminals. Anyway, I hope the US senators hurry hope and pass legislation to embarrass Japan again into keeping the apology (like last time Abe was in office). Since they are trying to further cuddle up with the US out of fear of China (whom they've provoked), it might just work.

It's quite ironic that Japanese law is based on a good old bow and show regret for your actions and yet, here they are trying to lie their way out of a situation that is entirely true. Show some balls and atone for your actions! And, stop fiddling the history books to show it didn't happen! The same goes for the massacre in China!

So, 70 odd years later they are stating these women voluntarily gave themselves up to be sex slaves for the Japanese military? Give me a break!!! Next they'll be stating the 200,000 men, women and children they slaughtered in China all committed suicide.

Unfortunately the message our government is sending is this "We are not sorry, we are building up the military again and we will colonise Asia again". Sad.... and the media keeps beating the point about threat form our neighbours.

Wait so there was an apology? What are Korea and China up in arms about then?

if you all want a correct information about this, read the book Yamato Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave, not what chinese or japanese people said. Both sides opinion will always biased.

This country is going backwards like the crabs.

tmarie, I think he really is the idiot you think he is. But really unfortunately, he is not even the most extreme leader of a major party here.

And that's the very scary thing.

I always love when losers try to change something what works great. Fasten your seatbelts.

"counterproductive."

It's just taboo and bad luck too.

We just don't have time and energy for this, especially for us folks in the Tohoku area. Really.

I'm glad everyone here now recognizes that there have been apologies. Perhaps that was Abe's plan all along, threaten to withdraw one apology, and watch the socialists and communists scramble to demand that he leave it just as it is. Kind of legitimizes the apology they were denying ever existed a few weeks ago. Abe 1 : Socialists 0

Well said Motohiro, more than that more should be done to compensate the victims or at least for this Government to take womens rights more seriously in Japan and encourage women to stand up for themselves against the prejudice morality of the Men in general.

@Robet

How could only your favorite, Sterilng Seagrave could be right? Anything thought and voiced about any kind of history is to be biased and couldn't help but being subjective.

And I clearly see even this article is so biased. I would say "biased" here because the writer didn't study a bit about the facts.

'Up to 200,000 women from Korea, along with other Asian nations and the Netherlands, are estimated to have been kidnapped and forced to work as so-called “comfort women” in brothels set up around Asia for Japanese soldiers.'

This isn't true. More than half of them were from Japan (japanese professional prostitutes).Most of them were collected by public advertisement or other routes but not "kidnapped and forced." Some were very willing to work because it assured them of stable income.

But according to some soldiers' remarks, It does seem to there were some young women from Korea or other countries who were not professional. And some voiced they were forced to come and work there. What have matters and been argued over by the Japanese government is whether the Japanese army was directly involved with the possible coerce and they wouldn't like to admit it without clear evidence. (It is supposed that the the army entrusted Korean men with collecting women in Korea ). Even in the Kono statement, it was clearly said so but he apologized anyway with intent of ending up all the issue.

But Japan found he was wrong. This issue have dragged around and never seemed to be sorted out. That would explain Abe's move.

Sex slave, Sex slave, Sex slave...sounds odd if you really know what it was. Even "comfort women" are a made up word by a Japanese paper.

I feel very very sorry for women suffering there, though.

But to me, what make this complicated and often misunderstood is the Japanese government' ambiguous attitude and lack of effort for sincere explanation to the world about what really happened.

I know Korean people are so mad about this. But do you guys really know all that fuss began with an article of a Japanese paper which took up a book of a Japanese old guys named Yoshida Seigi who insisted in the book that he observed Korean women are forcefully collected for that purpose? Yes, there were no talk about this subject at all. No move from Korea or other countries. And do you really know the story was totally disproved by Korean people themselves who were living in the island which Yoshida's story were supposed to happen?

@ Patric

Abe denies comfort women, nanjing massacre, Bataan death march and the existence of Unit 731. He announces that apologies for wartime atrocities should be rescinded and that Japan should build up its military.

Where did you learn this? I never know Abe is that extremist,

Like others here, what I find amusing about all of this is that it was but a month ago that South Korean leaders were calling -- yet again -- for Japan to apologize for the War, implying that such an apology had yet to be issued despite facts to the contrary.

But here we are today with Abe threatening to radically alter the official Japanese government apology for the War, and South Korea is all but admitting their previous protestations were false by frothing at the mouth at a possible rescindment of the apology they have hitherto refused to acknowledge.

It would be wishing thinking to expect Abe possesses the political acumen necessary for forcing South Korea into such an embarrassing position. I just don't believe him to be smart enough to conceive of such a masterful manipulation to force South Korea into admitting the apology in question was in fact everything they had been asking for up until it was issued and beyond.

Where did you learn this? I never know Abe is that extremist

Let's make it clear. Since the establishment of AWF, former PM Murayama dedicated the rest of his political career to find evidence that military coerced women to work at these brothels. In regards to Korean women, he found none. The surviving Korean comfort women were either professionals, sold by their family, or falsely recruited by Korean operators.

Prof. Byeong-jik Ahn of Seoul National University spent three years investigating the testimonies of the surving comfort women. Of the 40 or so, he concluded that most of their testimonies were unreliable and confirmed only two were "forced" but not from the IJA. He quit after three years because he felt that this organization(Comfort Women Inc.) wasn't interested in finding out the true nature of the comfort women system but their motive was to pick a fight with Japan and extort money.

As to the 1993 Kono statement itself,

“South Korea kept pressing for the inclusion of the word ‘coercion’ in the Kono Declaration, while unofficially, they told us they would not demand individual compensation because it would create problems for the honor of the individual women… It was our expectation that if Japan recognized that there had been coercion, the South Koreans might ‘lay down their arms’. We informed the Koreans that we would recognize coercion before the declaration was made public.”

He added:

“There were no records proving coercion, so we decided to include the part about coercion as an overall judgment based on the testimony of the comfort women.”

Boy were they (Japanese cabinet at the time) wrong.

@keroyon52

have you read the book then? If i'm not right, can you prove that i'm wrong?

keroyon52Jan. 10, 2013 - 12:31AM JST This isn't true. More than half of them were from Japan (japanese professional prostitutes)

Woah!! Hold on here Keroyon52, I live in a very inaka region of Japan and I chat to old people quite a lot and that's NOT the story they tell (and they were alive at the time, so I trust their take on things a LOT more than anyone else's - primary sources and all that). The way they tell it the Japanese "comfort women" weren't prostitutes by any measure. Mostly they were not in "essential professions" (farming or heavy industry) - artists especially were targetted, weren't married or spoke out a little too loudly when the Imperial Women's Party was subsumed into the Imperial Party. They weren't given much of a choice in the matter, basically "do your duty for Japan" or "die". I don't know much about their lives after they became "comfort women", but I have heard about how people became comfort women from relatives (although some of them might have been comfort women and don't want to say).

It's a story that hasn't been told and hasn't been given much attention, and that people don't seem to want to hear about in Japan. Maybe if I have time I'll write a book, but it's not really my field. I would however suggest that you do a little research though before making statements like you just did. It is insensitive in the extreme.

Robert Abenz You can read the book at http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/39_S4.pdf

My mother was raped by these military beasts while we were Japanese prisoners of war in Moetilan and later transferred to Banjoebiroe on the island of Java. My mother passed away but I her daughter who was one and a halve year old and 5 years old when the war was over, suffered many atrocities inflicted by the Japanese., will as long as I live ask Japan for an acceptable apology , and redress for the enforced sexual slavery of Dutch Women.Proof of that fact you will find in the verdict by the Batavia Military Tribunal passing sentence on Japanese military and civilians in the so called Semarang Coerced Prostitution case.My mothers life was ruined, she suffered nightmares for the rest of her life. She did not forgive what the Japanese military had done to innocent women and children. Maybe one day I hope to be able to forgive, but forget one will never., even at my young age, things I have seen, the beatings my mother received, will forever be engraved in my mind. Lets see of this leader of Japan can present himself as the leader Japan needs now to restore its finances and its position in the world. Impress the world with a sincere apology with a suitable compensation to victims of the Imperial Army's conduct in South East Asia during World War two, in particular in Dutch East Indies. An apology is meaningless if that apology is not carried by Parliament. An apology by the people of Japan represented in Parliament is the only acceptable apology to war victims and their next of kin.A true apology requires redress. There are many ways within our different cultures to overcome the present gap in understanding as to what fair redress is. It is not a legal matter. Instead it is one of honor and respect in accepting moral responsibility. As Japan wants to befriend the world in order to protect its economy it has to compromise and show good will by taking initiatives. These quotes were send in our petition from Tuesday January 8, 2013, from The Hague The Netherlands to the Prime Minister Shinzo ABE

"Honest" Abe you ain't.

@JaneM

the link not worked.

the whole website is japan biased, made by the right-winger.

@JaneM

I'M WRONG!

it's not biased, the web content is objective in many ways....

thanks for the link.

@JaneM

pfttt, that's disgusting. why you show me the link ?

that whole website content is a very refined propaganda.

first, it shows up very objective and praising china's good side. in the middle, it started to show it's real face - the extremely megalomaniacal japanese pride.

why do you show me the link anyway?

japan need not apologize anymore, i don't see japanese government forcing usa to apologize for nuclear bomb?

as a chinese, i'm asking for japanese people here who read this, please forgive the mainlander's shameful behaviour, and continuous ruckus they have created.

if somebody didn't feel guilty, how can i force him to apologize? the communist government really successful in creating the people without human pride - the mainlander chinese.