Congressman to press for resolution to force Japan to acknowledge sex slave issue

A Californian congressman is planning to pass a resolution in the new Congress calling for Japan to formally acknowledge and accept responsibility for sexually enslaving women during World War II, the Hill newspaper reported Tuesday.

Japanese-American Rep Mike Honda says he will be prompting intense lobbying activities from the Korean-American community, which last year rallied behind the resolution sponsored by Evans, and from the Japanese government, which opposed the legislation.

The House International Relations Committee passed the controversial resolution last fall. Even though it did not have the force of law, it put the Japanese government on the defensive. Japan argues that it has already apologized and atoned for the treatment of what Tokyo calls "comfort women."

During its occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of WWII, Japan used as many as 200,000 young women from Korea, China, the Philippines and in some cases Western Europe for sexual servitude, a program designed to increase the efficiency and morale of the Japanese soldiers.

Honda's office is determined to reintroduce the resolution as soon as possible in the new Congress. "I look forward to seeking the justice the comfort women deserve," Honda, chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said.

Rep Tom Lantos (D-Calif), incoming chairman of the panel, supported the resolution last year and is expected to do so again.

A source close to the Korean-Asian community said that Honda, as a Japanese-American taking on the issue, could attract even more support. Honda has been known to take on human-rights issues related to Japan. Honda is not a member of the International Relations Committee.

In 1999, while still in the California state legislature, Honda was successful in passing an assembly joint resolution urging Japan to formally issue a "clear and unambiguous apology for the atrocious war crimes committed by its military during World War II," the Hill reported.

According to materials sent by the Japanese Embassy, the Japanese government has extended official apologies on several occasions. One came in 1994 from then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama during the 50-year commemoration of the war's end.

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sent personal letters to former comfort women to extend Japan's apology and remorse, according to the embassy.

A so-called Asian Women Fund was established in 1995, but supporters of the House resolution said that the fund is private and not a government fund. Tokyo argues that the fund was established with cooperation from the government and the Japanese people, and that the government contributed funds for the organization's operating costs as well as its medical welfare support projects.

Some of the former comfort women accepted compensation from the Asian Women Fund, but many have rejected it and have held protests in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

Some critics of the congressional action say that such a resolution goes beyond asking for an apology. It puts Japan on the defensive and creates tensions between the United States and Japan, America's top ally in Asia.

"This is not just about comfort women but also about Japan's alliance responsibility in the international community," said the source close to the Korean-American community.