By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON, Mar 28 2007 (IPS)

Pressure has been growing in Washington in support of a bipartisan resolution calling on the government of Japan to acknowledge its role in forcing some-200,000 so-called “comfort women” into sexual slavery during World War Two.

In a change from his previous stance, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a public apology Monday, saying that he stood by the 1993 statement issued by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono acknowledging that, “in many cases [the women] were recruited against their own will, through coaxing, coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments.”

“I am apologising here and now as the prime minister, and it is as stated in the Kono Statement,” said Abe when questioned by an opposition lawmaker.

Earlier this month, however, Abe had denied there were written records to confirm the sexual slavery of comfort women during World War Two.

Abe’s political career was largely built on his promises to discover the whereabouts and seek the return of Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korea, over two decades ago, to teach English to North Korean spies.

Criticism has been aimed at Abe for his failure to address Japan’s own human rights violations while demanding North Korea acknowledge its own injustices to Japan.

“The ‘comfort women’ issue is not ongoing. As for the abductees issue, the situation is that Japanese people who were kidnapped by North Korea have not been released,” he said.

But Chejin Park, director of constituency services at the Korean American Voters’ Council, told IPS, “Look how many people were kidnapped (by North Korea) – only 17. But the Japanese kidnapped 200,000 and mistreated them far worse.”

“Of course the North Korean and comfort women issue is related,” he said. “They are both human rights issues.”

Groups calling for an official Japanese apology for human rights violations against comfort women during the war have not been satisfied with Abe’s apologetic statement, made in a parliamentary subcommittee.

“His statement was made to subcommittee members. [The apology] should be made by parliament,” said Park.

On Jan. 31, Congressman Michael M. Honda, a California Democrat, introduced bipartisan legislation before the U.S. House of Representatives calling on the Japanese government to unambiguously apologise and acknowledge the tragedy that more than 200,000 comfort women experienced at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army during the occupation of various Asian countries and Pacific islands during World War Two.

On Tuesday, over 100 organisations, led by Korean American groups, called on Congress to support Honda’s initiative, saying, “We call upon U.S. citizens and the members of Congress to support House Resolution 121. The resolution is a matter of human rights, women’s rights, truth and reconciliation.”

Japan surprised some analysts by assuming a hardline stance at the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme last week, when it refused to discuss any improvements in relations until information about 17 kidnapped Japanese citizens is provided.

Abe has used the demand for the return of abducted Japanese citizens by North Korea as a rallying cry to prop up his weakening domestic support.

Critics have called his stance hypocritical given that he has simultaneously, over the past month, issued statements pointing to the lack of written evidence that Japanese engaged in forced prostitution while demanding the return of Japanese citizens from North Korea.

The Honda legislation is attempting to leverage the close ties between the U.S. and Japan to bring pressure on the government to address this issue.

“The House resolution is nonbinding but it will have meaning since the U.S. is the most closely aligned to Japan in East Asia,” said Park.

Abe is scheduled to visit the United States next month but it is highly unlikely Honda’s legislation will come up for vote before the Japanese prime minister’s visit.

Last June, then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was scheduled to address the U.S. Congress, but Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican from Illinois and World War Two veteran, blocked the plan to protest Koizumi’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which is dedicated to the spirits of soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan.

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