Japanese Prime Minister Denies Comfort Women of WWII Were Enslaved

Growing Chorus Slams War-Brothel
Remarks

By CARL FREIRE
The Associated Press
Friday, March 2,
2007; 2:51 PM

(published in the WASHINGTON POST)

TOKYO -- Anyone who doubts that the Japanese army forced Asian women into
sexual slavery in World War II should "face the truth," South Korea's foreign minister said Friday as outrage grew over
comments by Japan's prime minister that there was no evidence of the
enslavement.

 

Women's rights activists in the Philippines and a group of lawmakers in
South Korea also denounced the remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on
Thursday that there was no proof that so-called "comfort women" were forced into
prostitution during the war.

 

But one of the harshest comments came from 81-year-old Hilaria Bustamante
of Manila, who said she was kept as a sex slave in a Japanese garrison for a
year in 1942 as a 16-year-old.

 

"What he (Abe) said has angered me," she said. "They think we are just like
toilet paper that they can throw away after being used."

 

Historians say some 200,000 women _ mostly from Korea and China _ served in the Japanese military brothels throughout Asia
in the 1930s and 1940s. Witnesses, victims and even some former Japanese
soldiers say many of the women were kidnapped or otherwise forced into brothels,
where they could be raped by scores of soldiers a day.

 

Abe on Thursday said there is no proof the women were forced into
prostitution: "The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was
coercion."

 

His statement contradicted evidence in Japanese documents unearthed in 1992
that historians said showed military authorities had a direct role in working
with contractors to forcibly procure women for the brothels, known as "comfort
stations." The remark also cast doubt on a 1993 Japanese government apology to
the sex slaves.

 

Before a speech Friday in Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Song
Min-soon told The Associated Press that Abe's comments were "not helpful."

 

"We had better face the truth," Song said in the South Korean government's
first reaction to the nationalist prime minister's remarks.

 

Victims and their supporters have pushed unsuccessfully for a
parliament-approved apology from Japan and official government compensation.
Japan set up a private fund for compensation in 1995, but has refused to provide
government money.

 

In China, Su Zhiliang, the director of the Chinese Comfort Women Research
Center at Shanghai's Normal University, said she was surprised by Abe's
remarks.

 

"Suddenly to have Abe deny the fact that women were coerced into sexual
slavery is both very regrettable and very enraging," said Su, who has compiled
100 case studies with testimonials from Chinese comfort women since he began
researching the issue in 1993.

 

Philippines Rep. Liza Maza of the left-wing Gabriela women's party said
Abe's statement was "an affront to all women victims of Japanese military sexual
slavery" during the war.

Rechilda Extremadura, executive director of Lila Pilipina, an organization
of activists and former Filipino wartime sex slaves, said 120 are still alive
among 174 documented Filipino comfort women.

 

"Our women here, the grandmothers, said that they were forced, that they
were coerced into rendering sexual servitude inside the garrisons, inside the
'comfort stations,'" Extremadura said. "Now, let the Japanese government prove
that they went there willingly ... so that they can be labeled as prostitutes.
That is where this is heading."

 

She called on the Japanese government to acknowledge the history: "If you
are a responsible government, you are responsible enough to accept, acknowledge
and be accountable."

 

Bustamante said she was heading home in 1942 after scavenging for rice when
three Japanese soldiers stopped her on the road and seized her by the arms and
legs and threw her into a truck "like a pig."

 

"Even as I struggled, I could not do anything. They slapped me, they
punched me. I was only 16 then, what could I do?" she told AP Television
News.

 

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, on a visit to Tokyo, declined to
comment directly on Abe's statement.

 

"Our view is that what happened during the war was most deplorable," he
said when asked about the sex slave issue. "But ... as far as some kind of
resolution of this issue, this is something that must be dealt with between
Japan and the countries that were affected."

The United States has avoided public involvement in historical disputes
between Japan and its neighbors, though it has expressed concern that such
conflicts could affect other issues, such as cooperation on efforts to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

 

Last month, however, the House of Representatives held hearings on a
resolution calling for Japan to fully acknowledge and apologize for the sexual
abuse. U.S. lawmakers have introduced a nonbinding resolution urging Japan to
apologize formally.

 

Supporters of the resolution want an apology similar to the one the U.S.
government gave to Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World
War II. That apology was approved by Congress and signed into law by President
Ronald Reagan in 1988.

___

 

Oliver Teves in Manila, Burt Herman in Seoul, Foster Klug in Washington,
and Alexa Olesen in Beijing contributed to this report.
© 2007 The Associated Press