「事実委員会」全面公告を批判する

 

Herald Tribune = associated press (AP)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/19/america/NA-GEN-US-Japan-Comfort-Women.php

U.S. resolution seeking apology for Japanese abuse of Asian women boosted by newspaper ad

The Associated Press Published: June 19, 2007

:

WASHINGTON: A newspaper ad denying that Japan's Army drove women into sexual slavery during World War II has increased momentum for a U.S. resolution demanding an official Japanese apology for the abuse, lawmakers say.

:

Lawmakers backing a resolution demanding an official apology for the Imperial Army's treatment of women in Korea and other Asian countries during World War II are predicting the legislation will pass overwhelmingly.

:

The ad published last week in the Washington Post by a group of Japanese leaders, including more than 40 members of parliament, convinced many lawmakers to vote for the resolution, said Daniel Kohns, an aide to Democratic Rep. Michael Honda, a Japanese-American and the bill's principal sponsor.

:

"My understanding is that the ad if anything served to garner increased support for the resolution," Kohns said Tuesday.

:

The resolution is going before the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives on Tuesday for final committee action. The chairman, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos, announced the hearing over the weekend and predicted passage by "a substantial margin."

:

Among other things, the resolution says Japan "should formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces' coercion of young women into sexual slavery."

:

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should give the apology as a public statement in his official capacity, the resolution says. His statement also "should clearly and publicly refute any claims that the sexual enslavement and trafficking of the 'comfort women' for the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces never occurred."

:

The resolution was drawn up after the committee heard testimony from Asian women about their ordeals at the hands of the Imperial Army.

:

The newspaper ad, which appeared Thursday signed by journalists, political commentators and professors as well as the Japanese lawmakers, claimed that many of the women worked in brothels by choice or were taken by crooked brokers or local police.

:

The army punished any Japanese officials found to have participated, it said. It also showed what it said were official documents warning private brokers not to use coercion.

:

Kohns said the arguments in the ad "have been floated for years and years," and Honda would not respond to something that "already has been proved baseless."

:

"To respond would legitimatize calling these women (who testified) liars, which he is not willing to do."

:

Lantos, the committee chairman, called the resolution "a very important and overdue piece of legislation."

:

Honda also has received a response from congressional researchers to requests about reports of a "comfort women" networks in occupied Japan for the benefit of U.S. troops.

:

The Congressional Research Service reported that the system ran from Aug. 21, 1945, to late March, 1946. It was suggested by Deputy Prime Minister Prince Konoe Fumimaro as a way to protect Japanese women from American soldiers.

:

The U.S. military made brothels off-limits because of rampant venereal disease among soldiers — 274 per 1,000 soldiers by March 1946 — and intervention by U.S. military chaplains.