Japan says U.S. sex slave vote won't damage ties http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUST20400320070627?sp=true
Wed Jun 27, 2007
By George Nishiyama
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan insisted on Wednesday that its ties with Washington would not be shaken by a U.S. Congressional resolution urging Tokyo to apologize for forcing women to serve as sex slaves during World War Two. The non-binding resolution introduced by Japanese-American lawmaker Mike Honda passed 39 to 2 on Tuesday in the House of Representatives' International Relations Committee and was expected to pass to the full house.
"Japan-U.S. ties are unshakable. That will not change in the future," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused an uproar in March when he said there was no proof that the government or the military had forced thousands of women, mostly Asians, into sexual servitude.
He has since apologized to the "comfort women", as the sex slaves are euphemistically known in Japan, and reiterated that he stood by a 1993 government statement acknowledging official involvement in the management of the brothels.
Abe said on Wednesday he would not comment on proceedings in another country's legislature, a stock response apparently aimed at keeping a lid on emotions over the sensitive issue.
"I explained my thoughts during my U.S. visit (in April)," he told reporters, adding that the resolution was only one of many passed by the U.S. Congress each year.
"BLAME THE VICTIM"
But a group of ultra-conservative lawmakers, including some of those who placed an advertisement in the Washington Post this month stating that the women had worked as licensed prostitutes, said the resolution damaged ties. "This resolution criticizing Japan, which was not based on facts, opens a fissure between our two nations and casts a dark shadow over our future," Kyodo news agency quoted a statement from the group as saying.
The House committee's chairman, Tom Lantos, called Japan one of the United States' "closest partners in the world".
But he criticized persistent attempts by some conservative Japanese politicians to deny official involvement.
"The continued efforts by some in Japan to distort history and play a game of blame-the-victim are also highly disturbing," Lantos said during the debate, terming the Washington Post ad "a ludicrous assertion totally counter to the facts."
A group of Japanese activists supporting former sex slaves welcomed the U.S. resolution.
"The women ... have been constantly attacked and abused by the repeated denial from ministers, high ranking officials and professors," the group said in a statement.
Historians say thousands of women -- by one estimate as many as 200,000 -- were taken to frontline brothels to provide sex for Japanese soldiers.
The Congressional panel's passage of the resolution comes at a time when some analysts see a possible rift between Tokyo and Washington over their North Korea policy following last week's surprise visit to Pyongyang by a top U.S. envoy.
Signs of progress in getting North Korea to scrap its nuclear arms program have put pressure on Japan to change its stern stance towards Pyongyang. But Abe has said Tokyo would not provide aid to the North without progress in a dispute over Japanese citizens kidnapped decades ago by Pyongyang's agents.
(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies)
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