[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 6, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E465-E466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMFORT WOMEN
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HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Mr. HONDA. Madam Speaker, I rise today in shock and disappointment at
recent news from Japan, where it was reported that Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe has denied the historical fact that the Japanese Imperial
Army forced as many as 200,000 women into sex slavery during the Second
World War, and publicly stated that Japan will not issue an apology,
even if a resolution is passed in the United States House of
Representatives.
On February 15, a hearing on this issue was held by the Subcommittee
on Asia and the Pacific of this House's Committee on Foreign Affairs.
This was truly a historic occasion, because it brought three survivors
of the Comfort Women horrors to Washington to tell their very real,
very personal stories. Not only did that hearing give us an opportunity
to reflect on one of the darker episodes of human history, it provided
us with a chance to make history by bringing that darkness and
forgotten tragedy to light and justice.
Those three women, now advanced in years--Jan Ruff O'Herne, Yong Soo
Lee, and Koon Ja Kim--traveled thousands of miles to bring their
stories to us, stories which were for many decades kept only in their
hearts for reasons best understood only by those who had to endure what
these women--and some 200,000 others throughout Asia--had to endure.
Some might ask: Why, more than 60 years after the end of the Second
World War, are we discussing the ordeals of the so-called Comfort
Women? Shouldn't this be considered a mere footnote to history? Aren't
there more important or more pressing issues at hand in the early years
of the 21st century?
Those who ask such questions fail to comprehend the lasting relevance
of the experience of these women during the war, and of the continuing,
obstinate failure, in the face of overwhelming evidence and
international scrutiny, of the Government of Japan to formally
acknowledge, apologize and accept unequivocal responsibility for their
suffering and torture.
The recent news from Tokyo and Prime Minister Abe's inexplicable
denial adds greater resonance to our exploration of this topic. One
Japanese Diet Member said, with no apparent irony, that the Comfort
Women brothels were no different than a buffet lunchroom. Nariaki
Nakayama said bluntly: ``Some say it is useful to compare the brothels
to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own
staff, procure foodstuffs and set prices.''
Madam Speaker, without objection, I wish to insert into the
Congressional Record an article on this issue that appeared in the New
York Times on Thursday, March 1, reporting Prime Minister Abe's
remarks.
Abe Rejects Japan's Files on War Sex
(By Norimitsu Onishi)
Tokyo, March 1.--Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied Thursday
that Japan's military had forced foreign women into sexual
slavery during World War II, contradicting the Japanese
government's longtime official position.
Mr. Abe's statement was the clearest so far that the
government was preparing to reject a 1993 government
statement that acknowledged the military's role in setting up
brothels and forcing, either directly or indirectly, women
into sexual slavery. That declaration also offered an apology
to the women, euphemistically called ``comfort women.''
``There is no evidence to prove there was coercion, nothing
to support it,'' Mr. Abe
[[Page E466]]
told reporters. ``So, in respect to this declaration, you
have to keep in mind that things have changed greatly.''
The United States House of Representatives has begun
debating a resolution that would call on Tokyo to ``apologize
for and acknowledge'' the military's role in wartime sex
slavery.
But at the same time, in keeping with a recent trend to
revise Japan's wartime history, a group of conservatives in
the governing Liberal Democratic Party is stepping up calls
to rescind the 1993 declaration. Mr. Abe, whose approval
ratings have been plummeting over a series of scandals and
perceived weak leadership, seemed to side with this group. A
nationalist who has led efforts to revise wartime history,
Mr. Abe softened his tone after becoming prime minister last
fall. In fact, he first said he recognized the validity of
the declaration, angering his conservative base.
``Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college
cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own
staff, procure foodstuffs and set prices,'' Nariaki Nakayama,
the leader of 120 lawmakers who want to revise the
declaration, said Thursday.
``Where there's demand, business crops up,'' Mr. Nakayama
said, according to The Associated Press. ``But to say women
were forced by the Japanese military into service is off the
mark. This issue must be reconsidered, based on truth, for
the sake of Japanese honor.''
Historians believe some 200,000 women--Koreans, Chinese,
Taiwanese, Filipinos, as well as Japanese, Dutch and other
European women--served in Japanese military brothels. For
decades, Japan denied that its military had been involved,
calling the brothels private enterprises and the women
prostitutes.
But in 1992, a Japanese historian, Yoshiaki Yoshimi,
outraged by government denials, went to the Self-Defense
Agency's library and unearthed, after two days of searching,
documents revealing military involvement in establishing
brothels. One was titled ``Regarding the Recruitment of Women
for Military Brothels.'' Faced with this evidence, the
government acknowledged its role and issued the declaration.
But the response angered people across the political
spectrum. The women and their supporters said that the
government was not fully acknowledging its responsibility
because the declaration was issued by Yohei Kono, then chief
cabinet secretary, and not adopted by Parliament. It is known
inside Japan simply as the ``Kono Statement.''
What is more, supporters accused the government of evading
direct responsibility by establishing a private,
nongovernment fund to compensate the women. Many former sex
slaves have refused to accept compensation from this fund.
But conservatives said the declaration went too far in
acknowledging the military's role in recruiting the women.
While the documents showed that the military established the
facilities, Mr. Yoshimi did not find documentation that the
military had forcibly recruited the women. Conservatives have
seized on this distinction to attack the declaration.
Supporters of the women say that the Japanese authorities
famously burned incriminating documents or kept them hidden.
At the same time, many former sex slaves have stepped
forward in recent years with their stories. Three testified
in the United States Congress recently, saying that Japanese
soldiers had kidnapped them and forced them to have sex with
dozens of soldiers a day.
Given this recent news report, Madam Speaker, it becomes even clearer
that the experience of the Comfort Women is not just an episode that
belongs on the backburner of history. Instead, it is a vivid reminder
that the human rights of women around the world are never fully secure.
We know that rape, sexual abuse and sometimes murder of women and girls
in war are still committed by armies and paramilitary forces in various
countries. One thinks of Darfur, of Bosnia, of East Timor. I am sure
that Members of this House and those listening to these proceedings can
think of other examples.
Denial of the unimaginable atrocities committed by Imperial Japan's
Armed Forces against the Comfort Women during World War II should not
be tolerated. Neither are they to be forgotten nor swept under the rug
by those who hope the subject will go away simply because the victims
are growing old and will soon be gone. The fact that some political
leaders in modern Japan hold onto the view that the Comfort Women issue
is a ``historic fabrication'' is, in a word, appalling.
The Japan Times also recently interviewed Yasuji Kaneko, an 87 year
old former foot soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army during World War
II. He stated that he ``still remembers the screams of the countless
women he raped in China as a foot soldier . . . They cried out, but it
didn't matter to us whether the women lived or died . . . We were the
Emperor's soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages, we
raped without reluctance.'' His statement was no historical
fabrication.
It is our moral imperative to act and act courageously on this issue.
I am a strong proponent of encouraging our friend and ally, the
Government of Japan, to set the record straight on the Comfort Women
tragedy and educate its future generations properly about what
occurred. In doing so, Japan will take an important step in our
collective aim to eliminate violence against women in war by making it
unambiguously unacceptable.
It is unacceptable to view rape as merely endemic to war, or an
incidental adjunct to armed conflict. Rape is a unique weapon focused
on non-combatants and intended to instill terror in its victims and to
demonstrate the power of the perpetrators. It is a truly uncivilized
act, and defending Imperial Japan's widespread use of rape during its
Asian conquests is beneath modern, democratic Japan's better values and
aspirations.
Madam Speaker, on January 31, along with six of our colleagues, I
introduced House Resolution 121, which addresses the issue of
protecting the human rights of the Comfort Women. The denial by Prime
Minister Abe of Japan that Comfort Women were forced into sexual
slavery is unacceptable and stands to underscore why passage of H. Res.
121 is important. It is my hope that we will be able to have a full
vote by the House of Representatives sooner rather than later.
I would also like to thank the Comfort Women survivors--Jan Ruff
O'Herne, Yong-Soo Lee, and Koon-Ja Kim--for journeying so far last
month to testify on behalf of their 200,000 sisters who suffered under
Imperial Japan. Their courage and the dignity with which they have
lived their lives deserve our admiration and utmost respect.
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