[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

                                 ______
                                 

                         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.

                          ____________________