[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5287]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                70TH ANNIVERSARY OF END OF WORLD WAR II

  (Mr. ISRAEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 70th anniversary of the 
end of World War II.
  We are at a critical juncture in America's rebalance to the Asia-
Pacific region, and I really believe that further cooperation between 
the United States, Japan, and Korea will play a pivotal role towards 
peace and prosperity throughout the world.
  Next week, Japanese Prime Minister Abe will make a historic visit to 
Capitol Hill as the first ever Japanese Prime Minister to deliver an 
address to a joint session of Congress. That address must be honest. 
That address has to address Japan's wartime history. It has to honestly 
address Japan's atrocities and enslavement of thousands of women who 
have been forced to work as sex slaves, or comfort women.
  To ignore past atrocities, Mr. Speaker, is to ensure a very troubling 
future. These wounds need to be closed, and they need to be healed. 
Prime Minister Abe can attain that closure, can attain that healing by 
exposing those wounds to the light of the truth--and an apology. I am 
hopeful that he will do this on this floor when he addresses us next 
week.

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