Comfort women resolution submitted again to House committee

A U.S. congressman submitted a resolution Wednesday that in stronger words holds Japan responsible for sexual enslavement of women during its colonial occupation of Asia in the past century and demands its apology.

The resolution presented to the House Foreign Affairs Committee revives the bill passed in the last Congress in what was the first congressional action to press Japan to acknowledge and accept responsibility for "comfort women." Two previous resolutions, submitted in 2001 and 2005, were both shelved due to strong Japanese lobbying.

Rep. Michael Honda (D-California) sponsored the resolution with six other Congressmen, including Republicans Chris Smith and Ed Royce. Rep. Honda is of Japanese descent.

Daniel Kohns, spokesman for Rep. Honda, said a hearing is scheduled in the next couple of weeks.

"It will be sooner (rather) than later," he said.

Former Congressman Lane Evans, sponsor of the previous resolution, retired, and Honda had promised to pick up the baton.

Comfort women is an euphemism for hundreds of thousands of women Japan abducted or lured into frontline brothels to provide sex to Japanese soldiers during the war years. Most of the victims were Korean women, whose country was colonized by Japan from 1910-1945.

Japan admits that such women existed, but denies its imperial government was involved in mobilizing them or in running the brothels, a stance that continues to irritate its neighbors.

Wednesday's resolution has a stronger tone than the previous version, pressing for Japan's formal apology as well as acknowledgment and responsibility for the sexual slavery and admitting that there was "coercion" of the victims.

It also calls for an apology by the Japanese prime minister himself in his official capacity.

"I rise today in strong support of the over 200,000 'comfort women' in Asia who suffered unimaginable dehumanization by the Japanese Imperial Army," Honda said in his statement.

The victims' experiences were "unprecedented in cruelty and were officially commissioned by the government of Japan," he said.

And yet, "Japan has equivocated in its stance on this issue, which is made clear in their recent attempts to alter previous public statements and their school textbooks."

"The purpose of this resolution is not to bash or humiliate Japan," said Honda. "This is about achieving justice for the few remaining women who survived this atrocity."

But he criticized recent movement within Japan to rescind the apology expressed by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono in 1993.

The House committee last time passed the comfort women resolution in a consensus vote, but was unable to put it to a full floor ballot before its term ended in December.

Advocates of the resolution are hopeful that it will reach the House floor this time, backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has indicated support for a vote.

Washington, Jan. 31 (Yonhap News)