Is Japan preparing more crimes against Korea?

Japanese politicians are marking a flurry of comments denying the Kono Statement made 19 years ago. The statement admitted Japan’s responsibility for forced mobilization of sex slaves in the Second World War. Jin Matsubara, chairman of Japan’s national security committee, told the House of Councilors on Monday, “Since no evidence directly suggesting that comfort women (a Japanese euphemism for the sex slaves) were forcefully taken by the military has been found, I think Cabinet members should discuss (whether to nullify) the Kono Statement.”

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda also claimed that there is no evidence that the women were forced to provide sex. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that if the Liberal Democratic Party regains power, the new government will revise government announcements that reflect and atone for Japan`s war of aggression, including the apologetic Murayama and Kono statement. Denial of the Kono Statement is the Japanese government`s act meant to tear apart on its own the letters of apology that Japan wrote itself.

Japan needs to deeply reflect and apologize for the grave crimes it committed on its former Asian colonies in its imperialist past, but the island nation is instead trying to commit yet another crime by claiming other nations’ territories and deny its past atrocities. The reasoning of Japanese politicians has apparently been collectively paralyzed. Germany deeply apologized for its crimes committed in the Second World War and made a fresh start. In contrast, Japan, still ignoring its past mistakes, has yet to recognize that it has merely earned distrust from its neighbors and failed to act as a world leader.

The Kono Statement was made in 1993 by then Chief Cabinet Minister Yohei Kono, who said, “Comfort houses were established at the military’s request, and the military was directly and indirectly involved in the establishment of the houses and transfer of comfort women.” The statement suggested that through a 20-month investigation, the Japanese government recognized that recruitment and management of the sex slaves were done through lies and force. The Japanese government thus confirmed that its military cajoled and lied to Korean women and kidnapped them to work as sex slaves. The statement was released due to a Japanese military document entitled “Report on the Recruitment of Comfort Women for Military Comfort Houses” publicized in 1992 by Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a professor at Chuo University of Japan. According to a report released in 1938, the Japanese army knew that brokers picked by Japanese troops stationed in China were recruiting sex slaves through a method similar to kidnapping, and ordered the soldiers to use caution in selecting brokers.

The Japanese use President Lee Myung-bak’s recent visit to the disputed Dokdo islets as an excuse for its denial of past history. This is ridiculous since Japan`s atrocities can easily be confirmed by textbooks and maps published in the late 1800s and early 1900s by the Japanese Education Ministry. “New Map for Elementary School Geography” published in 1905 by the ministry has text saying Dokdo “is Joseon’s (Korea`s) territory.”

Former sex slaves living in the House of Sharing in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, a center for such women, on Tuesday sent invitation letters to 724 Japanese politicians, including Prime Minister Noda. Will these elderly ladies, who suffered unimaginable hardships as sex slaves, see a single Japanese politician visit them, kneel down, and apologize before they die?