By an overwhelming majority, the US House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution on Tuesday calling for the Japanese government to apologize for forcing women into prostitution as "comfort women" during World War II. The resolution is expected to pass the full House at the end of this month. Yet even if the House passes it, the resolution is not legally binding, and should not influence diplomatic relations between the US and Japan.
The real significance of the resolution is to remind us that when facing incidents of violations of human rights, we should adopt a consistent attitude and standard, and not allow these values to be distorted by immediate interests. The US and Japan have deep common diplomatic and economic interests, in addition to the US-Japan security alliance. Yet this proposal underscores the fact that the great majority of Congress members will not ignore the "comfort women" issue, nor the Japanese government propagating "historical amnesia," because of those interests. Therefore the majority of congressmen supported the resolution.
At the beginning of April, I joined a group of US Representatives on a visit to China organized by a US foundation. During the entire trip, the members of the bi-partisan group rarely mentioned recent hot topics like US-China trade relations. Rather, they were concerned with the condition of China's energy resources, environment and human rights. They also naturally had many criticisms of the diplomatic policies China has developed toward Africa along with its rise.
Among the participants was Democratic Representative Michael Honda of California, who had proposed the "comfort women" resolution. He was not the anti-Japanese activist that the Japanese media portray him to be. Rather, as a third-generation Japanese-American who had been held in a US government detention center during World War II, he displayed many Japanese characteristics and demonstrated familiarity with the Japanese culture and language.
I asked him why he would propose a resolution calling for the Japanese government to apologize to the "comfort women." He responded that he did so because the Japanese government still isn't willing to face the country's past errors. In particular, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe still denies that the Japanese government was responsible for the "comfort women" during the war. On June 14, 44 Japanese legislators claimed that "comfort women" were voluntary prostitutes in a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post.
The Taiwanese government has been passive on the issue. Only this year did it finally issue a clear call for Japan to face up to the problem. Yet in Japan, conservatives have still questioned me as to why Taiwan would take such an "anti-Japanese" stance. It should serve as a wakeup call for Taiwanese that the US Congress, which has close ties with Japan, is still willing to pass this resolution.
This resolution may re-establish the US' soft power and diplomatic prestige in East Asia. If Japan can't handle the matter appropriately, its road to becoming a major political power will become more difficult. Although the US is still an unprecedented economic and military power, its diplomatic prestige and soft power have declined because of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy. Many Asian-Americans and South Korean human rights groups have actively campaigned for the resolution, reflecting how Asian societies still view the US as the real power in the region. This resolution is a chance for the US to demonstrate the human rights values of its foreign policy.
Philip Yang is a professor at National Taiwan University's Department of Political Science.
Translated by Marc Langer
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