A group of Japanese ruling party lawmakers is set to urge the government to water down parts of an apology it issued to Asian women used as sex slaves in military brothels during World War II, Yomiuri Shimbun said yesterday.
The report came as South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urged Japan to stop glossing over its wartime past, including the use of sex slaves, and act to settle disputes.
The Liberal Democratic Party panel has drawn up a report on changes it wants made to the "Kono statement," a government apology issued in 1993 when Yohei Kono was chief Cabinet secretary, the Yomiuri said.
PHOTO: AFP
"The Kono statement has damaged Japan's image and invited misunderstanding of the facts and spiteful criticism of Japan," the newspaper quoted the group of LDP lawmakers as saying.
But the panel, led by former education minister Nariaki Nakayama, has given up the idea of pushing for a complete rewrite, because Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he accepts the statement, the paper said.
Abe had in the past questioned the content of the statement, but has said more recently that he stands by it.
The Kono statement, issued after a year-and-a-half of research, acknowledged the role of the military and bureaucracy in coercing women, many of whom were from Korea, into sexual servitude.
The lawmakers' panel disagrees with this, the Yomiuri said.
"Women may have been taken away against their will by private concerns, but there was no kidnapping by the military or bureaucracy," the paper quoted the lawmakers' group as saying.
"All the evidence comes directly from former comfort women. No documentation has been found," the report said the group added.
A spokesman for lawmaker Nakayama's office said the text of the group's findings would not be finalized until after a meeting later in the day.
Meanwhile, in Seoul, Roh said economic and cultural links between the two countries have become strong, Roh said, and they should jointly contribute to peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia.
"We want to become a good neighbor to each other," he said in a speech marking the 88th anniversary of a peaceful mass uprising against Japanese colonial rule.
"For this purpose [Japan] should have an attitude of respecting truth in history and translate it into reality," he said.
"[Japan] should stop glorifying or justifying its wrongful past and take actions sincerely, in accordance with its conscience and internationally accepted principles."
Roh urged Japanese leaders to stop visiting the Yasukuni shrine. It should also offer an apology and compensation to women forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese troops, he said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS