Japan's relations with the US are "unshakable" despite a US congressional resolution urging a further apology from Tokyo over wartime sex slaves, the Japanese government spokesman said yesterday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki also suggested there would be no further apology from Tokyo on the wartime brothels, despite the passage of the resolution by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"The alliance between the US and Japan is irreplaceable. There is no change at all to the fact that Japan-US relations will continue to be unshakable," Shiozaki said.
The committee approved the nonbinding resolution by a 39-2 vote on Tuesday. It urges Japan to "formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for the suffering of "comfort women" during the 1930s and 1940s.
The endorsement allows the measure to be considered by the full House of Representatives.
Shiozaki refused to comment specifically on the passage of the resolution, saying it was a matter for the US Congress, but said there has been no change in Tokyo's stance.
"The government's position on the comfort women issue is clear from the prime minister's recent visit to the US in April. I have nothing more to add," Shiozaki said, referring to an apology by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his US trip for the sex slaves' suffering.
Historians say hundreds of thousands of women, mainly from Korea, China and the Philippines, were sent to Japanese military brothels in the 1930s and 1940s. Many victims say they were forced to provide sexual services against their will to Japanese soldiers.
Abe triggered controversy in March when he said there was no evidence that the women had been coerced into working as prostitutes, and he said Japan would not make a further apology in reaction to the US resolution.
Abe, facing international criticism, later said he stood by an earlier Japanese government apology, saying he sympathizes with the victims' plight and regrets the "situation they found themselves in."
One of the former sex slaves, now living in Australia, welcomed the US resolution yesterday and said she hopes Japan will finally apologize for forcing her and thousands of other women to work as sex slaves.
"It would be fantastic for the comfort women, late in our lives and after all these years, to get this finalized with an apology," said Jan Ruff O'Herne, an 84-year-old former Dutch colonist born in Indonesia.
RSS