Abe urged to renew sex slave apologies
Print Edition
Japanese academics yesterday urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to renew apologies for the country’s imperialist past and offer to compensate victims of its wartime brothel system.
The move comes as the nationalist Abe prepares a statement he is expected to deliver in August. It is being closely watched for any sign of backsliding on previous Japanese apologies.
Nearly 200 academics signed the statement imploring Abe to repeat previous explicit prime ministerial apologies for Japanese violence.
The statement, also signed by journalists, lawyers and rights activists, said Abe’s expected announcement “must reaffirm that invasion and colonial control caused harm and pain to neighbor countries ... and it must express renewed sentiments of regret and apology”.
Signatories say Tokyo must bear responsibility for the sexual enslavement of thousands of women, an issue at the heart of the bitter enmity between Japan and South Korea.
“We emphasize resolution of the comfort women issue this time, as the relationship between Japan and South Korea has been strained,” said one of the organizers Haruki Wada, historian and professor emeritus of Tokyo University, using Japan’s preferred euphemism.
Abe’s predecessors offered explicit apologies for colonial rule and aggression on the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the war’s end, but he has hinted he is unlikely to repeat that — saying instead he wants to issue a “forward-looking” statement.
The latest open letter comes after a similar one last month signed by several hundred academics. Weeks later, 16 Japanese academic societies issued a statement echoing the letter.
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