Japan’s NHK boss apologizes for ‘comfort women’ remarks
Print Edition
The head of Japan’s public broadcaster expressed regret yesterday for his comments on the use of military brothels in World War II, as Asian countries voiced fresh outrage about a highly sensitive point in relations with Tokyo.
Apparently trying to snuff out further controversy over Japan’s view of its wartime role, NHK chief Katsuto Momii told local media that his comments had been “extremely inappropriate.”
Addressing a news conference last Saturday on the issue of “comfort women,” a euphemism for Chinese, Korean and other women who were forced to work in military brothels, Momii said such things occurred at the time in all countries at war.
He acknowledged, however, that the practice was bad “by today’s morals.”
Political parties in South Korea demanded Momii’s resignation, suggesting his remarks risked becoming a fresh diplomatic headache for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Momii’s remarks “show that in Japan there have all along been forces who seek to downplay or deny the crimes of the invasions of the militarists.”
Qin said sexual slavery was a heinous crime committed by the Japanese military during World War II which still harms victims’ physical and mental health to this day.
Japan has already strained relations with China and South Korea rooted in disputes over remote islands and lingering memories of Japanese aggression before and during the war.
Momii, a former vice president at one of Japan’s largest trading houses, reiterated yesterday that his weekend comments on “comfort women” amounted to his personal view.
“Even as a personal opinion I shouldn’t have said it. It was extremely inappropriate,” he said according to the Mainichi Shimbun daily.
Abe, who visited a controversial war shrine last month that honors Class A war criminals, is also battling an international image as a right-wing nationalist who wants to revise Japanese history to have a less apologetic tone.
On Saturday, Momii said South Korea’s statements that Japan had been alone in forcing women to work in such brothels were “complicated.”
He also said it was “only natural” for NHK to voice the Japanese government’s position in international broadcasts on such matters as the dispute with China over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
But NHK, he said, would make editorial decisions in line with Japan’s broadcast law, which calls for the publicly funded broadcaster to maintain political neutrality.
In Seoul, Yonhap news agency said President Park Geun-hye told ethnic Koreans from Japan she hoped “Japanese politicians will get back on the right path as early as possible.”
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