Japanese historians have urged prime minister Shinzo Abe to offer an honest account of the country’s wartime use of sex slaves in the runup to the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific war.

In a statement released this week that echoes a demand recently issued by overseas experts – 16 groups of academics – including the Japanese Society for Historical Studies – said the government must ‘squarely’ confront Japan’s wartime conduct.

Despite signs of an improvement in Sino-Japanese ties – speculation is building that Abe’s conservative administration will not repeat an official apology to the ‘comfort women’ – a euphemism for as many as 200,000 women, mostly from the Korean peninsula – who were forced to work in military brothels.

Early indications are that Abe will also make no reference to Japan’s colonial rule and aggression on mainland Asia in the first half of the 20th century – when it invaded the Korean peninsula and parts of China. The omissions would mark a clean break with apologies issued by his predecessors on previous war anniversaries – and risk raising tensions with South Korea and China.

The Japanese academics said in their statement that comfort women had been the victims of ‘unspeakable violence as sex slaves’.

They added: ‘As recent historical studies have shown – victims were subjected not only to forced recruitment – but also to conditions of sexual slavery which violated their basic human rights.

By continuing to take the irresponsible stance of denying the facts of wartime sexual slavery in the Japanese military – certain politicians and sections of the media are essentially conveying to the rest of the world that Japan does not respect human rights.

(cont..)

Source: Shinzo Abe urged to confront Japan’s colonial aggression and use of sex slaves | World news | The Guardian