The way the Japanese government is reflecting over the official apology for wartime sex slaves, might truly be upsetting the surrounding countries who all suffered from Japan’s past aggression during the Second World War. Yoshihide Suga, the Chief Cabinet Secretary said that evidence received from wartime sex slaves, known as comfort women, a structure to describe sex slave who were forced to serve Japanese servicemen during the Second World War, will be reanalyzed along with the 1993 Kono Statement.
According to Yoshihide Suga, the statements were taken from comfort women who felt safe enough to speak about it, now that the evidence will be “heard from behind closed doors.” A top government spokesperson said that the Japanese government will consider any necessary revisions, the Xinhuanet News reports.
Suga’s arguments come at a time when tensions seem to be raising in the international community, as several times now, Japan has been acting in a disturbing way, considering its revisionist maneuvers, nationalistic behavior, which seems to hit against other nations, military expansion and many other recent issues and debates .Top historians insist that around 200,000 to 400,000 comfort women were forced into sexual slavery, having to serve Japan’s Imperial Army. Countries where comfort women were forced to work in Korea, China, the Philippines and several other countries in Southeast Asia.
Evidence was given by 16 Korean women, according to a statement written by Yohei Kono, the Chief Cabinet Secretary in 1993, who admitted on Japan’s past mistakes and aggression and offered an official apology to the nation and mostly to those affected by the crimes. The statement contains words such as “undeniable”, underlining the national consciousness at the time, following a series of crimes that “severely injured the honor and dignity of many women.”
“The government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women,” the statement read. The same statement promised that the Japanese government will face all these crimes, rather than avoid them. Japan’s recent behavior, however, shows nothing but fire to the raising concerns inside the international community.Another recent statement came from Katsuto Momii, Japan’s Chief broadcaster at NHK, who said during his news program that comfort women existed in more countries during the Second World War, including France, Germany and South Korea.
