Former sex slaves ask Japan for apology

October 29, 2009|Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press

TOKYO - Japan’s new prime minister should keep his word and give official apology and compensation to women across Asia who were forced into sex slavery during World War II, a South Korean victim said yesterday, representing dozens of others.

The women gathered in Tokyo to pressure Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who as opposition leader in 2002 told lawmakers the Japanese government should “offer compensation to the victims and restore their honor.’’

Lee Yong-soo said Hatoyama has been supportive of the so-called “comfort women’’ since she first met him as opposition leader over a decade ago in Seoul. “Now Mr. Hatoyama is prime minister. It’s time for him to settle the issue,’’ said the 80-year-old Lee, who said she was forced to become a sex slave in Taiwan after being abducted from Korea by Japanese soldiers in 1944.

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels during the war.

Wartime documents discovered in 1992 forced the government to acknowledge the sex slavery for the first time and to offer an apology - though Parliament did not approve it - the following year.

Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan has repeatedly submitted a bill in recent years calling for official government redress for the sex slaves.