'Comfort women' victims demand more explicit apology

TOKYO - Victims and their relatives of wartime sexual slaves, or "comfort women," forced by Japanese military on Monday demand the Japanese government follow the 1993 "Kono Statement" and make a more explicit apology and compensation to the victims.

During a meeting named the 12th Asian Solidarity Conference for the issue of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, victims and their relatives from South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and China issued a statement that also called for putting the certain history into Japan's history textbook.

Estelita Basbano Dy, an 84-year-old Filipino, was taken forcedly by the Japanese Imperial Army from her hometown when she was 14 and was imprisoned as a sexual slave for the next three weeks.

Dy said during the meeting that she herself is the very evidence that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has denied many times that there is no material to prove that the Japanese military forced women to be enslaved as "comfort women", adding Abe is lying.

She said Japanese army committed monstrous crimes to Filipino women and she demanded the Japanese government make formal apology, write the crimes into history textbooks and compensate the victims.

Cao Jin'ai, representing her late mother Zhao Runmei, participated in the meeting, saying she and her mother can not accept the Japanese government's attitude of "pleading not guilty, no apology and no compensation."

Zhao, who died in 2008, was raped by Japanese soldiers in 1941 in Xiyan county in Shanxi Province and was jailed for long time in cave dwelling as a sexual slave.

Zhao, in 1998, along with other 9 plaintiffs filled compensation lawsuit against the Japanese government but lost the suit several years later.

What the Japanese government wants is to wait the victims pass away, said Lee Yong-soo, a South Korea victim, adding she needs to strive to live so as to witness the Japanese government's confession and compensation.

Yoshiaki Yoshimi, professor of Japanese modern history at Japan ' s Chuo University, also showed in the meeting evidence on the issue found recently inside and outside Japan and he said he will submit 529 newly found documents to the Abe's administration.

He said that the new materials are the very documents that the Abe's administration should begin to investigate into and be verified. The Japanese government announced earlier that it will review the 1993 "Kono Statement" which officially confessed Japanese military had forcedly enslaved women to provide sex to its soldiers.

The newly issued statement also demand Japan should forbid history denying remarks by civil servants and the government has the responsibilities to refute such wrong words at the governmental level.

Remarks denying the antihuman crime and trying to whitewash such a crime by Japanese right-wings, including politicians such as Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, are a major obstacle for Japan to mend ties with its neighboring countries, especially China and South Korea.

On Friday, a monument was unveiled in US Virginia aimed at commemorating the "comfort women," so as to raise public awareness of the victims in the country.

Similar memorials have been established in several locations in the United States including California and New York.