07/03/07 04:27:58 f6Xb/mRP
＜英文読売社説、従軍慰安婦問題、3、7＞
URLﾘﾝｸ(www.yomiuri.co.jp)
Don't misinterpret comfort women issue The Yomiuri Shimbun
The nub of the issue of the so-called comfort women is whether there were instances
of their being forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese authorities.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is deliberating a
resolution against Japan in connection with this issue. The resolution calls on the
Japanese government to acknowledge historical responsibility for the Imperial Japanese
Army's coercion of young women into sexual slavery during Japan's occupation of Asia
until the end of World War II and urges the prime minister to apologize for the crime.
The resolution says the Japanese military commissioned the acquisition of comfort women.
However, no documents have been found to support this assertion. Historians also accept
that no such orchestrated action was undertaken by the Japanese military.
We wonder whether the U.S. lawmakers who sponsored the resolution have evidence to back
their claims.
At a Diet committee session, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the resolution was "not
based on objective facts." Foreign Minister Taro Aso has expressed a similar view,
calling the resolution "extremely regrettable."
Since the resolution is filled with distortions, the government must properly explain
the facts and do everything to prevent it being adopted.