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Despite growing concerns that U.S. relations to Japan could be harmed, the House on Monday passed by voice vote a resolution that calls on Japan to acknowledge and apologize formally for sexually enslaving women leading up to and during World War II. Monday’s vote is the culmination of a months-long grassroots lobbying campaign by the Korean-American community, which pressed to see the resolution passed in the House. The vote came a day after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suffered a devastating defeat in the election for the upper house of Parliament. According to several sources, House leaders wanted to wait until after the election so as not to create the perception that Congress was looking to influence the elections. Japan has been lobbying hard to prevent the resolution from being adopted, insisting that it has already apologized to the so-called comfort women. Speaking on the House floor on Monday, members from both parties made sure to stress the strong relationship between the United States and Japan. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called that relationship the “bedrock of stability” in East Asia, but added that Japan’s unwillingness to apologize for its human-rights violation during the Second World War is “disturbing” to those who value the relationship between the two countries. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) called the resolution “long overdue,” while Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) acknowledged that Japan has been a strong ally to the United States on many issues, including non-proliferation. During its occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands between the 1930s and the end of World War II, Japan used as many as 200,000 young women from Korea, China, the Philippines and, in some cases, Western Europe for sexual servitude in a program designed to increase the efficiency and morale of Japanese soldiers. The women were subjected to beatings, sexual violence and torture. According to material provided by the Japanese Embassy, the Japanese government has extended official apologies on several occasions. One came in 1994 from then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama during the 50-year commemoration of the war’s end. Outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sent personal letters to former comfort women to convey Japan’s remorse, according to the embassy. According to the Congressional Research Service, South Korea adopted national legislation to prevent former Korean comfort women from accepting payments offered by the Asian Women’s Fund. The fund was established in 1995 to raise awareness of the issue and prevent such abuses, but supporters of the House resolution note that the fund is private. Tokyo argues that the fund was established with cooperation from the government and the Japanese people, and that the government contributed funds for the organization’s operating costs as well as its medical welfare support projects. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who expressed reservations about the effect the resolution will have on the relationship between the U.S. and Japan during the markup of the resolution in the Foreign Affairs panel, sponsored a resolution emphasizing the good relationship between Japan and the United States. That resolution will be marked up in the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday. |
