Posted: 26 November 2007 1750 hrsSEOUL: The Japanese-American congressman who spearheaded a vote calling on Japan to apologise for its wartime sexual slavery said Monday the issue was one of conscience and not ethnicity.
Michael Honda was the principal sponsor of a non-binding resolution adopted by the US House of Representatives in July that urged Japan to apologise to the former "comfort women."
The term is a euphemism for tens of thousands of women from Korea and elsewhere who were forced to serve as sex slaves for front-line Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Photo: U.S. Democratic Rep. Mike Honda (L) kisses former South Korean comfort women Lee Yong-soo"Many people say, 'Mike, you're a Japanese-American. Why are you doing this?'" Honda, a 66-year-old congressman from California, told a press conference during a visit to South Korea.
"The answer is that it's not about being a Japanese-American, it's not about the colour of my face," Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.
"It's about (knowing in) the heart what is right. It is an issue of conscience, an issue of what is right."
The resolution called on the Japanese prime minister to make a public apology, urged the government to refute any claims that the episode never happened and said future generations should be told of "this horrible crime."
Then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed regret at the vote, saying he hoped to look to the future instead. But South Korea's former "comfort women" and the Seoul government welcomed it.
Japan has offered apologies to former "comfort women" but cast doubt on whether the imperial government was directly involved in running the brothels.
Tokyo offered compensation to the victims through private-sector funds, but activists said this was skirting its responsibility.
Honda, who spent part of his childhood during the war in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, said he had not been conscious of his ethnicity until the debate on passing the resolution became heated.
"What I did realise (during the debate) was that my ethnicity was an issue," he said. "When I first started this, I started up as a school teacher, (that) history books should not ever be changed and should be accurate, so that present and future generations will be well-informed."
The resolution was not aimed at offending Japan but changing the minds of Japanese people, Honda said.
"One thing I want to make very, very clear is that this is not about bashing Japan or Japanese people. It is about how political leadership can influence our society," he added."I know that the government will make mistakes. It's up to citizens to correct those."
Honda said he would meet later Monday with dozens of former victims, mostly in their 80s, who live at a privately funded shelter. - AFP/ac
Posts
