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U.S. gov`t: `Comfort women, terrible, egregious violation of human rights`

U.S. gov`t: `Comfort women, terrible, egregious violation of human rights`

Posted August. 01, 2015 07:20,   

한국어

The U.S. State Department said on Thursday (local time) that the coercive use of military comfort women during World War II by Japan is “terrible, egregious violation of human rights.”

Asked by Korean media regarding the policy recommendation of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party that says there was no forceful action for sex slavery for its military, the department responded that “victims of Japan`s wartime sexual slavery were trafficked by the country`s military.”

Up for the announcement of the statement that has been prepared by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Japan`s defeat in the war, attention has been directed to what the statement would include as the U.S. State Department reconfirmed the issue of comfort women as “terrible, egregious violation of human rights," and “human trafficking by Japanese military.”

In the meantime, a Japanese right-wing organization has submitted the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) a letter of protest against China’s move to register the data on Japan’s coercive use of comfort women and the Nanjing Massacre.

According to the Sankei Shimbun, members of the organization made a visit to UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Thursday, delivering the letter and expressing their opposition to the planned registration. They argued in the letter that “comfort women were war-time prostitutes” and “Nanjing Massacre was a made-up history.” In June, Beijing had made a request that related data on Japan’s coercive use of comfort women and the Nanjing Massacre be listed UNESCO`s Memory of the World Register.



kyle@donga.com