20 U.S. lawmakers urge Japan to apologize for wartime sex slavery

20 U.S. lawmakers urge Japan to apologize for wartime sex slavery. July. 24, 2015 07:25. ddr@donga.com.

About 20 U.S. lawmakers have urged the Japanese government not to deny the fact that Imperial Japan forced Korean women into sex slavery for its military. They also called on Tokyo to include the sex slavery issue as part of school textbooks.

At the Korean American Grassroots Conference held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Robert Menendez (Democrat), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (Republican) and Representative Mike Honda (Democrat), criticized Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for trying to whitewash history. They also discussed ways to increase Korean Americans` political influence in the U.S. The annual conference, held for the empowerment of Korean Americans, was the second one.

Royce said that he does not want to see Japanese government officials whitewash history any more, adding that it is time that the sex slavery issue should be included in Japanese school textbooks. Honda echoed the views, noting that Abe needs to offer a sincere apology for the "comfort woman" issue and fulfill his historical responsibility. He also urged Tokyo to teach its children about what happened during World War II. The public urges have attracted attention as they came ahead of the Japanese prime minister`s plan to issue a statement marking the 70th anniversary of World War II`s end.

The U.S. lawmakers also advised Korean Americans to actively participate in voting in order to increase their political influence ahead of next year`s U.S. presidential election. Representative André Carson (Democrat) stressed that Korean Americans should rally their political clout by raising their voter turnouts) so that they can discuss mayors, governors and Congressmen of Korean descent, getting applauds from the audience.

Organizers of the convention said they will try to establish Korean American networks in order to increase their turnouts to 80 percent.