Mayor in row over ‘comfort women’

The Japanese military’s forced prostitution of Asian women before and during the Second Word War was necessary to “maintain discipline” in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers who risked their lives in battle, an outspoken politician has claimed.

Asian countries that bore the brunt of Japan’s wartime aggression have long complained that Japan has failed to fully atone for wartime atrocities.

Nationalist Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, co-leader of an emerging conservative political party, also told reporters there was no clear evidence that the Japanese military coerced women to become what are euphemistically called “comfort women”.

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He said: “To maintain discipline in the military, it must have been necessary at that time. For soldiers who risked their lives in circumstances where bullets are flying around like rain and wind, if you want them to get some rest, a comfort women system was necessary. That’s clear to anyone.”

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels.

An unnamed South Korean government official said it was disappointing that a senior Japanese official “made comments supportive of crimes against humanity and revealed a serious lack of a historical understanding and respect for women’s rights”.

Mr Hashimoto’s comments come amid mounting criticism at the prospect of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative 
government revising Japan’s past apologies for wartime atrocities.

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Before he took office in December, Mr Abe had advocated revising a 1993 statement by acknowledging and expressing remorse for the suffering caused to 
the sexual slaves of Japanese troops.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga yesterday told reporters that “the stance of the Japanese government on the comfort women issue is well known.

“They have suffered unspeakably painful experiences.”

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