 Ichida raps education minister for denying existence of comfort women Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on June 13 criticized education minister Nakayama Nariaki for his remarks that deny the existence of comfort women, who were forced to serve Japanese soldiers as sex slaves during WWII, for deviating from the government view. Speaking at a news conference in the Diet, Ichida pointed out that in 1993, Kono Yohei, chief cabinet secretary at the time, expressed apology on behalf of the government for Japan's wrongdoing, saying, "Admitting the fact of comfort women, the Japanese government will never repeat the same mistake." Ichida said, "It is a matter of course that Japan didn't use the word 'comfort women' during the war. At that time, it even called the 'Pacific War' the 'Greater East Asian War.' If forced to use only the original words in textbooks, history education cannot be conducted. It is out of the question." On June 11, Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Nakayama Nariaki said in a town meeting in Shizuoka Prefecture that there were originally no such words as comfort women, so it was good that the "incorrect" description was removed from school textbooks. - Akahata, June 14, 2005 |