Abe diplomacy isolates Japan even from U.S.: U.S. House resolution on sex slaves

Akahata editorial

   The U.S. House of Representatives on July 30 adopted a resolution stating that Japan’s prime minister should formally apologize and accept historical responsibility for coercing women into becoming sex slaves, known as “comfort women,” during WWII. It was the first time for the U.S. House to pass such a resolution.

   This resolution, though nonbinding, has serious political implications. Having been cosponsored by 167 members, more than one third of the House members, the adoption of the resolution without objections has given a considerable shock to the Abe Cabinet diplomacy. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shiozaki Yasuhisa commented on the resolution, saying, “There will be no change in the position of the government.” However, the Abe Cabinet’s continuous ignoring of U.S. messages may have serious impact on Japan-U.S. relations, leading to Japan’s isolation even from the United States.

‘Threatening’ U.S. Congress

   The U.S. House resolution says, “Japanese public and private officials have recently expressed a desire to dilute or rescind the 1993 statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the ‘comfort women’ which expressed the Government’s sincere apologies and remorse for their ordeal.”

   Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and his close aides have argued that there were no sex slave and that the Kono Statement is wrong. It is obvious that the U.S. House had a sense of crisis about maneuvers by the pro-Yasukuni forces that justify Japan’s past war of aggression to deny the validity of the Kono Statement. Prime Minister Abe’s failure to sincerely respond to the U.S. resolution would further widen the gap with the U.S. Congress.

   The fact that the number of cosponsors largely increased from the committee level and the House passed the resolution almost unanimously shows the strong frustration of the U.S. Congress at Prime Minister Abe’s continuous denial of the Japanese armed forces’ coercion.

   The “forced military prostitution by the Government of Japan,” which the U.S. resolution referred to, is a fact established by the international community at the beginning of the postwar period. This recognition serves as the basis of the political principle that wars of aggression and colonial rule must never be condoned. By denying Japanese military’s coercion, Prime Minister Abe and other members of the pro-Yasukuni forces are rejecting the basis of the postwar political framework. As long as Japan wishes to remain a member of the international community, it must refrain from actions that will reverse the wheels of history.

   Prime Minister Abe during his trip to the U.S. in April expressed his willingness to stand by the Kono Statement and apologized to President George Bush and congressional leaders, but he has never retracted his controversial remark denying the existence of evidences to prove coercion. Sticking to his position, Abe dismissed the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee resolution on the sex slavery issue. At the same time, the pro-Yasukuni forces have strengthened their position. With the aim of blocking the passage of the resolution in the House, Dietmembers from the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan placed a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post. Denouncing the Kono Statement as “not based on historical facts,” Hiranuma Takeo, president of the Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi) Dietmembers’ Council, and Dietmembers from the LDP and the DPJ issued a statement demanding a “historical review” of the statement.

   Furthermore, Prime Minister Abe instructed Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Kato Ryozo to send letters to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders in the House warning that “serious, long-term damage to Japanese-U.S. relations is likely if the House passes a resolution.” Such a threatening measure, of course, provoked a backlash in the U.S. House. It is clear that the pro-Yasukuni Abe Cabinet is unable to conduct a rational diplomacy.

Accept historical responsibility

   Government research has made clear that the Tennoist (Emperor) government and the military forced foreign women into sex slavery in the course of its war of aggression and colonialism. It is absolutely unacceptable for the government to justify the imperial armed forces’ activities in order to pave the way to again turn Japan into a nation waging wars abroad.

   Only when the Abe government acknowledges the historical fact that the Japanese military used coercion and officially apologize for it, can Japan establish good relations with the international community.

- Akahata, August 1, 2007