Tag: Kono Statement

  • Abe Apologizes, Xinhua Seems Satisfied, Reuters More Skeptical

    Surrounding Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s trip to Japan this weekend, Japanese PM Abe Shinzo “expressed an unfeigned apology to ‘comfort women.’” Or did was the headline that he “trie[d] damage control over WW2 sex slaves”? If you ask the Chinese official news agency, which often serves as an outlet for the Chinese government’s scoldings…

  • Abe's 'Comfort Women' denial: U.S. reaction, a victim speaks, and classifieds

    Just joining us? See this entry and this follow-up. New developments: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte would not comment on Abe’s specific words, but AP reports: “Our view is that what happened during the war was most deplorable,” he said when asked about the sex slave issue. “But … as far as some…

  • More on Abe's 'Comfort Women' Denial

    Japan Probe has a good entry that digs up the transcript for the October statement I referred to twice previously. Abe was responding to questions from Shii Kazuo, the chair of the executive committee of the Japanese Communist Party, and insisted that his cabinet would follow the Kono Statement. Abe said his previous questioning of…

  • Abe Rescinds Support for 1993 Comfort Women Statement

    In the politics of 20th century East Asian history, the Japanese wartime practice of using women as sex slaves under the putrid euphemism “comfort women” is comparable only to the Nanjing Massacre and the Yasukuni Shrine in its prominence. In 1993, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Kono Yohei, acknowledged that “comfort stations” had existed and that…