Washington – The House passed a resolution Monday urging Japan to apologize for coercing thousands of women to work as sex slaves for its World War II military.
Though largely symbolic, the nonbinding resolution has caused unease in Japan and added tension to an otherwise strong alliance.
Officials in Tokyo say their country’s leaders, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have apologized repeatedly for the Imperial Japanese Army’s forcing of hundreds of thousands of women – mainly from Korea, China and the Philippines – to work in military brothels in the 1930s and 1940s.
The resolution’s supporters, however, say Japan has never assumed responsibility fully for the treatment of the women.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., labeled as “nauseating” what he said were efforts by some in Japan “to distort and deny history and play a game of blame the victim.”
The House resolution has no companion in the Senate. Lawmakers want an apology similar to the one the U.S. government gave in 1988 to Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II.
