The Abe government must face up to its responsibility on "comfort women,"
Japanese academics said in a joint statement on Monday.
Issued by 16 academic societies, including the Historical Science Society of Japan, the statement said the forced recruitment of "comfort women" has been "verified" by extensive research and urged the government to "squarely" face up the history.
"By continuing to take the irresponsible stance of denying the facts of wartime sexual slavery in the Japanese military, certain politicians and sections of the media are essentially conveying to the rest of the world that Japan does not respect human rights," the statement warned.
Reports say around 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China, were forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels. "Victims were subjected not only to forced recruitment, but also to conditions of sexual slavery which violated their basic human rights," the joint statement said.
Japanese conservatives denied government involvement and say the women were common prostitutes engaged in a commercial exchange.
The statement responded, "Even if there had been something such as a contract for sex trafficking, ignoring the systems of inequality and injustice which formed the backdrop to these arrangements, and thereby disregarding the political and social context of the time, is to miss the full picture."
The "forced recruitment" was not limited to cases of straightforward kidnapping, but also included cases of recruitment against the will of the individual, noted the statement.
The joint statement can be seen as a strong deterrent to Abe's government, said Zhou Yongsheng, a professor from the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University.
"The Japanese public can be educated by this statement, especially since it is issued by Japanese historians," he said, adding that "because China's and North Korea's views on this issue are not easily spread in Japan's education circles, what Japanese academic societies say could provide a counter-balance."
Issued by 16 academic societies, including the Historical Science Society of Japan, the statement said the forced recruitment of "comfort women" has been "verified" by extensive research and urged the government to "squarely" face up the history.
"By continuing to take the irresponsible stance of denying the facts of wartime sexual slavery in the Japanese military, certain politicians and sections of the media are essentially conveying to the rest of the world that Japan does not respect human rights," the statement warned.
Reports say around 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China, were forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels. "Victims were subjected not only to forced recruitment, but also to conditions of sexual slavery which violated their basic human rights," the joint statement said.
Japanese conservatives denied government involvement and say the women were common prostitutes engaged in a commercial exchange.
The statement responded, "Even if there had been something such as a contract for sex trafficking, ignoring the systems of inequality and injustice which formed the backdrop to these arrangements, and thereby disregarding the political and social context of the time, is to miss the full picture."
The "forced recruitment" was not limited to cases of straightforward kidnapping, but also included cases of recruitment against the will of the individual, noted the statement.
The joint statement can be seen as a strong deterrent to Abe's government, said Zhou Yongsheng, a professor from the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University.
"The Japanese public can be educated by this statement, especially since it is issued by Japanese historians," he said, adding that "because China's and North Korea's views on this issue are not easily spread in Japan's education circles, what Japanese academic societies say could provide a counter-balance."
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