Japanese PM Abe Apologizes for War Crimes; Abe’s Aide Denies Them

“I apologize here and now as the prime minister,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was quoted as saying on Monday by Reuters.

Abe also said on that day, “It is as stated in the Kono Statement,” when asked about the Japanese government’s involvement in forcing women to serve as sex slaves during World War Two by an opposition lawmaker at a parliamentary committee, according to the news agency.

Abe who was under fire abroad for denying government involvement in mobilizing women to serve as sex slaves against their will, said in a TV program of NHK on March 11, “I have always wanted to apologize from the bottom of my heart.”

Meanwhile, Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura denied on Sunday the Imperial Japanese Army’s direct involvement in drafting sex slaves during World War.

“There were military nurses and embedded journalists but no `embedded comfort women’,” Hakubun said on a radio program in Japan.

“It is true that there were `comfort women`. I believe some parents may have sold their daughters. But it does not mean the Japanese army was involved,” Shimomura added.

iam@donga.com