(Fixes headline, no changes to story text)
By Yoshiyuki Osada
OSAKA, Japan, May 24 (Reuters) – Two elderly South Korean
women forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels
abruptly cancelled a meeting with Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto
after he refused to withdraw remarks asserting the brothel
system was “necessary” at the time.
Hashimoto sparked a firestorm of criticism at home and
abroad when he said last week that the military brothels had
been needed, and Japan has been unfairly singled out for
wartime practices common among other countries’ militaries.
Octogenarians Kim Bok-dong and Kil Won-ok said they had
hoped the planned meeting would persuade Hashimoto, who heads
the small right-leaning Japan Restoration Party, to change his
mind but had heard that he planned to manipulate them by an
“apology performance” in front of media.
“Indescribably heart-wrenching reality and history of the
victims cannot be traded with his apology performance and sweet
talk,” the women said in a statement provided by the Korean
Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by
Japan. “We do not want to kill ourselves twice,” they said.
“If he truly feels sorry to us and regretful, he must take
back his criminal comments and make a formal apology. He should
hold himself responsible for his wrongdoing and retire from
politics.”
Hashimoto, who has continued to defend his remarks, also
said their was no evidence the Japanese military directly
abducted “comfort women”, as they are euphemistically known in
Japan, to work in the brothels before and during World War Two.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused controversy during
his first term in 2006-2007 by saying there was no proof that
Japan’s military had kidnapped women – mostly Asian and many
Korean – to work in the brothels. Such sentiments are common
among Japanese ultra-conservatives.
But Abe has sought to distance himself from Hashimoto’s
remarks and his government has drawn back from early signals
that it might revise a landmark 1993 government statement
acknowledging military involvement in coercing the women, and
apologising to them.
The issue has often frayed relations between Tokyo and
Seoul. Japan says the matter of compensation for the women was
settled under a 1965 treaty establishing diplomatic ties. In
1995, Japan set up a fund to make payments to the women from
private contributions, but South Korea says that was not
official and therefore insufficient.
(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park and Narae Kim in Seoul;
Writing by Linda Sieg in Tokyo; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
