On July 30, the House approved, by voice vote, a resolution (H. Res.121) urging the Japanese government to formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility for its Imperial Armed Force’s sexual enslavement of young girls, known as “comfort women,” during its occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II. The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the resolution on June 26 (see The Source, 6/29/07).
Sponsor Mike Honda (D-CA) said, “The survivors’ riveting and gut-wrenching testimony about the horrors they endured as former ‘comfort women’ brought us all to tears and impacted me profoundly. Their courage and indomitable spirit will continue to inspire me every day.” He then added, “Too many times we’ve seen women victimized by war and conflict. The experience of these women is a vivid reminder that the human rights of women around the world are never fully secure. We know that rape, sexual abuse, and sometimes murder of women and girls in war are still committed by armies in various countries. One thinks of Darfur, Bosnia, and East Timor.”
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) stated, “The tragedy of the ‘comfort women,’ the thousands of Asian and European women forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during the first half of the 20th century, was a horrific crime. For the surviving ‘comfort women’, these issues are not historical; they are profoundly personal. Some of them were in our Foreign Affairs Committee when this bill was marked up. Attempts to deny or minimize these facts are a disservice to future generations.” Rep. Ros-Lehtinen also noted, “The case of Darfur, which we spoke about earlier today, Mr. Speaker, reminds us all that the issue of the use of military force to abuse women, to abuse children through rape and exploitation, is one which we need to look at and one which unfortunately continues to this very day.”
