What Japan's Government has Actually Said About Sexual Slavery and Comfort Women: The Kono Statement & Abe's Words

Arguments have been raging back and forth over Japan's atonement and apology, or lack thereof, for wartime atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army.
Most recently, US Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) has, for the second time, brought a resolution before the House that would publicly condemn such actions and demand a public apology from the Japanese Prime Minister.

Some on the other side point out the fact that Japanese Prime Ministers as recent as Koizumi Junichiro, predecessor to the current PM, Abe Shinzo, have written letters to the women who were enslaved and that every recent Prime Minister has reaffirmed the Kono Statement.

What is the Kono Statement? It is an acknowledgement of the "Comfort Women" issued in 1993 by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei (the second most powerful position in Japan.)

Here it is (official translation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs web site):

Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of "comfort women"

August 4, 1993

The Government of Japan has been conducting a study on the issue of wartime "comfort women" since December 1991. I wish to announce the findings as a result of that study.

As a result of the study which indicates that comfort stations were operated in extensive areas for long periods, it is apparent that there existed a great number of comfort women. Comfort stations were operated in response to the request of the military authorities of the day. The then Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of the comfort stations and the transfer of comfort women. The recruitment of the comfort women was conducted mainly by private recruiters who acted in response to the request of the military. The Government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments. They lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere.

As to the origin of those comfort women who were transferred to the war areas, excluding those from Japan, those from the Korean Peninsula accounted for a large part. The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese rule in those days, and their recruitment, transfer, control, etc., were conducted generally against their will, through coaxing, coercion, etc.

Undeniably, this was an act, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, that severely injured the honor and dignity of many women. The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.

It is incumbent upon us, the Government of Japan, to continue to consider seriously, while listening to the views of learned circles, how best we can express this sentiment.

We shall face squarely the historical facts as described above instead of evading them, and take them to heart as lessons of history. We hereby reiterated our firm determination never to repeat the same mistake by forever engraving such issues in our memories through the study and teaching of history.

As actions have been brought to court in Japan and interests have been shown in this issue outside Japan, the Government of Japan shall continue to pay full attention to this matter, including private researched related thereto.
__________________

Now, while current Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has certainly not been a leader in any kind reconciliation movement (he called for the reconsideration of the Kono Statement in 1997 and is not a fan of it today), he has twice stated publicly that the government will not rescind or alter the Kono Statement.

Furthermore, he visited both China and South Korea within days of taking office in an attempt to smooth over differences brought about by Chinese and Korean anger over visits to Yasukuni Shrine by former Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro. Abe seemed, for a while, to be doing a good job of running his office based on sound policy rather than what his personal beliefs may be.

He has, however, drawn worldwide criticism of late. The Australian press, in particular, has been vocal in its calls for Abe's dismissal. Papers throughout the English-speaking world have taken a high-minded moralistic tone full of righteous outrage.

When Chief Cabinet Secretary Shiozaki Yasuhisa said that Abe's comments may have been misinterpreted, he was ignored by the Western press and blogosphere (which pays attention only to what it can get angry about), but was derided by the domestic English press and blogosphere. Shiozaki had a point, though. While Abe's remarks were not incorrectly translated, they were taken out of context. What was a Clintonian endeavor to finagle his way out of an awkward situation through semantics was reported around the world as a categorical denial that the wartime Japanese Army induced women into brothels.

This is untrue.

Let's look at the context. Rep. Mike Honda first brought his resolution, based on the testimony of Korean former comfort women, before the House while Koizumi Junichiro was still Prime Minister. It had broad bipartisan support, but was never voted on as former Rep. Bob Michel did his best, working for the Japan lobby, to convince former Speaker Denny Hastert, who had ambitions of being the Ambassador to Japan, to drop the issue from consideration. HR 759 never saw the light of day.

Honda has brought this issue up again and has, this time, gotten farther. Former comfort women have testified before Congress.

Abe Shinzo's remarks were made in response to the actions of the US House of Representatives.

Those remarks were:

The question should be whether the women were taken out of their houses forcibly, or they wanted to choose to not go but they were in an environment that compelled them to go in the end. The latter can be regarded as a case of coercion in he broad sense of the word.

Up until now, there has been nothing to substantiate the fact of coercion in the narrow sense of the word.

(Translation by Abe's sworn enemies, the Japanese Communist Party, not by me.)

Abe went on to say that because there seemed to have been coercion in the broad sense of the word, he would stand by the Kono statement.

Kono, whose statement was made public, but not ratified, and who took a big step by saying what he did, said in 1997:

As far as documents that would implicate the government in establishing formal procedures for the use of violence to round up women, there are no such documents. However, if you define coercion as women being rounded up against their will, then there are clearly many cases in which that happened.

So basically, what Abe has said, that has had lazy editors who understand neither Japanese nor Japanese politics and who can't be bothered investigating calling for his head, was that Japanese military documents (which is whence evidence other than testimony comes) show that there were definitely comfort women, but that the current government has no way of verifying whether or not violence was used.

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