Comfort women were sex slaves: Japanese activists

Japanese activists held a protest on Monday to criticize their government for failing to respond to a U.N. body’s call to put an end to attempts to deny the fact that the former comfort women were sex slaves.

According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Amnesty International Japan and other organizations held a demonstration in front of an office building of Japanese Parliament members. The protestors decried Tokyo’s stance against the recent recommendation by the U.N. Committee against Torture, which called for the country’s immediate action to find a resolution on comfort women.

Mina Watanabe, secretary of Women‘s Active Museum on War and Peace, said it is a “clear fact” that the comfort women were forced to follow orders from the Japanese military. The term comfort women refers to those who had been forced into prostitution by the Japanese military during World War II.

“The Japanese government has failed to realize comfort women are viewed internationally as sex slaves,” Watanabe was quoted as saying. “To not take actions for the comfort women is an ongoing human rights violation.”

The U.N. Committee against Torture in May issued a report urging Tokyo to refute its politicians’ attempts to deny Japan’s sexual slavery during the World War II.

(knews@heraldcorp.com)