hankyoreh

A U.S. legislator stressed Monday that Japan's sexual enslavement of women during World War II is not an issue of ethnicity, but an issue of human conscience.

Michael Honda, a democrat from California, is on a four-day visit to South Korea from Sunday. He was the principal sponsor of a non-binding resolution adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives in July that urged Japan to formally apologize to former "comfort women."

"Comfort women" is a euphemism for tens of thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands, of women from Korea and other countries who were forced to serve as sexual slaves for front-line Japanese soldiers during the war. According to historians, most of the comfort women were from the Korean Peninsula, which was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910-45.

Victims said Japan has yet to properly apologize to, or provide reparations for victims of sexual slavery, an issue which causes regular angry outbursts from South Korea and Japan's other Asian neighbors.

Japan acknowledged that comfort women existed but denies that its imperial government was involved in running the brothels.

Japanese officials have expressed "regrets" to the victims but have at the same time often tried to cover up the atrocities.

"Many people say (to me), 'Mike, you're a Japanese-American.

Why are you doing this?' The answer (to it) is that it's not about being a Japanese-American, it's not about the color of my face," said Honda in a press conference held in central Seoul.

"It's about (knowing in) the heart what is right. It is an issue of conscience, an issue of what is right."

Recognizing the international attention to his initiative was partly due to his Japanese ancestry, Honda said he was not conscious of his ethnicity until the debate on passing the resolution became heated.

"What I did realize (during the debates) was that my ethnicity was an issue," He said. "When I first started this, I started up as a school teacher, (affirming that) history books should not ever be changed and should be accurate, so that present and future generations will be well-informed."

The adoption of the resolution by the U.S. Congress was not aimed at offending Japan, but at bringing a change in the minds of Japanese people, the lawmaker said.

"One thing I want to make very, very clear is that this is not about bashing Japan or Japanese people. It is about (understanding) how political leadership can influence our society," Honda said.

"I know that the government will make mistakes. It's up to citizens to correct those. The issue of 'comfort women' is no different. It is an issue of government and military doing wrong, which must be corrected and must be apologized for."

Honda said he was to meet later Monday with dozens of the former victims of Japan's sexual enslavement, mostly in their 80s, living at a privately funded shelter, called "The House of Sharing."


SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) --