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at the of the House of Councillors in Tokyo

Japanese intellectuals issued a statement calling on the Japanese government to clearly acknowledge its responsibility for the issue of the comfort women and to swiftly resolve this issue.

On June 8, around 270 Japanese intellectuals held a press conference at the conference room of the House of Councillors in Tokyo and released the Statement by Japanese Intellectuals about Historical Issues Facing Japan and South Korea in 2015.

The intellectuals participating in the statement included Wada Haruki, professor emeritus at Tokyo University; Aiko Utsumi, a guest professor at Osaka University of Economics and Law; Hiroshi Tanaka, professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University; and Kang Sang-jung, professor emeritus at Tokyo University.

“Even after the Kono Statement [1993], new documents about the comfort women system have been discovered and made public. These documents make clear that the creation and operation of the comfort stations were handled not by private operators but by the Japanese imperial army. We are compelled to acknowledge the culpability of the Japanese government and the Japanese imperial army,” the statement reads.

In the Kono Statement the Japanese government admitted the compulsory nature of the mobilization of the comfort women.

“The governments of South Korea and Japan should take steps at once to work together on swiftly resolving the issue of the comfort women.”

Referring to solutions proposed in June 2014 by the South Korean and Japanese Asian Alliance for the Issue of the Comfort Women for the Japanese Imperial Army, these intellectuals called on the Japanese government to take legal responsibility by clearly acknowledging what was done to the comfort women and by providing them with compensation.

The intellectuals also said in the statement that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make this coming August “must begin by affirming that it upholds statements that the Japanese government has made in the past about historical issues such as the Kono Statement, Murayama Statement [1995], and Naoto Kan Statement [2010].”

“Today we are facing a previously unimaginable deterioration of relations between Japan and South Korea as well as hate speech and other pathological behavior. Even so, we will neither hesitate nor retreat. We must once again express the resolve to usher in a century of humane cooperation between Japan and South Korea, and the people of South Korea and Japan must move forward together.”

The statement expresses the grave concern felt by Japan’s intellectuals for the recent tendency in Japanese society to disregard the unpleasant truth of South Korea and Japan’s historical relationship, including the issue of the comfort women.

“The Japanese intellectuals who issued a statement about the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty five years ago decided to make another statement about the historical issues that are precipitating a crisis in relations between the two countries. In this statement, we have placed the emphasis on the urgent issue of finding a solution to the comfort women problem,” said Haruki Wada, a leading figure in drafting the statement, during the press conference.

What these scholars are most worried about is the tendency toward historical revisionism in some parts of Japanese society that are calling into question even the established historical truth about the issue of the Japanese comfort women.

“Amid tensions between South Korea and Japan about the comfort women issue, some conservative newspapers in Japan are promoting an irresponsible historical attitude about the comfort women issue by suggesting that the Kono Statement should be retracted. As a result, the historical attitude of the Japanese public is wavering,” the statement says.

“Koreans were greatly displeased about the fact that the Japanese government did not pay for the Asian Women‘s Fund in 1995 from its own budget. As a result, more than two thirds of the victims recognized by the Japanese government did not receive this money. South Koreans have not received a complete apology from the Japanese government, and this problem is not resolved. This is a situation that calls for a new effort by the Japanese government,” the intellectuals said, manifestly expressing their opposition to the argument that the issue of the comfort women has already been settled.

“Now is the time for the governments of both South Korea and Japan to move together toward a quicker resolution to this issue on behalf of the approximately 50 victims who are still alive. It is only when the governments of both countries have made up their minds that citizens of both countries will be able to take part in finding a solution,” the statement says.

This can be understood as hinting that President Park Geun-hye - who is refusing to hold a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe until he takes steps to resolve the comfort women issue - should go ahead and meet him to look for a solution.

The intellectuals also discuss the Abe Statement, which the Japanese prime minister intends to issue this August. “The Abe statement must begin by affirming that it upholds statements that the Japanese government has made in the past about historical issues such as the Kono Statement, Murayama Statement, and Kan Statement. It must reaffirm that Japan’s wars of aggression and colonial rule inflicted pain and injury on the people of Asian countries such as China and South Korea and must express once again feelings of contrition and remorse,” the statement said.

The Kono Statement acknowledged that the comfort women had been compelled to serve as sex slaves, the Murayama Statement apologized for Japan’s wars of aggression and colonial rule, and the Kan Statement admitted that Japan’s colonial rule had occurred against the will of South Koreans.

The Japanese intellectuals who participated in this statement declared in a previous statement issued in May 2010 that the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty had been “unfair and unjust,” which had a significant effect on the Kan Statement that was released three months later.

They are planning to coordinate their opinions regarding a second joint statement with South Korean intellectuals during a symposium organized by the Korean History Research Association that will be held in Seoul on June 12.

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

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