Sunday, May 26, 2013

Amnesty International Blasts Japan

 


Japan is facing increasing international condemnation for attempts to whitewash the country's World War II atrocities.

Amnesty International was the latest rights group to express concern in its annual human rights status report Thursday. Amnesty strongly criticized Japan’s approach to women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during the war.

The Japanese government "continued to reject calls for justice for the survivors of Japan's military sexual slavery system," it said.

The report also criticizes Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "On Nov. 4, then opposition leader Shinzo Abe was among signatories to a U.S. newspaper advertisement which denied that the Japanese Imperial Army forced women into military sexual slavery during World War II," it points out.

Rajiv Narayan, one of the authors of the report, said Japan could become a leader in the field of human rights if it apologized and offered compensation to the former sex slaves, which Japan euphemistically calls "comfort women," before the last one died and pledged to never repeat such action.

Earlier this week, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights voiced "concern" over the violation of the rights of the former sex slaves and urged Japan to educate its citizens about how the Imperial Army abused Korean and other Asian women.

The CESCR recently gathered the opinions and views of the Japanese government and civic groups on the issue.

Source: Chosun Ilbo

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