Osaka mayor tries damage control
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E-mail China Daily, May 28, 2013
Stern criticism
Hashimoto's remarks have drawn criticism inside and outside of Japan, including from the US State Department.
He is now trying to undo the damage his remarks have done to his political career and his party.
"I am totally in agreement that the use of comfort women by Japanese soldiers before and during World War II was an inexcusable act that violated the dignity and human rights of the women, in which large numbers of Korean and Japanese were included. I am totally aware that their great pain and deep hurt were beyond description," said the statement Hashimoto issued on Sunday.
"I also strongly believe that Japan must reflect upon its past offenses with humility and express a heartfelt apology and regret to those women who suffered from the wartime atrocities as comfort women. Our nation must be determined to stop this kind of tragedy from occurring again."
But he qualified Japan's wrongdoings by pointing the finger at other countries for the same faults. To the embattled Hashimoto, Japan should not be the only one condemned for sex slavery.
"A not-insignificant number of other nations should also sincerely face the fact that their soldiers violated the human rights of women. It is not fair to blame Japan only, as if the violation of human rights of women by soldiers were a problem unique to the Japanese soldiers," he said in the statement.
"Sexual violation in wartime was not an issue unique to the former Japanese army. The issue existed in the armed forces of the US, the UK, France, Germany and the former Soviet Union among others during World War II. It also existed in the armed forces of the Republic of Korea during the Korean War and the Vietnam War."
He cleared the wartime Japanese government and military of responsibility for the forcible recruitment of "comfort women". He said that the Japanese government denied it in its 2007 cabinet decision because there was no evidence.
A historical revisionist, Hashimoto can hardly win trust with his new clarifications.
In an interview with ribenxinwen.com, a Chinese website in Japan, former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama said Hashimoto's remarks about "comfort women" were outrageous. Murayama issued an apology in 1995 for the "tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations" Japan had caused "through its colonial rule and invasion".
Murayama said a politician should have a responsible attitude, and the denial of history will ratchet up tensions between Japan and its neighbors.
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