‘Comfort woman’ demands apology from Japan
WASHINGTON — Korean Lee Yong-Soo was forced into sexual slavery serving Japan's imperial army. Seventy years later, with Japan's prime minister preparing a historic address to US Congress, she demands just one thing: an apology.
"I'm not going to die until we resolve this issue," the diminutive 87 year old told reporters in the US Capitol.
"I am an honorable daughter of Korea, I am not a comfort woman," said Lee, her voice cracking.
Lee testified to Congress in 2007 about her traumatic experience as one of the thousands of "comfort women" victims forced into Japanese military brothels during World War II.
But with nationalist-leaning Shinzo Abe scheduled next Wednesday to become Japan's first prime minister to address a joint meeting of Congress, protest groups are demanding he seek broader atonement for government and military crimes of the past.
"The House chamber is a sacred ground in American history," said Jungsil Lee, president of the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues (WCCW).
"There is no place better than the US Capitol for Mr Abe to accept the Japanese imperial government's role in crimes against humanity during World War II and offer a direct and sincere apology from the modern government to all victims of the war crimes."
Abe has been "denying the truth" about Japan's "shameful" past, added Lee.
Twenty-five House lawmakers, led by Democrat Mike Honda, wrote to Japan's ambassador to Washington on Thursday urging Abe in his speech to "lay the foundation for healing and humble reconciliation by addressing the historical issues."
The bipartisan letter, which was signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce, made no mention of comfort women, but dovetails with the calls for an apology.
Despite seven decades of distance, the delicate issue of comfort women remains highly sensitive in Asia.
In the run-up to the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, Abe's words in Washington will be closely scrutinized in Beijing and Seoul.
In 1995, then-prime minister Tomiichi Murayama issued an official apology for "damage and suffering" caused through Japan's colonial rule. (AFP)