The U.S. legislator who initiated a House resolution calling on Japan to accept responsibility for its wartime sexual slavery is to visit South Korea later this week, a non-governmental organization said Wednesday.
"We invited Rep. Michael Honda here in order to remind people in South Korea and worldwide of the 'comfort women' resolution," said the Korea Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy.
The U.S. House unanimously adopted a resolution in July condemning Japan's sexual enslavement of women during the past century. It demanded that Japan "formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for coercing young women into sexual slavery.
Honda, a Californian Democrat, authored the resolution in January. His role drew public attention because he is of Japanese ancestry. His family was a victim of internment during World War II, an experience he said propelled him to seek Japan's apology for comfort women just as the U.S. did for the internment.
Estimates vary, but about 200,000 women are believed to have been sexually enslaved by Japan. Euphemistically called "comfort women," the majority of the victims were Koreans, whose nation was under Japanese colonial rule at the time. These women were tricked or kidnapped and placed in frontline brothels to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.
Victims said Japan has yet to properly apologize to, or provided 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.
Arriving in Seoul on Sunday, Honda will meet with the former victims of Japan's sexual enslavement, mostly in their 80s, during his four-day visit here, Korea Center said.