Information About Comfort Women

Dear editor,

I am writing this letter in regard to a May 5 Korea Times article entitled ``Documentary on Comfort Women Touches Envoys'' in order to correct some incorrect information.

In the article was a sentence reading, ``The ad, paid for by the Japanese government, said no actual evidence of the Japanese government's involvement in the comfort women system has been found.''

Presuming that the ``ad" in the sentence was the advertisement carried by the Washington Post dated June 14, 2007. I would like to inform you that, as a matter of fact, the advertisement was privately sponsored and was not ``paid for'' by the Japanese government, as your article states.

Indeed, the Japanese government had absolutely nothing to do with the content or any other aspect of the advertisement.

I would also like to take this opportunity to inform you that after a thorough fact-finding study on the ``comfort women'' issue by the Japanese government, the then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono released in 1993 a statement and expressed in it sincere apologies and remorse, recognizing this issue was, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, a grave affront to the honor and dignity of a large number of women.

The government of Japan has since then expressed its sincere apologies and remorse to the former ``comfort women'' on many occasions.

Taeko Takahashi

Director of the Public Information and Cultural Center

The Embassy of Japan in Seoul