Thursday, Jun. 17, 2010
Japanese Sex Slavery
Postwar Japanese leaders have repeatedly gone out of their way to apologize for the crimes committed by Imperial Japan. But several Japanese Prime Ministers have found themselves in the middle of an international scandal about comments they've made relating to World War II. Such was the predicament of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left), when he denied the existence of sex slaves in a statement on March 1, 2007. Even though Tokyo had issued an official statement acknowledging the use of wartime brothels in 1993, the fallout from Abe's comments culminated with a parliament-level apology on March 27, 2007 to the 200,000 so-called "comfort women."