Published : Aug. 15, 2019 - 21:08
Former US Rep. Mike Honda paid a visit to a shelter that houses South Korean women who were forced into sexual enslavement by Japan on Thursday.
(Yonhap)
Honda met two victims at the shelter and expressed hope that they will be able to receive an apology from the Japanese government, according to an official from the shelter.
The House of Sharing, just outside of Seoul, opened in 1992 for the victims who were forced into sexual enslavement by the Japanese military during Tokyo's 1910-45 brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Those sex slaves were euphemistically called comfort women. The average age of six victims currently living at the facility stands at 94.
Honda, who served as a House member representing California from 2001 to 2017, has been at the forefront of efforts to get Japan to admit and apologize to victims of its sexual enslavement of women for troops during World War II. Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910-1945.
In 2007, Honda wrote House Resolution 121 and helped it pass through the House unanimously. The resolution urged Japan to formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility for the atrocity in a clear and unequivocal manner. (Yonhap)