Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, one of Japan’s emerging leaders, this week made remarks denying Korean women were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II. He reportedly said there is “no evidence that comfort women were taken away by the (imperial Japanese) military after being assaulted or threatened.” He called on Seoul to put forward the evidence.

It is deeply regretful to hear the 43-year-old mayor, who represents his country’s next-generation leadership, repeat the right-wing view that turns a blind eye to Japan’s responsibility for the wartime sexual slavery. His remarks diluted the 1993 statement by Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, which admitted to the military’s direct and indirect involvement in “transporting comfort women” as well as establishing and operating front-line brothels. The statement made it clear that the “recruitment of comfort women had often been made through cajolement or coercion against their will.”

As long as Japan’s next-generation leaders are unwilling to face up to the historical truth, it can hardly be expected that longstanding disputes stemming from the unfortunate history between the two neighbors will be resolved in the near future.

Hashimoto and other Japanese politicians who share his view should take a sincere note of testimonies by the victims and the international community’s sympathy with and support for them.

They should also have heard the voice raised by hundreds of Japanese housewives living here during rallies last week to urge Tokyo to apologize to and compensate the victims of the wartime sexual enslavement.

International sympathy has led the U.S. Congress and legislatures in nine other countries to adopt resolutions condemning the wartime sexual slavery and demanding Japan’s apology.

Seoul needs to shed more light on the comfort women issue to pressure Tokyo to take clear responsibility for the inhumane practice before looking for “retaliatory measures” with regard to a territorial dispute and President Lee Myung-bak’s demand for Japanese emperor’s apology for the colonial rule of Korea. It may be worthwhile to propose an arbitrary commission comprising officials from South Korea, Japan and a third nation.

As Lee noted in his Liberation Day speech last week, the wartime sexual slavery is an issue that goes beyond relations between the two countries as it violates universal human rights and historic justice.

It was a moving scene for two U.S. congressmen, who initiated the 2007 congressional resolution condemning the sexual slavery, to meet elderly victims at a caring facility during their visit here early this week. One of them, Rep. Eni Faleomavaega, advised Koreans to establish a bigger monument than a statue of a teenage girl set up outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul last December to symbolize the suffering of comfort women.

Since January 1992, the victimized women and their supporters have held a weekly protest on every Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy to demand an apology and compensation from Tokyo. Time is running out for resolving the issue as the 61 surviving victims, mostly in their 80s and 90s, may soon pass away.

When no victim remains alive, Japan will have forever lost the opportunity to redress what is certain to go down as a grave national sin in its history.