United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121

United States resolution condemning Japan's comfort women

United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121 (H.Res. 121) is a resolution about comfort women which Japanese-American Congressman Mike Honda of California's 15th congressional district introduced to the American House of Representatives in 2007. It asks that the Japanese government apologize to former comfort women and include curriculum about them in Japanese schools, citing the 1921 International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children that Japan has ratified and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. This resolution was passed on July 30, 2007.^[1]

Controversy

Seiji Yoshida's memoirs were used as an evidence for the roundup of over 1,000 women in Korea in a Congressional Report which was prepared for this resolution.^[2]

An early detailed revelation came from Yoshida Seiji, a former Japanese military policeman, who wrote a book in 1983 entitled My War Crimes: The Forced Draft of Koreans in which he described his participation in the roundup of over 1,000 women in Korea for service as "comfort women" to the Japanese military.

Washington Post advertisements

On June 14, 2007, a group of conservative Japanese politicians, academics, and others ran an advertisement in The Washington Post critical of the resolution. The ad was in response to a previous advertisement by a group of Korean comfort women survivors that ran in The Washington Post in support of the resolution, titled The Truth about Comfort Women.

References

^ Tokudome, Kinue. "Passage of H.Res. 121 on "Comfort Women"". Asia-Pacific Journal.
^ "Congressional Report Services Memorandum, "Japanese Military's Comfort Women"" (PDF). U. S. Congressional Research Service. April 10, 2006.

External links

H.Res. 121
Remarks of Chairman Lantos on H. Res. 121, regarding Comfort Women, at committee markup Archived July 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine by Tom Lantos
Original Washington Post advertisement The advertisement run in the Washington Post in April 2007 to mobilize American policymakers and public to support Resolution 121.
Washington Post advertisement Archived July 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine A response by a conservative leaning group of Japanese politicians and academics to the issue of comfort women, which mentions Resolution 121.