Submitted by admin on Sat, 2007-03-31 08:00. ::
TOKYO: A fund set up by Japan to help Asian women forced into prostitution by its military during World War II expires Saturday amid new denials from Tokyo that the government is to blame for putting thousands into sexual slavery.
Japan created the Asian Women's Fund in 1995 to aid people who had been euphemistically called "comfort women." But the fund was privately run and funded, and it wraps up a mission seen falling short of expectations.
It provided 285 women in the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan 2 million yen (US$17,800; €14,300) each in compensation, helped set up nursing homes for Indonesian former sex slaves and offered medical assistance to some 80 Dutch former sex slaves.
Yet many victims rejected the aid offer because it neither came directly from the government nor was accompanied by an official government apology.
In part the project was aimed at healing old wounds with the Asian nations that bore the brunt of Japan's often brutal expansion through the region during World War II.
The head of the fund, Haruki Wada, acknowledged the results of the effort "were rather ambiguous, but it was the best we could do at that time."
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instead spurred renewed debate by suggesting there was no proof the Imperial government or military coerced women into the brothels.
On Monday, Abe tried to quell the backlash with his clearest apology yet to the victims, but he did not bow to international pressure to acknowledge Tokyo's coercion.
Historians say hundreds of thousands of women, mainly from Korea, the Philippines and China, were forced into Japanese front-line brothels in the 1930s and '40s.
After decades of denial, the Japanese government acknowledged its role in wartime prostitution after a historian unearthed documents showing government involvement.
That led to an official — though carefully worded — apology in 1993, and the establishment of the nongovernment fund to pay the women limited reparations.
But right-wing Japanese politicians, who make up the bulk of Abe's support base, have in recent weeks renewed efforts to roll back the landmark 1993 apology.
Conservative governing party lawmakers contend the women were professional prostitutes and were paid for their services. They also maintain Japanese military authorities were not directly responsible for establishing or running brothels.
Foreign Minister Taro Aso was scheduled over the weekend to visit South Korea, where he was expected to reaffirm that Tokyo stands by the 1993 apology.
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