China strongly condemns the remarks made by a senior Japanese
official denying the existence of "comfort women," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Liu Jianchao said on
Monday.???
Japanese Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Minister Nariaki Nakayama said at a meeting in Shizuoka Saturday
that the term "comfort women" did not exist, so it was good that
the "incorrect" description was removed from school textbooks.
Liu said it is known to all that the "comfort women" system was
a serious crime committed by the Japanese militarists during World
War II, and the overt denial of this ugly piece of history by a
Japanese cabinet member in charge of education seriously hurts the
feelings of victims and their countrymen.
The term "comfort women" was used to describe women who had been
forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during its
war
of aggression against its Asian neighbors before and during
World War II.
Nakayama's remarks have been strongly criticized and protested
against by South Korea, China and other Asian countries from which
countless women were forced to serve as sex slaves to Japanese
soldiers.
(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2005)