Hundreds gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday to protest against Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe and the Japanese government for failing to deliver an apology over the “comfort women” issue and other war crimes in World War II during Abe’s official visit this week to the United States.
The protesters representing a large number of Asian-American and other organizations, mostly of Korean and Chinese descent, held up posters and signs and chanted outside the hotel where Abe is staying in Los Angeles, the final stop of his U.S. stay through Saturday, demanding he apologize and acknowledge the truth.
Many said they are displeased that the Japanese leader did not seize the opportunity to give a formal apology to the women during his address Wednesday to a joint session of Congress, the first ever by a Japanese head of state.
Young Kim, a state assemblywoman representing several cities in Southern California’s Orange County and the only Korean-American legislator currently serving in California, said the speech “would have been a great opportunity to extend (Abe’s) sincere apology on behalf of the Japanese government, but he didn’t.”
“He only touched the surface of the issue, and it’s a missed opportunity for Abe to right this historical wrong,” she added.
An apology would benefit Japan, said
Phyllis Kim, spokeswoman for the Korean American Forum of California, an organization seeking to end wartime crimes against women and children.
“This is how Japan can be accepted and respected by its neighboring countries,” she said. “The current Japanese government has the obligation to look squarely at history and acknowledge what happened, and resolve whatever needs to be resolved because the victims are still waiting for an apology.”
At a morning rally in Pershing Square across from the hotel, speakers with several organizations, including some Japanese-Americans, spoke in favor of reparations.
Harold Kameya, president of the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Citizens League, said he is sad that Japan’s reputation is being damaged.
“Damaged because the prime minister refuses to compensate the comfort women survivors and refuses to clear the issue once and for all…(and) to declare an unconditional apology for the many, many war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army, crimes that were committed in the name of the emperor,” he said.
==Kyodo
Category: Daily Witness, National
His secret has nothing to do with practicing medicine.
