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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]
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.
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.
Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese ianfu (慰安婦), which literally means "comforting, consoling woman". During World War II, Japanese troops forced hundreds of thousands of women from Australia, Burma, China, Netherlands, Philippines, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and other countries into sexual enslavement for Japanese troops; however, the majority of the women were from Korea. Many women died or committed suicide due to brutal mistreatment and sustained physical and emotional distress. After the war, Japan's acknowledgment of the comfort women's plight was minimal, lacking a full apology and appropriate restitution, which damaged Japan's reputation in Asia for decades. Only in the 1990s did the Japanese government begin to officially apologize and offer compensation.
Michael Makoto Honda is an American politician and former educator. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in Congress from 2001 to 2017.
Barbara Jean Lee is an American politician and social worker who has served as a U.S. representative from California since 1998. A member of the Democratic Party, Lee represents California's 12th congressional district, which is based in Oakland and covers most of the northern part of Alameda County. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, it is one of the nation's most Democratic districts, with a rating of D+40.
Thomas Peter Lantos was a Hungarian-born American politician who served as a U.S. representative from California from 1981 until his death in 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented the state's 11th congressional district until 1993, and from then the 12th congressional district, which both included the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a portion of the southwestern part of San Francisco after redistricting.
Frank Rudolph Wolf is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 10th congressional district from 1981 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he announced in December 2013 that he would not run for reelection in 2014. Wolf retired at the conclusion of his 17th term in office, in January 2015. At the time of his retirement, he was the dean of the state's congressional delegation, having served for 34 consecutive years.
James Patrick McGovern is a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1997, representing Massachusetts's 2nd congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, chaired the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and is the co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. His district, numbered as the 3rd district from 1997 to 2013, stretches from Worcester to the Pioneer Valley.
Christopher Henry Smith is an American politician serving his 22nd term as the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 4th congressional district. Though it has taken various forms, his district has always been situated in central New Jersey. Currently, the district contains parts of Ocean and Monmouth counties. Smith is a member of the Republican Party, having switched from the Democratic Party in 1978.
Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for California's 14th congressional district, serving in Congress from 2008 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Speier represented much of the territory that her political mentor, Leo Ryan, represented.
Deshamanya Radhika Coomaraswamy is a Sri Lankan lawyer, diplomat and human rights advocate who served as the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict until 13 July 2012. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her to the position in April 2006. She was nominated to the Constitutional Council as a civil representative on 10 September 2015. In 2017, after atrocities against the Rohingya people, she was appointed a Member of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar.
Yūto Yoshida was a Japanese novelist and member of the Japanese Communist Party. He has published under a variety of pen names, including Seiji Yoshida, Tōji Yoshida, and Eiji Yoshida. He wrote "My war crimes", which is the origin of a dispute over comfort women 30 years after World War II; he admitted that portions of his work had been made up in an interview with Shūkan Shinchō on May 29, 1996. Later, his fictional work was used by George Hicks in his "The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War".
Tōru Doi is a Japanese politician who serves in the House of Representatives of the Diet as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Shingo Nishimura is a Japanese politician, former member of House of Representatives, Japan.
Taku Etō is a Japanese politician and a member of the House of Representatives He previously served as the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
Takami Eto was a Japanese politician and former member of Japan's House of Representatives.
Global Alliance For Preserving the History of WWII in Asia is a non-profit, non-partisan federation of over 40 grassroots organizations dedicated to the remembrance, redress and reconciliation concerning World War II in Asia, also known as the Pacific War. It is concerned about crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and issues related to them such as the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, Comfort women, Prisoners of War and Forced Labor. It aims to bring together such groups electronically, organizationally, and personally. This federation has become increasingly recognized as the leading organization safeguarding humanity and international justice with relation to World War II in Asia and the Pacific and its aftermath. It is also the first organization of its kind since previous similar groups were only focused on one or some aspects of the war.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) is a bipartisan body of the United States House of Representatives. Its stated mission is "to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights norms in a nonpartisan manner, both within and outside of Congress, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant human rights instruments."
Young Oak Kim is an American politician and businesswoman serving as the U.S. representative for California's 40th congressional district, previously representing the 39th congressional district from 2021 to 2023. Her district includes northern parts of Orange County. In the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections, Kim, Michelle Park Steel, and Marilyn Strickland became the first three Korean-American women elected to the United States Congress. Kim and Steel are also the first Korean-Americans elected to Congress from California since Jay Kim.
Lee Yong-soo is a former comfort woman from South Korea. Lee was forced to serve as a sex slave during World War II by the Imperial Japanese Army. She is one of the youngest comfort women still living.
Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues, Inc (WCCW) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that advocates for the rights of wartime victims and their lawful reparation. Their mission is to contribute to the "eradication and prevention of sex crimes against women by promoting public awareness and education".
Jennifer Ann Kiggans is an American politician and nurse practitioner serving as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 2nd congressional district. A Republican, Kiggans is a former United States Navy helicopter pilot. She defeated incumbent Elaine Luria in the 2022 election.
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