•HRES 121 IH 
cially commissioned the acquisition of young women for 
the sole purpose of sexual servitude to its Imperial 
Armed Forces, who became known to the world as ianfu 
or ‘‘comfort women’’; 
Whereas the ‘‘comfort women’’ system of forced military 
prostitution by the Government of Japan, considered un-
precedented in its cruelty and magnitude, included gang 
rape, forced abortions, humiliation, and sexual violence 
resulting in mutilation, death, or eventual suicide in one 
of the largest cases of human trafficking in the 20th cen-
tury; 
Whereas some new textbooks used in Japanese schools seek 
to downplay the ‘‘comfort women’’ tragedy and other 
Japanese war crimes during World War II; 
Whereas Japanese public and private officials have recently 
expressed a desire to dilute or rescind the 1993 state-
ment by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the 
‘‘comfort women’’, which expressed the Government’s sin-
cere apologies and remorse for their ordeal; 
Whereas the Government of Japan did sign the 1921 Inter-
national Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in 
Women and Children and supported the 2000 United Na-
tions Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, 
Peace, and Security which recognized the unique impact 
of armed conflict on women; 
Whereas the House of Representatives commends Japan’s ef-
forts to promote human security, human rights, demo-
cratic values, and rule of law, as well as for being a sup-
porter of Security Council Resolution 1325; 
Whereas the House of Representatives commends those Japa-
nese officials and private citizens whose hard work and 
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•HRES 121 IH 
compassion resulted in the establishment in 1995 of Ja-
pan’s private Asian Women’s Fund; 
Whereas the Asian Women’s Fund has raised $5,700,000 to 
extend ‘‘atonement’’ from the Japanese people to the 
comfort women; and 
Whereas the mandate of the Asian Women’s Fund, a govern-
ment initiated and largely government-funded private 
foundation whose purpose was the carrying out of pro-
grams and projects with the aim of atonement for the 
maltreatment and suffering of the ‘‘comfort women’’, 
comes to an end on March 31, 2007, and the Fund is 
to be disbanded as of that date: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that the Government of Japan— 
(1) should formally acknowledge, apologize, and 
accept historical responsibility in a clear and un-
equivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Force’s co-
ercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to 
the world as ‘‘comfort women’’, during its colonial 
and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Is-
lands from the 1930s through the duration of World 
War II; 
(2) should have this official apology given as a 
public statement presented by the Prime Minister of 
Japan in his official capacity; 
(3) should clearly and publicly refute any claims 
that the sexual enslavement and trafficking of the 
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•HRES 121 IH 
‘‘comfort women’’ for the Japanese Imperial Armed 
Forces never occurred; and 
(4) should educate current and future genera-
tions about this horrible crime while following the 
recommendations of the international community 
with respect to the ‘‘comfort women’’. 
Æ 
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