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Japan must apologise to wartime sex slaves

Every Wednesday a group of elderly Korean women hold a meeting in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. They are the few surviving "comfort women", victims of Japanese colonisation, and they gather each week to ask for a formal apology and compensation from the Japanese government.

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A memorial honoring comfort women of WWII in Palisades Park. Photo: AP

Every Wednesday a group of elderly Korean women hold a meeting in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

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They are the few surviving "comfort women", victims of Japanese colonisation, and they gather each week to ask for a formal apology and compensation from the Japanese government.

The rallies started in January 1992, and to date, there have been more than 1,000 of what are known as the "Wednesday demonstrations".

Japan committed numerous acts of aggression leading up to second world war.

While it carried out its programme of colonisation and aggression in Asia, innocent civilians were seen as mere collateral. In Korea and other countries in the region, many women were forced to serve the empire as sex slaves.

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The United Nations has released numerous reports calling for Japan to take responsibility for its past actions. In 2007, the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution urging Japan to apologise formally over its forcible conscription of sex slaves in wartime.

However, we still get absurd responses from some Japanese individuals.

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