Influential historians call on Japan to address 'wartime aggression' and 'comfort women'
Open letter claims issue has been distorted by 'nationalist invective'
Nearly 200 influential historians from around the world have put their names to a statement calling for Japan to use the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war to carry out "as full and unbiased an accounting of past wrongs as possible".
Titled "Open letter in support of historians in Japan", the statement has been signed by some of the most important names in historical studies of Japan, including John Dower, a professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the critically acclaimed .
Other signatories include Ezra Vogel, a professor at Harvard, Ronald Dore, honorary fellow of the London School of Economics, and Martin Dusinberre, a professor of history at the University of Zurich.
"This year presents an opportunity for the government of Japan to show leadership by addressing Japan's history of colonial rule and wartime aggression in both words and action," the letter states.
The issue of "comfort women" - the young women from across Asia forced into sexual slavery for the military in the early decades of the last century - takes up much of the statement.
The historians say the issue has become "distorted by nationalist invective in Japan as well as in Korea and China that many scholars, along with journalists and politicians, have lost sight of the fundamental goal of historical inquiry, which should be to understand the human condition and aspire to improve it".
