Japan Admits That WWII Sex Slaves Were Coerced : Apology: Government statement overturns decades of denial. Yet the question of redress for victims remains.

More than 50 years after forcing thousands of Asian and European women into wartime sexual slavery, Japan officially admitted Wednesday that military officers used coercion to recruit them and apologized for the “immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds” inflicted.

The admission is the government’s first acknowledgment that it used force, overturning decades of denial and eliminating a major obstacle to awarding the women compensation.

But in the statement, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono did not resolve the issue of redress, saying only that Japan will continue to “consider seriously” how best to show remorse. The official statement also stopped short of acknowledging the acts as a war crime, as demanded by the former sex slaves--euphemistically called “comfort women”--now living in Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the Netherlands.

“We shall face squarely the historical facts . . . instead of evading them, and take them to heart as lessons of history. We hereby reiterate our firm determination never to repeat the same mistake,” Kono said.

The announcement, issued after a 19-month study that involved interviews with more than 25 former sex slaves, was welcomed by the South Korean government. It commended the report’s “sense of self-reproach” and said the matter will no longer pose a diplomatic problem between the two nations. Foreign Minister Han Sung Joo said that Seoul is still waiting, however, for Tokyo to clarify the exact role it played and how many women were involved.

But South Korean activists blasted the report as a whitewash hastily pushed through on the final day of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa’s administration. The Korean Comfort Women Committee castigated Japan for failing to declare the acts a war crime or release specific data, such as the estimated numbers recruited, the cities where brothels were established and the murders and other atrocities allegedly committed against the sex slaves.

Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sadaaki Numata said that the lack of documents made it impossible to accurately estimate the numbers involved. He also said the study showed that many, but not all, of the women were coerced and that some were paid for their services.

Korean experts and others have estimated that between 70,000 and 200,000 women were shipped to locations throughout Asia to provide sex for Japanese soldiers from 1932 to 1945. Although the flesh traders initially used false job advertisements as lures, starting in 1943 they began slave hunts when women could no longer be tricked, according to one of the recruiters, Seiji Yoshida.

Survivors have detailed horror stories of being kidnaped and shipped to the front lines and of being tortured with hot irons if they tried to escape. Many women committed suicide; others were reportedly murdered or left to die when the army retreated.

But the Japanese government had steadfastly maintained that it bore no responsibility because the brothels were privately owned. After a scholar in Japan unearthed documents last year showing military involvement, however, the government acknowledged its complicity last July.

Until Wednesday, however, the government had continued to deny that military officials used force in recruiting the women. Numata said “understandable reticence” by both offenders and victims was one reason it took Japan 50 years to face the issue.

Former military personnel, brothel operators, scholars and others were among those interviewed for the study in addition to the former sex slaves.

On the war crimes question, Numata disclosed that at least five Japanese military officials and four civilians involved with sex slaves were convicted before a war crimes tribunal in the former Dutch East Indies and that one army major was executed. But he said Japan’s acknowledgment that the military was involved in forcing many women into sexual service “does not necessarily state a legal position” on the war crimes question.

The study’s completion does clear the way for Japan to consider again the question of monetary compensation. The government has refused to pay compensation, saying such claims were waived by the peace treaty that ended World War II in 1945 and by subsequent agreements. But the finding of force opens the door for the government to offer redress, and a senior Foreign Ministry official said the matter would likely be decided by the new government.

It is possible that the new government will be more amenable to compensation claims, because several of its key leaders have aggressively called on Japan to face its wartime guilt and offer concrete apologies.