Japan insists no funds will be released to Seoul before "comfort women" statue removed

Some legislators from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Wednesday insisted that Japan should not allow a South Korean foundation helping the 46 surviving "comfort women" who were brutalized in military brothels by the Japanese army during the war to receive funds they were promised.

Some 20 lawmakers said the 1 billion yen (9 million U.S. dollars) promised by Japan to help the victimized women should not be released unless a statue symbolizing the "comfort women" that stands outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul is removed.

The comments came just as South Korea was setting up the fund for the foundation, as per Japan's initial pledge.

At the end of last year, Abe, by proxy, renewed an official apology for the wartime travesties committed by Japan's military in WWII during its occupation of the Korean Peninsula, expressing his most sincere apologies and remorse to all those who suffered immeasurable and incurable physical and mental wounds as "comfort women."

Japan conceded that its current government recognizes its responsibility over the issue and the "grave affront to the honor and dignity of large numbers of women," caused by the Imperial Japanese Army during its occupation.

The apology and admission of guilt seemingly cemented a new accord between Tokyo and Seoul, with both sides also agreeing to no longer antagonize each other over the issue on global platforms.

But Tokyo's pledge to contribute to a fund for the 46 remaining surviving comfort women, was quickly followed with the undiscussed stipulation that Seoul removes a statue of tribute to the women from near the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

The "comfort women" deal, while initially being hailed as a great step toward bridging a historical divide between Japan and South Korea and helping to reinstate diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Seoul, took a turn for the worse when Abe and other senior Japanese politicians backtracked on their stance.

Abe, has, since the deal was made, stated that official records from neither the military nor the government prove that the "comfort women" were forced into sexual service and that the government had found no evidence of "forced mobilization" of the women by the military in official documents.

The U-turn by the prime minister was met with widespread condemnation by the former "comfort women" themselves, civic groups that represent them, as well as from countries other than South Korea who also saw mass-abuses inflicted on their women and girls by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war.

The hawkish leader has maintained that his government's fundamental position on the "comfort women" issue has not changed and no war crimes pertaining to the actions of the Imperial Japanese Army before and during WWII have been recognized by the state.

He also remarked that all of Japan's legal obligations related to the issue had been settled when ties were normalized with South Korea in 1965, further undoing what was first thought of as an historic step by Japan to admit its culpability.

Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida who brokered the deal in South Korea last year and delivered Japan's apology from Abe on his behalf, also rowed back on the government's stance, stating that the women forced to work in Japan's military brothels during the war should not be called "sex slaves," saying the term "doesn' t match the facts."

Another LDP-linked politician also stated that the "comfort women" were "prostitutes" and not "victims," which rekindled the flames of enmity toward Japan over the issue.

The widely-used term "comfort women" is a euphemism used to describe the hundreds of thousands of girls - including underage teenagers - and women, largely from the Korean Peninsula, but also from other Asian nations, who were forcibly coerced into working in military brothels and serving members of the Imperial Japanese Army, during its brutal wartime occupation of the peninsula.

Tens of thousands of women aside from Koreans, from then occupied countries of China as well as the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia and those from the Netherlands and a contingent of Australian women, were also forced to service Japanese soldiers in wartime sex camps.

The Imperial Japanese Army also forced its own nationals to work in some of its military brothels.

The statue was erected in 2011 by a South Korean civic group called the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Sexual Slavery by Japan.