FM condemns remarks on 'comfort women'
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-14 08:36

China strongly condemns the remarks of a senior Japanese official denying the existence of "comfort women", said Liu Jianchao, spokesman of Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing Monday.

Japanese Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Nariaki Nakayama said in a public address Saturday that there were originally no such words as "comfort women," so it was good that the "incorrect" description was removed from school textbooks.

Liu said it is known to all that the "comfort women" system was a serious crime committed by the Japanese militarists during World War II, and the overt denial of this ugly history by a Japanese cabinet member who is in charge of education seriously hurts the feelings of the peoples of the victim countries.

"Comfort women" is a euphemism used in Japan to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in Japan's aggression war against its Asian neighbors before and during World War II.

Nakayama's remarks have been strongly criticized and protested by the Republic of Korea, China and many other Asian countries from which many women were forced to serve as "comfort women" for Japanese army during the war.