This was a barbarous action of rubbing salt into the wounds of the victims of the sexual slavery which still remain unhealed though a long period has passed since then and, at the same time, a dastardly act to hide the issue of the sexual slavery at any cost.

The Japanese imperialists forcibly took away women of different countries including 200 000 Korean women to their battlefields for aggression and committed all sorts of sordid acts against them, mercilessly violating their dignity. These crimes have already been disclosed before the whole world through the historical data, witnesses and victims' testimonies.

Kono made the above-said statement at a time when Japan was in a position not to dodge the blame any longer as the issue of sexual slavery for the Imperial Japanese Army was under hot discussion worldwide and there were growing voices demanding its official apology and reparation for the crimes.

This being a hard historical fact, Japan is trying hard to retract Kono's statement nearly 20 years later, stunning the world community.

Such action is a reckless one intended to totally deny the sexual slavery, discarding even the spurious signboard of inheriting Kono's statement though Japan has so far put up ostensively.

This is not the first time that Japan expressed its intention to retract his statement, displeased with it.

The "Dietmen's League for Japan's future and education in history", Japan's right-wing conservative body, asserted the need to verify the statement, claiming that the statement reflects the view of an individual and there are not a few Dietmen who are skeptical about it and it is good to let the new chief Cabinet secretary issue a statement.

This is nothing but part of a sinister trick to keep its past crimes buried into oblivion.

The above-said sexual slavery was the unprecedented organized and institutional crime against humanity as it was perpetrated by Japan with government and military power involved, pursuant to its war-time state policy.

No matter how desperately the Japanese reactionaries may try to whitewash the crime-woven past and cover up their sexual slavery, the worst human traffic in the 20th century, this is a historical fact which can neither be ignored nor written off.

That is why not only Asian countries but the rest of the world consider this as serious crimes and strongly demand Japan make an apology and reparation for its crimes.

It is an extremely abnormal thing that the above-said crimes of Japan remain unsettled even in the new century.

Japan's stance towards this issue sharply contrasts with the attitude of some countries including Germany towards the reparation for their past wrongdoings.

Japan will always remain a brazen-faced country in history and in the eyes of mankind as long as it is unwilling to redress its past crimes.