US urges Japan to resolve WWII disputes with neighbors
26/4/2007 16:06
A senior US official said yesterday Japan should find a way to try to
resolve World War II disputes with its neighbors such as China and South
Korea.
"Japan, as a modern democratic nation, needs to find a way to place
these issues behind it so it can move forward in cooperation with its
neighbors," said Dennis Wilder, US President George W. Bush's top East Asia
policy adviser, said at a briefing.
Wilder made the remarks one day ahead of
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the White House. This is the first
visit to the United States by Abe since he took office.
Nonetheless, Wilder
said Bush believes Abe "has done a lot" to clear up the misunderstandings in the
last couple of weeks on this issue of so-called "comfort women."
Abe has
indicated that the official position of Japan has not changed and that he
personally apologizes for the horrible things that happened to those women,
Wilder said.
Abe extended his apology again over the wartime sex slavery
issue on Tuesday, Japan's Jiji Press reported yesterday.
Abe repeated his
apology recently over then Japanese government and army's involvement in the
forced recruitment of women from other Asian countries to provide sex to
Japanese servicemen during World War II.
An estimated 200,000 women were
forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese forces during World War II, most of
whom came from countries invaded by Japan at that time.
Xinhua
|
