DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE ON COMFORT WOMEN

[Anchor Lead]

The Japanese media recently released a classified diplomatic document that recorded the need to have one comfort woman for every 70 Japanese soldiers during World War II. This document is another proof that the Japanese military was directly involved in recruiting and overseeing sex slaves and forced the Japanese government to admit to the existence of such record. The document's source turned out to be Japan's foreign affairs ministry, which has been distorting the truth about comfort women all these years.

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A classified document sent from the Japanese consul general in China to Japan's foreign affairs ministry during his country's all-out invasion of China in 1938. It is recorded in the document that "the Navy hopes to have 150 more hostesses or comfort women" and "the Army needs one for every 70 soldiers." The Japanese government at last admitted to the existence of the document after issuing no official comments for two weeks. A reply submitted to the Japanese Diet on behalf of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It says "the document was submitted by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the National Diet Library to the Cabinet Secretariat and is currently kept in the Cabinet Secretariat." The administrative document clearly marks the source as the 14th volume of the 2017 inquiry into comfort women and the 15th volume of the same inquiry from last year. Japan's Cabinet Secretariat is equivalent to Korea's Presidential office. Since 1991, the Secretariat has been collecting official documents about comfort women left in each ministry. This suggests that Tokyo has long possessed proof that the Japanese military was systematically involved in sex slavery yet did not disclose the documents until the news report.

[Soundbite] MINA WATANABE(SECRETARY GENERAL, WOMEN'S ACTIVE MUSEUM ON WAR AND PEACE) : "The Japanese government had acknowledged it from the beginning, but it's now trying to deny it without any grounds."

Although the Japanese government grudgingly admitted to the existence of such documents, it refused to comment on what was actually recorded about comfort women or whether the Secretariat has other classified documents.