When Yohei Kono made a landmark 1993 apology to the wartime ¡°comfort women,¡± the chief Cabinet secretary was speaking for a moderate conservative mainstream seeking to reconcile with its Asian neighbors.
The term is Japan¡¯s euphemism for those who provided sex, including those against their will, for Imperial Japanese troops before and during World War II. Many were Koreans.
A quarter century later, Kono¡¯s son, Taro, now foreign minister, is on the front lines of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s escalating feud over compensation for Koreans who were forced to work in wartime Japanese mines and factories, an unresolved legacy of the two countries¡¯ bitter past.
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