ABSTRACT
But books, articles and websites related to Japanese war responsibility issues reveal a palpable anger among a wide variety of groups-from the media and scholars to human rights groups such as Amnesty International-at what they argue to be Japan’s failure to address war responsibility issues. Perhaps the strongest challenge was the McDougall report, submitted to the UN Commission on Human Rights. The appendix, ‘An analysis of the legal liability of the Government of Japan for “comfort woman stations” established during World War II’, concluded:
[T]he Japanese Government remains liable for grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law, violations that amount in their totality to crimes against humanity…. [T]he Japanese Government’s argument that Japan has already settled all claims from Second World War… remains…unpersuasive…. [A]nything less than full and unqualified acceptance by the Government of Japan of legal liability and the consequences that flow from such liability is wholly inadequate.
