'Comfort women' expose Japan's designs

Civil groups from eight countries, including China, the Republic of Korea and the Philippines, have approached the UNESCO to declare "comfort women", a euphemism for women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army before and during World War II, as a tragic heritage of humankind.

But a report in the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun says the Japanese right-wing forces have threatened that the Japanese government will stop paying the country's UNESCO membership fees if UNESCO decides to include "comfort women" in its Memory of the World Register next month.

Fourteen civil groups from the eight countries have submitted historical records that the Japanese army forced women into sexual slavery, making it the strongest international civil action to get "comfort women" included on the UNESCO heritage list to pay respects to the victimized women.