The U.S. House of Representatives will proceed with a U.S. Congress resolution that asks Japan to apologize for forcing women into sexual servitude during World War II, a senior U.S. Congressman said here Thursday.
"I realize the (comfort women) issue is sensitive for Japanese leaders, but this is fact, this is history," Eni Faleomavaega, the head of a House Foreign Affairs Committee panel, told reporters in Beijing, saying the issue needs to be solved with "real sincere efforts".
"Unfortunately, there is a lot of feeling... among the leaders of Japan that this never happened," Faleomavaega, a Democrat from American Samoa, said at the press conference.
"The whole idea to do something so base as this against any woman, I think this is something that ought to prick the conscience of the world community," he said.
The resolution urges Japan to make an official and unequivocal apology and take responsibility for the Japanese forces' role in enslaving hundreds of thousands of Asian girls and women during World War II.
Yet Faleomavaega noted that Abe would be visiting the United States shortly and that the panel is "not going to take a cheap shot and suggest that we're going to do something to stir the controversy."
Deliberations will continue, however, within the Congress on how it is going to proceed with the resolution, he said.