The U.S. Senate on Jan. 16 passed its spending bill for 2014, including the "comfort women" issue, following a similar move by the House of Representatives. It marks the first time the U.S. Congress has formally urged the Japanese government to face up to and apologize for the historical issue.

The unveiling in Glendale of a monument to honor "comfort women" from World War II. [File photo]

Enlisting comfort women was among the horrifying acts committed by Japanese troops during their imperial invasions over the last century. The former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier urged the State Department to drop the euphemistic term "comfort women," but instead say "enforced sex slaves."

After World War II Japan briefly embarked on the road of peaceful development, but the country's right-wing force kept showing its dissatisfaction, mainly by denying war crimes.

Regarding the postwar conviction as an "injustice," the rightwing activists idolize war criminals and deny drafting comfort women. The visits by top political figures to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine are just another clumsy contention against human conscience and international justice.

The U.S. government has not been totally indifferent. Many law makers have also expressed alarm at Tokyo's reluctance to face up to its own invasion history.

Late Senator Henry Hyde and late Congressman Tom Lantos were firmly opposed to Junichiro Koizumi's Shrine visits, besides condemning Japan's right wing for denying the comfort women issues.