Japanese ex-soldiers call for apology to sex slaves

TOKYO, Apr 25 (Reuters) Ichiro Koyama, recalling words from a fellow Japanese soldier who died two years ago, says Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should offer a more sincere apology to women who served in brothels during World War Two.

Abe has caused international outrage by denying that the women, many of them Korean, were forced into the brothels to provide sex for soldiers, but Koyama said the medic in his unit had told him that the women were sent against their will.

The medic, the 87-year-old Koyama told reporters today, had talked to women while examining them for venereal diseases.

''He told me, 'Koyama, they should all be pitied. They were all tricked into going there,''' he told a news conference sponsored by a non-governmental organisation.

''They had gone thinking they would be waitresses or cooks at places for soldiers to rest, but instead they were forced to be partners for sex,'' he said, adding that the women had no means of escaping.

Tomorrow, Abe will start a two-day visit to the United States, where the fate of the wartime sex slaves has gained prominence over the past few weeks since Congressman Michael Honda introduced a resolution asking Japan to apologise.

Abe said last month there was no proof that the women were forced into brothels by Japan's government and military.

Abe has since apologised for the suffering of the ''comfort women'', as they are known in Japan, and has repeatedly said he stands by a 1993 government statement that acknowledged official involvement in managing the brothels.

But the perception that he is trying to whitewash the wartime past could well linger in Washington.

Amnesty International plans to hold a rally on Thursday near the White House to urge Japan to take responsibility for the ''comfort women'' issue and make a formal apology. Abe has refused to apologise again even if the U.S. resolution is adopted.

Kiyoshi Sakakura, another former World War Two soldier, told the news conference in Tokyo that he had heard of accounts which Korean women being bought with money to be sent to brothels.

Although he had no proof that they were rounded up under military orders, he believed that they were, since anything related to soldiers at the time was instructed by the military.

''Even eating was under military order,'' he said.

''Besides, I can't believe Korean and Chinese women would come to battlefields with bullets flying to serve Japanese soldiers.'' He also remembered a time he went to a brothel but turned back after he was led to a 14-year-old girl. He could not believe the girl had willingly worked at the brothel.

Koyama also admitted to going to brothels but he did not suspect at the time that the women had been forced into serving the soldiers. He said he cried when the news conference aired a video of former ''comfort women'' and their tearful testimonies.

''I didn't know at the time. I had no feelings of guilt, but now I know the gravity of it,'' he said.

''I want to apologise to them from the bottom of my heart.'' REUTERS LPB PM1345