Chorus of critics grows after Japan prime minister says no evidence of war-time brothels

(AP) Anyone who doubts that the Japanese army forced Asian women into sexual slavery in World War II should "face the truth," South Korea's foreign minister said Friday as outrage grew over comments by Japan's prime minister that there was no evidence of the enslavement.

Women's rights activists in the Philippines and a group of lawmakers in South Korea also denounced the remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday that there was no proof that so-called "comfort women" were forced into prostitution during the war.

But one of the harshest comments came from 81-year-old Hilaria Bustamante of Manila, who said she was kept as a sex slave in a Japanese garrison for a year in 1942 as a 16-year-old.

"What he (Abe) said has angered me," she said. "They think we are just like toilet paper that they can throw away after being used."

Historians say some 200,000 women _ mostly from Korea and China _ served in the Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Witnesses, victims and even some former Japanese soldiers say many of the women were kidnapped or otherwise forced into brothels, where they could be raped by scores of soldiers a day.

Abe on Thursday said there is no proof the women were forced into prostitution: "The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion."

His statement contradicted evidence in Japanese documents unearthed in 1992 that historians said showed military authorities had a direct role in working with contractors to forcibly procure women for the brothels, known as "comfort stations." The remark also cast doubt on a 1993 Japanese government apology to the sex slaves.

Before a speech Friday in Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told The Associated Press that Abe's comments were "not helpful."

"We had better face the truth," Song said in the South Korean government's first reaction to the nationalist prime minister's remarks.

Victims and their supporters have pushed unsuccessfully for a parliament-approved apology from Japan and official government compensation. Japan set up a private fund for compensation in 1995, but has refused to provide government money.

In China, Su Zhiliang, the director of the Chinese Comfort Women Research Center at Shanghai's Normal University, said she was surprised by Abe's remarks.

"Suddenly to have Abe deny the fact that women were coerced into sexual slavery is both very regrettable and very enraging," said Su, who has compiled 100 case studies with testimonials from Chinese comfort women since he began researching the issue in 1993.

Philippines Rep. Liza Maza of the left-wing Gabriela women's party said Abe's statement was "an affront to all women victims of Japanese military sexual slavery" during the war.

Rechilda Extremadura, executive director of Lila Pilipina, an organization of activists and former Filipino wartime sex slaves, said 120 are still alive among 174 documented Filipino comfort women.

"Our women here, the grandmothers, said that they were forced, that they were coerced into rendering sexual servitude inside the garrisons, inside the 'comfort stations,'" Extremadura said. "Now, let the Japanese government prove that they went there willingly ... so that they can be labeled as prostitutes. That is where this is heading."

She called on the Japanese government to acknowledge the history: "If you are a responsible government, you are responsible enough to accept, acknowledge and be accountable."

Bustamante said she was heading home in 1942 after scavenging for rice when three Japanese soldiers stopped her on the road and seized her by the arms and legs and threw her into a truck "like a pig."

"Even as I struggled, I could not do anything. They slapped me, they punched me. I was only 16 then, what could I do?" she told AP Television News.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, on a visit to Tokyo, declined to comment directly on Abe's statement.

"Our view is that what happened during the war was most deplorable," he said when asked about the sex slave issue. "But ... as far as some kind of resolution of this issue, this is something that must be dealt with between Japan and the countries that were affected."

The United States has avoided public involvement in historical disputes between Japan and its neighbors, though it has expressed concern that such conflicts could affect other issues, such as cooperation on efforts to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Last month, however, the House of Representatives held hearings on a resolution calling for Japan to fully acknowledge and apologize for the sexual abuse. U.S. lawmakers have introduced a nonbinding resolution urging Japan to apologize formally.

Supporters of the resolution want an apology similar to the one the U.S. government gave to Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II. That apology was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

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Oliver Teves in Manila, Burt Herman in Seoul, Foster Klug in Washington, and Alexa Olesen in Beijing contributed to this report.