P.M. apologizes to WWII sex slaves

? Japan’s nationalist prime minister on Monday offered his clearest apology yet to women who suffered in the country’s World War II military brothels, but he did not bow to international pressure to acknowledge that Tokyo forced thousands into sexual slavery.

Shinzo Abe’s apology came three weeks after he set off a furor by saying there is no evidence showing the women were coerced, backtracking from a previous government admission that the Japanese military forced women to work at brothels for its troops.

“I express my sympathy toward the ‘comfort women’ and apologize for the situation they found themselves in,” Abe told a parliamentary committee, using the euphemism for sex slaves that is used by Japanese politicians. “I apologize here and now as prime minister.”

Historians say as many as 200,000 Asian women, mostly from Korea and China, worked in Japan’s military-run brothels. Victims say they were forced to work at the brothels by the Japanese military and were held against their will.

Abe’s earlier denial of coercion drew intense criticism from China and South Korea, which accuse Japan of failing to fully atone for wartime invasions and atrocities. Neither had any immediate reaction to his comments Monday.