Tokyo Shrugs Off U.S. Sex Resolution

Rep. Michael Honda, D-Calif., gives a thumbs-up and says thank you to his colleagues after legislation was passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 26, 2007, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility for its Imperial Armed Forces coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as "comfort women", during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II. Honda is the principal sponsor of the bill. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh - AP)

One of the former sex slaves, now living in Australia, welcomed the U.S. resolution Wednesday and said she hopes Japan will finally apologize for forcing her and thousands of other women to work as sex slaves.

"It would be fantastic for the comfort women, late in our lives and after all these years, to get this finalized with an apology," Jan Ruff O'Herne, an 84-year-old former Dutch colonist born in Indonesia, said in the Australian city of Adelaide.

Also on Wednesday, 44 lawyers representing some of the sex slaves in lawsuits seeking compensation from Tokyo submitted a letter addressed to the Japanese prime minister urging new measures to settle the issue. The lawyers want dialogue between the government and the victims.

"International criticism against Japan on the resolution of the comfort women issue is increasing. Rather than being told from outside, it's necessary for Japan to see this issue as its own challenge," said lawyer Shiro Kawakami at a press conference.

"Now is the chance for Japan to take concrete measures for the future," he said.

After decades of denial, the Japanese government acknowledged its role in wartime prostitution after a historian discovered documents showing government involvement. In 1993 the government issued a carefully worded official apology.

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AP writer Foster Klug in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.