MANILA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Lila Pilipina, an organization fighting for justice for Philippine wartime sexual slavery victims of the Japanese troops during World War II, on Wednesday urged Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to advance peace and justice during his upcoming visit to the Philippines.
In a statement issued on the eve of Motegi's visit to Manila, Lila Pilipina coordinator Sharon Cabusao-Silva said Japan has yet to officially admit responsibility for atrocities committed during World War II, including the sexual enslavement of Filipino women.
"But even as Japan still refuses to officially acknowledge its role in wartime crimes, it is now dragging the Philippines into the possibility of open military conflict," said Silva.
"We refuse to be part of the U.S.-Japan war agenda and will oppose any attempt to drag the country into an open conflict," Silva said, citing what she called recent "warmongering" rhetoric by Japanese leaders echoing U.S. positions in the region.
"If Japan wants to project itself as a junior leader in a U.S. proxy strategy in the region, it should not drag other countries into its game," Silva said.
Lila Pilipina reiterated that Japan has never issued a sincere public apology to victims of the occupation, their families, and thousands of Filipino women who were killed, abused, or whose families suffered torture and death at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.
Lila Pilipina said more than 1,000 Filipino women were forced to serve as sex slaves during Japan's occupation of the Philippines from December 1941 to August 1945. There are only a few surviving women victims, most of them sickly and poor in their 90s. ■