… here, the whole Comfort Women thing rumbles on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on….

There is yet more confusion over the whole damn issue. First, Shimomura (Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary) says on Sunday.

There were military nurses and embedded journalists but no ‘embedded comfort women.’ It is true that there were ‘comfort women.’ I believe some parents may have sold their daughters. But it does not mean the Japanese army was involved.

In other words, he says there was no military/govt. involvement, backtracking on the 1993 Kono statement.

But then, the next day, you get the PM’s spokespersons saying

I apologise here and now as prime minister. As I frequently say, I feel sympathy for the people who underwent hardships, and I apologise for the fact that they were placed in this situation at the time.

This was reported over at the BBC too.

Just to add to the fun, the ex-PM of Japan (one of those rare, non-LDP Prime Ministers) is most certainly not following the ruling party line with:

There is no point in debating that. There is no mistake that the military had set up and managed the brothels. In that sense, the government was responsible

I’m confused… and I’m not the only one here and here.