Cold Comfort

Journalist Ken Silverstein recently published a piece at Harpers.org called "Cold Comfort: the Japan Lobby Blocks Resolution on WWII Sex Slaves" (October 5, 2006), which Bryan Bender of the Boston Globe elaborated on in an article headlined "U.S. Congress backs off rebuke of wartime Japan" (October 15, 2006). What we know from both pieces is that, for the past six months, the government of Japan has paid hefty fees ($60,000 a month) to the Washington firm of Hogan & Hartson to prevent House Resolution 759 from reaching a vote before the House adjourned on October 13, almost guaranteeing that, once again, American legislative attempts to hold the Japanese government responsible for Japan's actions during the Second World War have failed. Former long-term Illinois Republican and House minority leader Bob Michel worked as Japan's main mouthpiece. Yet, as Silverstein contends, Michel "is only the most prominent of a small gang of lobbyists which Japan retains to handle World War II issues

Cold war · Economic history · Political science · Politics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies