The Historical Science Society of Japan and 15 other groups related to historical studies are calling on the nation to face up to the issue of the “comfort women,” who were forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels.

In a statement Monday, the groups criticized politicians and the media for arguing that there is no evidence females were forcibly procured for the brothels, following the Asahi Shimbun’s retraction of a series of articles it published on the comfort women decades ago.

Calling the behavior “unjust,” the groups said that “continuing to take an irresponsible attitude by averting its eyes from the fact is tantamount to sending the message internationally that Japan does not respect human rights.”

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Asahi published articles based on accounts provided by a Japanese man who claimed he had forcibly taken women on the island of Jeju, then under Japanese colonial rule and now part of South Korea, and forced them into sexual servitude for the Japanese military.

Last August, the newspaper retracted the stories after concluding there were fabrications in his accounts.

The statement said the man’s accounts did not serve as the basis for a landmark statement made in 1993 by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono that acknowledged the military’s involvement in establishing “comfort stations” and is known to have admitted coercion in a broad sense.

They added that the issue must also be looked at against the backdrop of the unequal and unfair structure of colonial rule.

“This statement reflects the will of several thousand historians in Japan,” Toru Kubo, chairman of the Historical Science Society of Japan and a professor at Shinshu University, said at a news conference.

“Politicians and others should not speak or behave irresponsibly without taking account of facts confirmed by historians,” Kubo said.

The statement also said university lecturers involved in the comfort women issue face threats and unfair attacks, as well as demands that they either stop giving lectures or resign.