Hundreds of more scholars from around the world have joined their colleagues in a landmark joint statement criticizing Japan for distorting the history of its wartime sexual slavery, bringing the total number to nearly 500.
  

Earlier this month, a group of 187 internationally renowned historians issued the statement urging Japan to stop disputing historical facts about the wartime sexual slavery, saying that "denying or trivializing" the atrocity is "unacceptable."
  

Since then, an additional 269 scholars have joined the statement from the U.S., Australia, Europe, Latin America and Japan, bringing the total number to 456. They included not only historians, but also political scientists, literature scholars and religious studies scholars, according to University of Connecticut professor Alexis Dudden.
  

"We received a tremendous outpouring of support from colleagues around the world who had not appeared on the first list, and who were writing to ask to add their names -- all voluntary as before," Dudden told Yonhap News Agency.
  

"The sheer volume is truly impressive given the relatively small size of this scholarly community," she said. "We also now have incredible geographic range ... In a word, hundreds around the world are in agreement."
  

The statement, issued in the form of an "open letter in support of historians in Japan," came a week after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe failed to offer a clear apology for the sexual slavery or other wartime atrocities when he delivered an unprecedented address at the U.S. Congress.
  

It showed how much international historians are concerned about Japan's attempt to whitewash history.
  

The massive addition is expected to put pressure on Abe to address the sexual slavery and other historical issues in a statement he's preparing to issue in August to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II.
  

Universities that the newly added scholars belong to include Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, University of Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, Leiden, Free University, Berlin, Oxford and Oslo, as well as Waseda, Sofia, Nichibunken, Meiji Gakuin, Otsuma and Toyo in Japan.
  

Big name scholars include Ian Buruma, a renowned scholar on Japan; Franz Waldenberger of the German Institute for Japanese Studies; Sebastian Lechevalier of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris; Naoki Sakai of Cornell University and Steven Vogel and Irwin Scheiner of U.C. Berkeley.
  

Also included were Mike Molasky of the University of Minnesota; Harumi Befu of Stanford University; Ian Neary of Oxford University; Glenda Roberts of Waseda University and Koichi Nakano of Sofia University, according to Dudden.
  

"Our responsibility rests on fostering open discussions about Japan and in leaving an honest record of its past for current and future generations. We work together with our colleagues in Japan to do this," Dudden said.
  

She also said she is concerned about "a new and counterproductive atmosphere within Japan" that would seek to limit open discussion of certain parts of history and events.
  

"The evidence underlying the history of the so-called 'comfort women' makes abundantly clear that large numbers of women were held against their will and subjected to horrific brutality in a state-sponsored system organized by the Japanese military," Dudden said.
  

"All involved in signing this 'Open Letter' are committed to understanding this history -- and all histories -- as a means to better understand the human condition," she said. "It may sound naive, but I believe that this is what fundamentally holds such a diverse group of people together in this effort." (Yonhap)