Tokyo and Washington are both in the thick of “comfort women” politics. To some Japanese, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is a hero, a leader who is man enough to stand up for Japan by refusing to engage in what some Diet members have called a “masochistic view of history.” Despite his recent (somewhat forced) apology, Abe has publicly challenged the global charge that the Japanese imperial government (and military) had a sure hand in creating and maintaining the comfort women system during World War II.