A Japanese local leader’s defense of the use of Chinese and Korean sex slaves to service Japanese soldiers during World War II as a “necessary” part of the war effort has drawn angry responses from Beijing and Seoul, aggravating tensions in the region that were already high after a series of earlier provocations.

日本一名地方官员为日本军队在二战期间驱使中国和韩国女性为日本士兵充当性奴隶的做法辩护，将其称为战争行动中的必要部分，上述言论引发了中国和韩国的愤怒回应，令该地区的紧张局势在早些时候的一系列挑衅事件之后再度升温。

“We are shocked and indignant at the Japanese politician’s remarks, as they flagrantly challenge historical justice and the conscious of mankind,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. “How Japan treats its past will decide its future.”

中国外交部发言人洪磊周二在例行记者会上说，我们对日本政治人物发表公然挑战人类良知和历史正义的言论表示震惊和强烈愤慨。如何对待过去将决定日本怎样走向未来。

Mr. Hong was responding to comments by Toru Hashimoto, the outspoken mayor of Osaka, who told reporters on Monday that the taking of sex slaves口euphemistically referred in Japan as “comfort women”口was justifiable. “Anyone can understand that the system of comfort women was necessary to provide respite for a group of high-strung, rough and tumble crowd of men braving their lives under a storm of bullets,” Mr. Hashimoto said, adding that apart from moral considerations “back then it was a necessary system to maintain military discipline.”

洪磊回应的是出言不逊的大阪市长桥下彻(Toru Hashimoto)的言论。桥下彻周一告诉记者，使用性奴（日本称为“慰安妇”）是合理的。桥下彻说，任何人都能理解，慰安妇制度在当时是必需的，它可以为一群处于枪林弹雨中的神经紧张、生活混乱的男子提供喘息的机会。桥下彻补充说，抛开道德上的考量，“慰安妇”制度是当时保持军纪所需。

South Korea’s foreign ministry also slammed Mr. Hashimoto on Tuesday.

韩国外交部周二也猛烈抨击了桥下彻。

“It was a totally senseless remark. I doubted my ears. It is an insult against the dignity of women. I really hope that he [Mr. Hashimoto] has the courage to face up to past history and admit wrongdoings instead of trying to whitewash them,” an official at the spokesman’s office for the South Korean foreign ministry said.

韩国外交部发言人办公室的一名官员说，这完全不可理喻。我简直怀疑自己的耳朵。这是对女性尊严的侮辱。我真的希望桥下彻有勇气面对历史，承认错误，而不是试图粉饰错误。

The Imperial Japanese Army abducted tens of thousands of Chinese, Korean and Filipino women and coerced them into working in military brothels during the war, according to the view widely held by historians, setting the stage for decades of demands for apologies and compensation. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has apologized for the system in the past, though comments defending the system from others like Mr. Hashimoto have kept the wound from closing.

根据历史学家普遍持有的观点，大日本帝国陆军(Imperial Japanese Army)绑架了上万名来自中国、韩国和菲律宾的女性，强迫她们在战争期间的军队妓院里工作。这就是数十年来各方要求日本道歉和赔偿的原因。日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)过去曾经为慰安妇制度道歉，不过，桥下彻等人对这一制度的辩护让伤口一直难以愈合。

The issue flared up last year after Toyko-based camera maker Nikon announced that it was canceling a photo exhibit on comfort women by South Korean photographer Ahn Se-hong after Japanese Internet users described the exhibit as a “betrayal” of Japan. A Japanese court later ordered Nikon to go ahead with the exhibit.

这一问题在去年一度升温。此前，东京的照相机制造商尼康(Nikon)宣布取消韩国摄影师Ahn Se-hong关于“慰安妇”的摄影展，因为日本互联网用户把这次展览称为是对日本的背叛。日本一家法院后来下令尼康继续举办这次展览。

Mr. Hashimoto’s comments come barely a week after Mr. Abe ruffled regional feathers by refusing to use the word “invasion” in discussing Japan’s wartime aggression and by allowing key members of his Cabinet to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors World War II leaders convinced of war crimes in addition to other war dead.

桥下彻发表上述言论不到一周以前，安倍晋三的一些做法也激怒了该地区的一些国家，他在讨论日本战争时期的侵略行为时拒绝使用“侵略”一词，并允许内阁主要成员参拜充满争议的靖国神社(Yasukuni Shrine)。靖国神社供奉的是犯有战争罪的二战时期日本领导人以及其他一些在战争中死去的士兵。

Chinese social media users, already riled up by an ongoing territorial dispute with Japan over the islands known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, were incensed by Mr. Hashimoto’s comments.

中国的社交媒体用户已经对目前中日之间关于一组岛屿的领土争议感到不满，这一次又被桥下彻的言论激怒。中日争议岛屿在中国被称作钓鱼岛，在日本被称作尖阁列岛(Senkaku)。

“If our Celestial army ever conquers Japan, they should force his mother, his wife, his daughter and all the other female members of his family to be comfort women. Force him to be a comfort woman. See how great he feels about it then,” wrote one user of the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging site.

一名用户在与推特(Twitter)类似的新浪微博(Sina Weibo)上写道，如果我天朝军队征服了日本，应该让日本人的母亲、妻子和女儿，以及家庭中所有女性成员当慰安妇。强迫他当慰安妇。看看到时候他的感觉有多好。