On Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will address the U.S. Congress to promote his position that Japan should play a more prominent role in world affairs. Japan has not earned that right. It has never fully come to terms with the atrocities they committed before and during World War II — especially the forced sexual slavery of women euphemistically called "comfort women."

The estimated number of women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese varies depending on who is doing the counting. Some Japanese say that there were fewer than 20,000 and that they were former prostitutes or willing volunteers. But the evidence supports a much higher number. Today, most historians agree there were as many as 200,000 to 300,000. They were Filipino, Chinese, even Dutch, but the majority were Korean. Some were as young as 13.

The Empire of Japan formally surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945. Since then, it has issued a number of mostly informal apologies for its actions during the war. Many were insincere at best. For example, on Sept. 6, 1984, 39 years after the war ended, a famously disingenuous "apology," delivered to Korean President Chun Doo-hwan by Emperor Hirohito, stated as follows:

"It is indeed regrettable that there was an unfortunate past between us for a period in this century, and I believe that it should not be repeated again."

When some brave comfort women found the courage to come forward in the early 1990s after 45 years of suffering in silence, the Japanese issued a few unofficial apologies. But like the Hirohito apology, most were disingenuous. They often used the word owabi for "apology" — a word in Japanese only slightly weightier than "excuse me."

The only "official" apology was the Kono statement issued in 1993 by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, which quickly came under fire and is still debated to this day. In fact, last summer, the Abe administration set up a committee to look into the research that led Kono to issue his apology, ostensibly to discredit it. The outrage from Korea and China caused Abe to quickly disband the committee.

It's clear that Abe, the first prime minister born after World War II, is a historical revisionist. On the home page of his website before he was prime minister, he questioned the extent to which the Japanese used coercion toward comfort women. In March 2007, Abe publicly stated that there was no evidence that the Japanese military had kept sex slaves. Abe also led the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform that published the New History Textbook, which whitewashes the criminal actions of Japan during World War II. Schools throughout Japan use the textbook today.

It appears that Japan is finally digging out from a two-decade-long economic slump. Under Abe, Japan might again become the leading economic force it once was. But it seems that Japan will not take lessons from the past.

It's a shame — a tragedy, really.

Accepting responsibility for the atrocities it committed, starting with formally and sincerely apologizing to the few remaining comfort women before they all die, is the only way Japan should be given the global stature Abe desires so much.

But just as important, it would restore Japan's honor and save its very soul.

William Andrews, of Edina, is the author of "Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman's Story."