Zhang Xiantu, a former "comfort woman". (Photo/CNS)

BEIJING, June 7 -- A Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday urged the Japanese government to take the right position on the issue of "comfort women."

Spokesperson Hong Lei, who was speaking at a routine press briefing, said that inscribing "comfort women" archives on the Memory of the World Register will help people to understand the cruelty of war, remember history, cherish peace and safeguard dignity.

Some NGOs from China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the Philippines and other countries and regions are working together to nominate documentation on comfort women to be included on the Memory of the World Register.

Japan should not interfere with their activities, Hong stressed, urging Japan to honor its commitments and win the trust of its Asian neighbors as well as the international community.

Historians estimated that hundreds of thousands of Asian women were forced to serve in Japanese military brothels during WWII.

The Memory of the World Programme, established in 1992 by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), preserves the world's most important documents.