A rally urging Japan to apologize for forcing women to serve as sex slaves before and during World War Two was held in Washington Wednesday.

Members of various Korean-American organizations gathered in front of the Japanese Embassy to press Tokyo to swiftly implement a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007.

The nonbinding resolution strongly urges the Japanese government to formally acknowledge and apologize for its military’s coercion of women into sexual slavery.

The rally is part of a “global solidarity demonstration” that was launched by the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery this week. Similar rallies will be held in Australia and Germany.

The Japanese government drafted nearly 200-thousand Asian women, most of them Korean, and forced them to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers before and during the Second World War.