Despite protests from Japanese Americans, the Glendale City Council has approved a memorial to comfort women at Glendale Central Park, reports the Press-Telegram.
Koreans have long contended that 200,000 women of Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipina and Dutch descent were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. But Japan has long countered the women were prostitutes.
“We’re taking a meaningful step to show our moral support, sense of camaraderie, and our sharing of the pain that our Korean American brothers and sisters feel about this issue,” Council Member Zareh Sinanyan said.
“I don’t see this as designed to be a monument to shame Japan,” Laura Friedman added. “What happened to those girls was a tragedy, and that’s what this monument is about.”
About a dozen Japanese Americans spoke out against the monument.
“Comfort ladies were nothing more than prostitutes,” Yoshi Miyake said. He warned the monument would “bring out hate crimes and conflict.”
Many expressed surprise that so many Japanese Americans came out to oppose the monument.
Alex Woo, president of the Korea Glendale Sister City Assn., said he never expected so much opposition from local Japanese-Americans to the monument.
“This was not meant to humiliate or to shame them. It was not to do any of that. It’s about us learning from this experience so it doesn’t happen again,” Alex Woo, president of the Korea Glendale Sister City Assn., said to the Glendale News Press.
