A coalition of Asian American civic groups gathered on International Women’s Day to criticize a lawsuit demanding the removal of the Comfort Woman Statue in Glendale, California, reports Hankyoreh (photo by Melissa Wall).
The groups made up of Korean Americans, Filipino Americans, Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans also demanded a formal apology from the Japanese government for the enslavement of women during World War II by the Imperial Army.
“On the occasion of International Women’s Day, members from a variety of community organizations in Southern California have gathered together to commemorate the so-called comfort women, who were sexual slaves for the Japanese imperial army,” the groups said in a statement. “These women – who included girls as young as 12 years old – were tricked or kidnapped and forced to live as sex slaves.”
In Japan, lawmaker Nariaki Nakayama said Korean women who have come forward as comfort women “have no shame and do nothing but lie.”
