A bill that would require teaching about the comfort women in New York schools has advanced to the State Assembly, reports the Times Ledger.
The lesson would be taught at the same time as discussions about the holocaust and other human rights violations take place, under the bill sponsored by State Senator Tony Avella (D-Bayside) which passed the State Senate last week.
“We have too many situations, even today, of sex trafficking and abuse of women all across the globe,” Avella said. “We should recognize it and call it what it is: an atrocity against women.”
Supporters say the bill would be a big step in bringing closure to the comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.
“The human rights of children and women were heavily violated, and hopefully now all over, at any school, people will learn, just like the Holocaust,” said Christine Colligan of the Korean American Parents Association of Greater NY. “This is not just between two religions or countries. It has to be taught all over the world.”
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One student talked about personally meeting one of the comfort women and hearing her story. You can read about that in the Times Ledger.
I was very shocked by the news that 122 Korean women claimed that “we were the U.S. military comfort women”, and sued the class action lawsuit on June 25, 2014. http://iamkoream.com/comfort-women-for-u-s-milita… http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-07-11/new…
If the issue is a human rights concern for the future of all nations, we should memorialize all comfort women, including females forced into sexual slavery by the USA military and Korean Government itself during and after the Korean War. The USA is very deeply committed to this Korean “comfort women” matter as an assailant of violence against women.
Tony Avella should not be a hypocrite. First, he should seek support to pass education of Korean comfort women who were enslaved by the US military, for human rights of women, the very purpose of his political activity. He has something to do before criticizing the other country’s past 70 years ago.