Japanese protest Korean WWII memorial in California

[MintWasted]

Earlier this month, a group of Japanese officials came to Glendale, Calif., with an unusual demand: They wanted the city to take down a public monument in the park next to its public library.

The bronze statue of a girl in traditional South Korean dress seated next to an empty chair is a memorial to the 70,000 to 200,000 Korean, Filipina, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian and Dutch “comfort women†— a euphemism for sex slaves — conscripted into Japanese military brothels during World War II. It's the fourth memorial to the comfort women installed in the United States since 2010, and it aims to keep American focus on a history that many Japanese would rather forget.

“They were raped maybe 10 times a day. On weekends, as many as 40 to 50 times a day. The majority of them were teenagers,†says Phyllis Kim, who as part of Los Angeles' Korean-American Forum helped bring the statue to Glendale. “There are victims who are still alive, and waiting for an apology.â€

Japan admitted the military's role in the brothels more than 20 years ago, and some victims were paid reparations from a private fund. But Japan has never offered an official apology or direct compensation to the victims, which many South Koreans, and Korean Americans, demand. Korean-Americans have been working for years to use US influence to put pressure on Japan to change its stance. Japan maintains it's done enough.

“Because of the ties between these two countries and because of the status of the United States on the world scene, what we think as Americans plays a role, and can have an impact on how Japanese react,†Kim says.

That's exactly what has some Japanese so angry.

“America is known as a fair country,†says Yoshiko Matsuura, a Tokyo city assemblywoman and the leader of the Japanese group that visited Glendale. “Why is it right to erect this kind of statue in America?â€

Retired Japanese banker and Los Angeles resident Tomoyuki Sumori agrees.

“This is not the right place for them to wage this kind of anti-Japan propaganda,†he says. “Why do they do it in another country?'

Sumori is working to fight the memorials, in Glendale, and any other city that might consider putting one up. “I had to do something to preserve the integrity, honor and pride of our country,†he says.

The Korean American campaign to build municipal memorials to the comfort women has faced a Japanese counter-campaign to keep them out. Since the Glendale statue went up last summer, three delegations of politicians have come from Japan to complain. Glendale's city council has received thousands of angry emails, and its sister city in Japan canceled a student exchange program.

Palisades Park, N.J., the home of another memorial, has faced similar complaints from Japanese.

Kim sees an upside to the dust-up here. It’s getting media attention in Japan, too — and reminding people about what happened to the comfort women.

“A lot of people, I think, got a second chance to think about it,†she says. “Every German kid knows about the Holocaust. But the Japanese government just tries to downplay what happened.â€

Almost 70 years since the war ended, the issue of the comfort women is still a major source of friction between South Korea and Japan. In November, South Korea's president Park Geun-hye said it would be “pointless†to hold bilateral talks with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe until it's resolved. Abe himself has raised South Korean and international hackles in the past by denying the women were coerced, and most recently, by visiting a disputed war shrine.

Shihoko Goto, a Northeast Asia expert with the Woodrow Wilson Center, says, at the highest levels, the disputes over history are a power play. "This whole idea about revisiting history and re-interpreting history is really a battle for who is the top dog in the region," she says. "Korea wants to make clear that it is no longer playing second fiddle to Japan."

But for Japanese who are protesting the monument, it's about deep questions of identity and cultural pride.

Matsuura's delegation claims the “comfort women†were prostitutes, and say they have US military documents that prove it. Few Japanese politicians will go that far, but some still say the military wasn’t behind the brothels, or the women weren't coerced.

"A lot of Japanese people would sympathize with that perspective, especially the older generation," says Goto.

The few surviving comfort women, all in their 80s and 90s, cry foul.

“I was walking along the side of the road when I was captured and taken away,†says Ok-Seon Yi.

It was 1942, and Japanese and Korean soldiers grabbed her and threw her in the back of a truck. Her family never knew what happened to her, she said, and gave her up for dead. She spent three years at a military brothel in China. She was 15.

She's 87 now and lives in a home for survivors like her outside of Seoul. She's tiny, with white hair, frail and quiet — until the subject turns to Japan.

She shakes her fist. “The Japanese government are thieves,†she says. “They're trying to rewrite history.

“They have no right to take away my honor and dignity,†she adds.

She says she's thankful for the memorials in the United States, and says America is the only country that can right the historic wrong.

But it's not clear what impact memorials and public opinion in the US can have on policy in Japan. The US House of Representatives has already called on Japan to apologize, in a 2007 resolution and again earlier this month, in an attachment to a spending bill. So far, it hasn't spurred any changes.

But that doesn't appear to be deterring Japanese, Korean Americans, and their supporters on both sides of the issue. Most recently, they've taken the dispute to the White House.

A “We the People†whitehouse.gov petition calling for Glendale to take down its monument has more than 126,000 signatures so far. A counter-petition to protect the statue is at 104,000 and counting

 

http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-29/california-statue-stirs-pride-south-korea-and-protest-japan

This is so depressing. Can you imagine if a German councilman request that an American holocaust memorial be removed?

Given, this is not the opinion of all Japanese people, but that some of their elected leaders feel this is appropriate, is deeply disturbing.

[DocumentaLy]

I don't get why this is like a constant news item here...

[iiiiiiiii010101101iiiiiii]

smh

[Meth Krystal]

I have so much to say about this but I won't.

[MintWasted]

I don't get why this is like a constant news item here...

It's a Korean/Japanese entertainment forum, so some people may be interested.

I only posted because I saw this on another forum and thought it was bizarre that a small memorial like this would bring foreign politicians to protest in a small town. Surprised that some Japanese politicians would feel so strongly about it.

[CALICO CAT]

"Matsuura's delegation claims the “comfort women†were prostitutes, and say they have US military documents that prove it."

 

ok nothing to hear here

just a bunch of hopeless ultra nationalists

[DocumentaLy]

It's a Korean/Japanese entertainment forum, so some people may be interested.

I only posted because I saw this on another forum and thought it was bizarre that a small memorial like this would bring foreign politicians to protest in a small town. Surprised that some Japanese politicians would feel so strongly about it.

 

The thing is though is that I don't really see anyone on the Japanese side caring about these things. It's pretty much just KPop fans taking the victim position if you ask me.

[iiiiiiiii010101101iiiiiii]

it happened in New Jersey too last year.

 

  Japanese Effort to Remove N.J. ‘Comfort Women’ Monument Angers Koreans

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/nyregion/monument-in-palisades-park-nj-irritates-japanese-officials.html?_r=0

[SEWER RAT]

Well, the Abe Administration is right wing after all.

[eescorpius]

WTF

[MintWasted]

The thing is though is that I don't really see anyone on the Japanese side caring about these things. It's pretty much just KPop fans taking the victim position if you ask me.

If I was Japanese I would care what my politicians were doing, especially overseas.

And people do, you have Japanese commenters who are against this petition. It makes Japan look bad.

If an American politician was a Holocaust denier, there would be similar outrage.

[popsugar]

“Every German kid knows about the Holocaust. But the Japanese government just tries to downplay what happened.â€

 

This. Past apologies don't mean much if the government repeatedly returns to doing this.

[MoshiMoshi]

The thing is though is that I don't really see anyone on the Japanese side caring about these things. It's pretty much just KPop fans taking the victim position if you ask me.

 

Um, what?

 

This has nothing to do with liking Jpop or Kpop

[DocumentaLy]

If I was Japanese I would care what my politicians were doing, especially overseas.

And people do, you have Japanese commenters who are against this petition. It makes Japan look bad.

If an American politician was a Holocaust denier, there would be similar outrage.

 

I was talking about the Japanese music listeners here. I only see KPop fans talking about this stuff. And when a Japanese music listener does come here and points out that apologies and compensation were given years ago, they're negged. 

 

And the current Japanese government was voted in on its promise to improve the economy. Everything is secondary pretty much.

 

Um, what?

 

This has nothing to do with liking Jpop or Kpop

 

I think it does. Would you care about this at all, or even know about it, if it wasn't for KPop? I feel as if Korea uses KPop and other forms of entertainment as a means to draw more people internationally into their issues and to side with them.

[Borafanboy]

I like Japanese culture,i don't know much about korean culture, but since i'm a k-pop fan i have sympathy for Korea. I'm from France, and we we're invaded third times by the germans. And still i don't have any hate for germans, because they are not responsible for what happened in the past. And trust me, a lot of worst thing happened. I hope these two countries will manage at some point to get over it, as i can do with germans or germany. War crimes were committed. But for how long animosity will last ? It's kind of sad i think. Japan has done very bad things but the current japanese people must have the right to be proud to be japanese without paying the price forever for what some of their ancestor or not did. WW2 is f*cking over since more than 73 years ....    

[Nyokou]

Politicians are so damn twisted...

[DocumentaLy]

I like Japanese culture,i don't know much about korean culture, but since i'm a k-pop fan i have sympathy for Korea. I'm from France, and we we're invaded third times by the germans. And still i don't have any hate for germans, because they are not responsible for what happened in the past. And trust me, a lot of worst thing happened. I hope these two countries will manage at some point to get over it, as i can do with germans or germany. War crimes were committed. But for how long animosity will last ? It's kind of sad i think. Japan has done very bad things but the current japanese people must have the right to be proud to be japanese without paying the price forever for what some of their ancestor or not did. WW2 is f*cking over since more than 73 years ....    

 

Exactly. And the bolded part is exactly what Korea's plan for KPop results in.

[ShawolSONEexo]

[MintWasted]

I was talking about the Japanese music listeners here. I only see KPop fans talking about this stuff. And when a Japanese music listener does come here and points out that apologies and compensation were given years ago, they're negged. 

 

And the current Japanese government was voted in on its promise to improve the economy. Everything is secondary pretty much.

 

 

I think it does. Would you care about this at all, or even know about it, if it wasn't for KPop? I feel as if Korea uses KPop and other forms of entertainment as a means to draw more people internationally into their issues and to side with them.

But even if there was an official Japanese apology (which there is not, but that is another discussion), why would the Tokyo councilwoman protest a memorial?

Anyway, nobody is blaming Japan or Japanese people or victimizing Korea or Korean people. I see it as a weird freak incident. That some big Japanese leaders would care about a tiny monument in a small town in Cali. Almost unprecedented. Also, of course that this is a K-pop forum, so some people are interested in Korean culture? What is wrong about that?

 

I also find it weird that you are so defensive about it?

 

Exactly. And the bolded part is exactly what Korea's plan for KPop results in.

^

Never mind, that answers that question...

[SoShin]

I like Japanese culture,i don't know much about korean culture, but since i'm a k-pop fan i have sympathy for Korea. I'm from France, and we we're invaded third times by the germans. And still i don't have any hate for germans, because they are not responsible for what happened in the past. And trust me, a lot of worst thing happened. I hope these two countries will manage at some point to get over it, as i can do with germans or germany. War crimes were committed. But for how long animosity will last ? It's kind of sad i think. Japan has done very bad things but the current japanese people must have the right to be proud to be japanese without paying the price forever for what some of their ancestor or not did. WW2 is f*cking over since more than 73 years ....    

 

Hors sujet. Les situations européenne et asiatique durant la Seconde guerre mondiale ne sont pas vraiment comparables et les évènements de l'après-guerre le sont encore moins. L'attitude du gouvernement allemand (faite de pardon, voire de contrition) a calmé les tensions assez rapidement (ajoutée à la construction de l'Union européenne qui a énormément contribué à pacifier les choses, face au défi économique post-1945). Au contraire, la grande majorité des gouvernements nippons successifs n'ont été que dans le déni (si ce n'est le dédain).

[MoshiMoshi]

I think it does. Would you care about this at all, or even know about it, if it wasn't for KPop? I feel as if Korea uses KPop and other forms of entertainment as a means to draw more people internationally into their issues and to side with them.

 

Or people are just siding with them because what happened to those women was wrong? I don't care about this because I like Kpop. The nationalities are secondary to the bigger issue at hand. A country did horrible things to a large group of women from many other countries (not just Korea) and is now trying to cover it up by going to other countries and demanding they take down monuments dedicated to the victims? Japan, Korea, US, Poland, Russia, Vietnam, Australia, Zimbabwe, I don't care what country it is, they have no right to do that.

[Borafanboy]

Hors sujet. Les situations européenne et asiatique durant la Seconde guerre mondiale ne sont pas vraiment comparables et les évènements de l'après-guerre le sont encore moins. L'attitude du gouvernement allemand (faite de pardon, voire de contrition) a pacifié les tensions assez rapidement (ajoutée à la construction de l'Union européenne qui a énormément contribué à pacifier les choses, face au défi économique post-1945). Au contraire, la grande majorité des gouvernements nippons successifs n'ont été que dans le déni (si ce n'est le dédain).

Hors sujet ? Je ne crois pas non, les européens de manière générales doivent sans cesse s'excuser, on est tous emprunt de la seconde guerre mondiale , au point d'accepter tout et n'importe quoi chez nous sous pretexte d'antiracisme, j'ai bien envie de voir le nombre de rom de nombre d'autre personnes acceptés en France, alors qu'en Corée, ou au Japon, tu n'entre que si tu as au minimum un bac +3 Oui tu as raison faut pas comparer. les japonais ont fait des excuses, mais dans mille ans ou plus encore les chinois ou les coréens en demanderont, c'est la vérité. Ils ne pardonneront jamais , c'est pas la culture chrétienne, c'est pour ça que les allemands ont fait plus d'effort ...

[Saint Rose]

 

 

I think it does. Would you care about this at all, or even know about it, if it wasn't for KPop? I feel as if Korea uses KPop and other forms of entertainment as a means to draw more people internationally into their issues and to side with them.

In school, i remember us covering Japanese atrocities during the world wars to China & Korea- so yes i already knew of this way before KPOP

Then and now- i still care and i still completely feel for these women who were dragged and repeatedly raped

And there;s been plenty of new sites etc.. that had already did an article of the subject before as well- unless you wanna tell me they're all 4 kpop 4 lyfe

 

This issue isn't a kpop/jpop thing

So don't make it into one

[SoShin]

Hors sujet ? Je ne crois pas non, les européens de manière générales doivent sans cesse s'excuser, on est tous emprunt de la seconde guerre mondiale , au point d'accepter tout et n'importe quoi chez nous sous pretexte d'antiracisme, j'ai bien envie de voir le nombre de rom de nombre d'autre personnes acceptés en France, alors qu'en Corée, ou au Japon, tu n'entre que si tu as au minimum un bac +3 Oui tu as raison faut pas comparer. les japonais ont fait des excuses, mais dans mille ans ou plus encore les chinois ou les coréens en demanderont, c'est la vérité. Ils ne pardonneront jamais , c'est pas la culture chrétienne, c'est pour ça que les allemands ont fait plus d'effort ...

 

Arrêtons là.

[DocumentaLy]

 

But even if there was an official Japanese apology (which there is not, but that is another discussion), why would the Tokyo councilwoman protest a memorial?

Anyway, nobody is blaming Japan or Japanese people or victimizing Korea or Korean people. I see it as a weird freak incident. That some big foreign leaders would care about a tiny monument in a small town.

I also find it weird that you are so defensive about it.

 

^

 

 

Because it's all connected. The Japanese are over the apologizing pretty much. It's like they've been pushed too many times and now there's a push back.

 

And I'm not defensive about it. I just find all these threads annoying. It's like 5 times a week there's some thread about poor, brave Korea v. big, bad Japan. A lot of people here have no idea that Japan has apologized in the past and that Japan has given money. And that the Koreans have rejected the apologies and/or money. It's just like the island thing where people here have no idea that Japan has been trying to end this thing through the UN for decades but Korea refuses the proposal. 

 

I just find the whole thing to be playing the victim role. It's like when KPop fans say that Koreans are blocked from Japanese tv when this isn't true at all.