Hirofumi Yoshimura, mayor of Osaka in Japan, recently discouraged through his correspondence with the San Francisco administration, an attempt to build a comfort women statue in memory of the anguish and travails that those women had undergone during World War II.
"I'm really worryed about this issue which may bring unnecessary troubles to the exchange between the two cities," Yoshimura wrote in his letter.
Last month, the San Francisco administration approved the building of the commemorative statuefor the victimized women of WW II.
In his letter, Yoshimura pointed out the agreement reached between Japan and South Korea at the end of 2015, which has made it clear that the two parties will abandon criticismsof each other.The gesture has been applauded by the U.S. government.
In his reply, San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee wrote that the statue of comfort women did not intend to trouble the relations between the two cities.
With regard to this issue, Toru Hashimoto, the predecessor of Yoshimura, corresponded three times with Lee and the San Francisco City Council during his tenure in 2015.
