LINE

Text:AAAPrint
Society

New Jersey town unveils ‘comfort women’ memorial

1
2018-05-25 09:51:34China Daily Editor : Li Yan ECNS App Download
The New

The New "Comfort Women" Memorial in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Fort Lee, New Jersey now has a memorial to World War II's “comfort women”.

The Youth Council of Fort Lee, a student organization led by Korean-American high school students in the Bergen County borough, dedicated the memorial in Constitution Park on Wednesday.

“History with gaps creates a divide in society, and conflict is inevitable when people feel empty,” said Euwan Kim, a member of the council who designed the statue, according to northjersey.com. “Their (the “comfort women”) existence was denied and pushed out of history textbooks just so society could feel just a little bit happier for a little bit of time.”

During World War II, as many as 200,000 young women from around Asia, including China, Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines, were estimated to have been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army.

The Youth Council worked for several years to create the monument while facing opposition from other community members.

“It reminds everybody that sees it from afar and close up and reads the beautiful poem, it reminds them of those atrocities and the path and the plight that those women took,” Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich said. “It is respect of history so we never, ever forget what happened in the past so we don’t ever repeat it in the future.”

In 2010, the first memorial to “comfort women” in North Jersey and in the United States was placed in Palisades Park, which borders Fort Lee.

San Francisco unveiled a prominent “comfort women” memorial in the city’s Chinatown in 2017.

  

Related news

MorePhoto

Most popular in 24h

MoreTop news

MoreVideo

News
Politics
Business
Society
Culture
Military
Sci-tech
Entertainment
Sports
Odd
Features
Biz
Economy
Travel
Travel News
Travel Types
Events
Food
Hotel
Bar & Club
Architecture
Gallery
Photo
CNS Photo
Video
Video
Learning Chinese
Learn About China
Social Chinese
Business Chinese
Buzz Words
Bilingual
Resources
ECNS Wire
Special Coverage
Infographics
Voices
LINE
Back to top Links | About Us | Jobs | Contact Us | Privacy Policy
Copyright ©1999-2018 Chinanews.com. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.