By Jane Han
NEW YORK ― Controversy over Korean wartime sex slaves, also known as comfort women, has now moved across the Pacific to New York. Quickly emerging as a political hot potato, the touchy issue is setting up a fresh standoff far away from home.
The decades-long dispute drew renewed and immediate attention when New York City councilman Peter Koo stated last week that he is considering a memorial for comfort women in his district of Flushing, Queens.
Koo’s proposal came in response to a request from the Korean-American community for some kind of memorial to Asian comfort women, who were forced to serve in brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II.
``This is not anti-Japanese. A lot of people suffered. We wanted to do something to commemorate these comfort women,’’ Koo, a Hong Kong immigrant, told local media.
He and other community leaders are talking about dedicating a street and installing a plaque or memorial to honor the women who suffered.
But as soon as the word got out, Koo and other New York City Council lawmakers have been inundated with complaints, email and letters from angry Japanese, who claim that Koo is only trying to appeal to Korean New Yorkers in his re-election bid.
``The term comfort women refers simply to prostitutes in wartime. But Koreans have been promoting a false version of history that Japan abducted hundreds of thousands of Korean women,’’ read one of the letters, according to the Daily News, a local paper.
Despite the resistance, Koo remains firm with this plan.
His chief of staff, James McClelland, said the councilman will continue to seek a ``fitting and respectful way to remember these women.’’
More clashes over the comfort women issue are expected as there has been a similar incident stirring in neighboring New Jersey, where a monument honoring the women was erected in 2010.
Four elected legislators from Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party traveled to Palisades Park, N.J., earlier this month, demanding the monument be removed.
``Their purpose was to have us pretty much remove it,’’ said Palisades Park Mayor James Rotundo, who also indicated that Japanese officials offered to fund local youth programs, donate books on Japanese culture, and plant cherry blossom trees in the town if the monument were removed.
Rotundo stated that the monument will remain in place.
Meanwhile, the Korean-American Association of Greater New York (KAAGNY) released a statement criticizing Japan’s demands and announced plans to build additional memorials.
``The memorial in Palisades Park was erected as a symbol and promise that such history will never be repeated again. Japan is denying a historical fact by demanding the monument be removed,’’ said KAAGNY. ``We are going to press forward to build more memorials in New York, Connecticut and Long Island to send across a message of peace.’’