Wording set for 'comfort women' memorial

The Record

A county plan to erect a memorial for women forced into sexual slavery in Japanese-occupied territories around World War II is moving forward.

Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan and Freeholder Chairman John Mitchell are expected today to sign the final proof for the Comfort Women Memorial, which is to be placed near the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack. It would sit aside memorials to the Holocaust, the Irish Potato Famine and the Armenian genocide.

The memorial, according to information provided by the county, will contain the following words:

"In memory of hundreds of thousands of women and girls from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Indonesia and other Japanese-occupied territories who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Armed Forces of Japan before and during World War II."

It would be the second such memorial in Bergen County for the women referred to as "comfort women" after the military comfort stations that were reportedly set up for Japanese soldiers at the time. Palisades Park dedicated a similar stone and plaque in 2010.

That stone has generated international attention in the past year. Several officials and a few lawmakers from South Korea have visited Palisades Park, some laying flowers near the stone. In the spring, Mayor James Rotundo and other town officials said members of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party met with them and asked that the stone and plaque be removed, arguing that they contained historical inaccuracies. Town officials said they had researched the issue of the comfort women prior to erecting the stone and refuse to remove it.

Late last month, a 4-foot-tall stake bearing a Japanese political message was found dug into the flower beds near the stone. The stake read, "Takeshima is Japanese territory," referring to an ongoing dispute between Korea and Japan over a group of islands claimed by both countries. A police investigation into the incident is ongoing, Rotundo said.

When Palisades Park was planning its memorial, Rotundo said he heard from people who didn't want it to be placed by the town library, and preferred it to go on Korean church property. But he said that after officials organized a public information session on the women's history, those comments ceased.

"Most of the comments, and they were a few, they thought it was only for the Korean women, but we explained that it was all the countries that Japan occupied at the time," Rotundo said.

Koreans represent slightly more than half the population of Palisades Park, according to the 2010 census. A majority of the comfort women were from Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines, according to historical accounts.

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