Fort Lee's comfort women memorial brings with it controversy

Memorials dedicated to comfort women, the hundreds of thousands of women and girls who were forced to sexually serve the Japanese army during World War II, tend to hoist controversy upon whichever town decides to construct them and it appears Fort Lee is no different.

The borough's plans to erect a monument of a Korean comfort girl drenched in the rays of the Japanese Imperial flag at Freedom Park prompted backlash from several local Korean groups last week, forcing officials to regroup and rethink the memorial's design.

The Hackensack-based Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE) organization, representing the interests of the Comfort Women Memorial Committee and the Korean American Association of Greater New York, is asking that Fort Lee remove the Japanese Imperial flag from the memorial and change some of the wording on the inscription to honor the women in an "appropriate and unambigious" manner.

Currently, the inscription reads, "In remembrance of over 200,000 women from every country in East Asia, who were forced into sexual service by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, with terrible consequences to themselves and to their children."

Rather than use the words "sexual service," for instance, the group would like to use "sexual slavery." Instead of referring to "every country in East Asia," KACE wants to refer to "every country in Southeast Asia."

Most importantly, it wishes to downplay any longstanding animosity between Korea and Japan.

"This is not a political thing. This is for the education [of] the next generation and for the residents here," Nuri Han, KACE's program director, told the mayor and council on April 4.

Her appeal to the local government, which approved the memorial's design last month, was the latest attempt by KACE to weigh in on the issue.

In late March, the civic group launched an online petition to urge the borough to make the necessary adjustments, sending out letters to the mayor and council demanding the same.

The letter, written by KACE's President Dongchan Kim, states that officials "will face a strong opposition from the Korean American community" at the polls should they not agree to the changes.

Mayor Mark Sokolich said the threat "shocked my conscience," but that he was willing to overlook it if the group sits down with local Korean American representatives and comes to a consensus.

"You have my support as long as you have the involvement of the local Fort Lee Korean American organizations," he told Han on April 4.

The Korean American Association of Fort Lee declined to comment.

For the initiators of the memorial, the Fort Lee Veterans of Foreign Affairs (VFW) and the Korean American Vietnam War Veterans group, the controversy has put a damper on what they feel will be a positive addition to the borough.