First 'comfort women' run marks suffering by sexual slavery victims

Some didn’t know the details of the women’s tragic history, but they put on their running shoes in their honor.

Others had read about the stories of kidnapping and rape, and were inspired to participate to remember their struggles.

They were among approximately 100 runners who participated Monday in the first-ever “Comfort Women Memorial Peace Marathon” in Bergen County, a five-mile run to bring awareness to the plight of women who were forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Army from 1932 to 1945.

“We make sure everybody hears these stories including the people that say this never happened, and we retell these stories until everyone on Earth knows their stories so that this will never repeat for anybody on this planet,” said Esther Paik Goodhart of Demarest, one of the speakers at the closing ceremony. “To the [women] I say I was not there for you when you suffered, what I’m saying is we are all here for you now.”

The event also was aimed to urge the Japanese government to acknowledge that part of history, and to formally apologize to the former “comfort women.” The Japanese government has maintained that it has apologized with the Kono statement in 1993. But some of the surviving women don’t consider it a formal apology because it was issued by a cabinet secretary, and not Parliament. More recently some right-wing Japanese politicians and their supporters have said that there is no proof that the women were forced into sexual slavery, and instead argue that they were paid prostitutes.

“Today’s peace marathon will continue until Japan admits its war crimes against women,” said Young H. Paik, who donated a bonsai tree that he shaped to resemble the face and hair of a woman. The tree was planted next to the Palisades Park Comfort Women Memorial by the town’s library and Paik, who owns a flower shop, said he hopes to plant one for each woman who suffered.

The run kicked off at 10:30 a.m. in Hackensack in front of the Bergen County Courthouse, the site of a stone dedicated by the county to the women earlier this year. The first runners crossed the finish line less than an hour later in front of the Palisades Park library.

James Park, 60, of Wayne was the first to finish at 11:20 a.m. Sitting on the curb in front of the library and catching his breath, Park said he had read about the event in a Korean newspaper and wanted to be part of it, even though he had never run a race before.

“That is why I’m here,” Park said through a translator. “It’s important to speak about this.”

There were about 200,000 comfort women who hailed from Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam and other Japanese-occupied territories who were forced to work in comfort stations set up by the Japanese military before and during World War II.