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Strathfield community divided over proposed tribute to comfort women
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Jan Ruff O'Herne (pictured with her daughters in England) was taken as prisoner of war as a girl, and forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during WWII. Picture from the film 50 Years of Silence
Source:
News Corp Australia
CONTROVERSY over a plan to build a statue honouring women forced into sex slavery during WWII boiled over at Strathfield Council last night.
More than 120 people poured into the meeting in response to a proposal to put up the statue in Strathfield honouring the 200,000 ‘comfort women’ — women and girls forced into sexual servitude during war by the Japanese.
The issue has divided Sydney’s Asian communities and yesterday, was criticised as misguided by the Japanese embassy in Australia.
A petition opposing the statue started by Japanese Women for Justice and Peace has already attracted over 10,000 signatures.
Scenes from Strathfield Council’s meeting last night.
Source:
Supplied
Now there are questions over whether the statue plan is simply causing further divisions.
More than 25 per cent of Strathfield’s population have Chinese or Korean ancestry and members of both communities have pushed hard for the statue in Strathfield.
Many comfort women were taken from Japanese occupied areas in Korea and China during WWII as well as other South-East Asian nations including Indonesia and Vietnam.
Last night, councillors allowed speakers from both sides to take the floor including Carol Ruff, the daughter of Jan Ruff O’Herne, a former comfort woman born in Java who in the early nineties spoke out about her experiences.
Friends of Comfort Women Australia supporter Jan Ruff O'Herne, 84, (right) with her sister Celeste.
Source:
Supplied
Carol Ruff - pictured at an exhibition last year- spoke passionately about her mother Jan Ruff O'Herne’s life as a comfort girl at Strathfield Council last night.
Source:
Supplied
“We still feel very strongly. I think what she (Ms Ruff O’Herne) would like to see — apart from a statue in Strathfield — is some recognition from the Japanese government and an apology. That would mean so much, just like when Kevin Rudd said sorry.”
Others argued that raking up events from 70 years ago was not conducive to harmony while some questioned the validity of a statue which would have minimal connection to Australia.
Kohki Iwasaki, who identified himself as Japanese-Australian, said approving the statue would be “synonymous with apartheid” pointing at incidents of racism when a similar statue was erected in America to suggest it would be culturally divisive.
“On it (the statue) is carved a statement that turns all the existence of the Japanese race into a crime against humanity, without realising that it is this very statue that is encouraging yet another crime against humanity,” he told the meeting.
Jan Ruff O’Herne (right) in Tokyo, 1993 with other ‘comfort women’ from North and South Korea, China and the. Philippines
Source:
Supplied
Mr Iwasaki went on to say that the statue contravened UN directives on human rights and would open old wounds.
Why single-out a 70-year-old story of hatred, when we can use that effort to prevent something happening now,” he asked.
“I believe the statue is only going to breed more hatred. If we sow seeds of hatred, what will grow?”
After leaving the makeshift chamber to discuss the issue in closed session, the council decided to refer the issue to both the state and federal government and consult its community following the responses.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Picture: AFP
Source:
AFP
Deputy mayor of Strathfield Sang Ok.
Source:
Supplied
The plan for the statue arose from the outrage caused in Japan last month, when more conservative elements of the Japanese government said a 1993 apology to the women, mainly of Korean and Chinese heritage, should be watered down.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused further anger by suggesting many of the women were willing participants, although he later distanced himself from the issue.
Strathfield Council’s deputy mayor Sang Ok this week condemned the Japanese prime minister’s comments and has come out in support of the proposed statue, which would be a version of the one in the US by Chinese artist Pin Hsun Hsiang.
While no official proposal was on the council agenda last night, 120 people turned up in response to the increasing controversy building around the statue. The crowd was so big, it forced the council from its normal chambers and into a bigger hall.
| Comfort Women |
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Comfort women were women and girls taken from countries occupied by Japan during World War II, including Korea, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma and the Philippines.
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Although the bulk of the women involved were from South-East Asia, some were from Australia and The Netherlands.
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Some claim as few as 20,000 women were involved while others say up to 410,000. Somewhere around 200,000 is the widely accepted figure.
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It is estimated that up to three quarters of comfort women died, with most others left infertile due to sexual trauma.
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It is claimed that the women were often abducted from their homes and promised work in factories or restaurants, before being sent to the ‘comfort stations’.
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Documents from the Japanese Imperial Army suggest that the stations, attached to the military, were set up to prevent the rape of local women by army personnel in order to dispel rising hostility among people in invaded area.
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Despite accepting that the women were coerced in 1993, the Japanese government reneged on their decision in 2007, claiming there was no evidence that the women were seized by force.
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I do not think it is a good idea to erect monument of so-called comfort women in Australia after 69 years of the WW2. Because the comfort womenissue is still very controversial. In addition, those who run international campaign to build the statue are Korean and Chinese people. There are many things behind such a campaign.
In South Korea, the government has often developed anti-Japanese movement in order to distract public attention from its domestic issues. This trend is applied to China and North Korea as well. Do you know that they do not teach real history in China and Korean Peninsula?
For example, in South Korea, they teach children that they fought against Japan at the World War Second and Korea belongs to the victory counties. This is nothing except for a fantasy. At that time Korea was a part of Japan. There were many Korean military officers in the Imperial Japanese Army. Korean people took part in the second World War as Japanese. And there are also some people who blame Korean War on Japan....
During the WW2, public prostitution system was legal all over the world. Some women engaged in prostitution by choice and they made a big money. On the other hand, some women were driven by povertyinto prostitution and some were deceived and taken into the brothels. Everybody will feel a keen sense of sympathy to them. There are many human right issues, present and past, in the world. It is not fair to single out and blame only Japan.
As said before, it is clear that Chinese and Korean people have been using this 'statue' matter for anti-Japan propaganda on the pretext of “human rights”. This could cause another hate crime and children bullying in Australia. Actually, Japanese kids were reportedly bullied in the city of Glendale, California, USA where the statue was installed last year.
Mature country should try to keep her out of such a trouble.
@patricia @momoka Momoka san, Patricia san, thanks for standing up for Japan. As we can see in Glendale, this statue does not connect the two countries but only separate us ever than before. In Glendale, I heard about the Japanese American children are reportedly bullied, and people with Japanese ancestry feel hesitation to go to the city's central park.
There are several problems, 1.China and Korea's on-going Anti-Japan propaganda. 2. People's tendency of believing these propaganda WITHOUT SOLID EVIDENCE..It looks like many of Australians and American BLINDLY believe in China and Korea.
This same statue was installed right in front of Japanese embassy in Seoul, Korea. I do not think it is mature behavior...
The War is over, how can we have peace if people want to be reminded of such things? Every country involved in WW2 had similar problems, so will we have statues about Germany, Italy, Russia, and let's not forget the Allies! This did not happen in Australia, let them put statues up in Korea, China and Asian countries, if they wish. I have a friend from Japan, who is carrying the "guilt" of her people. Why should their children suffer for what happened 70 years ago.
So why Koreans haven't apologise to Vietnamese women who were raped and used as comfort women during Vietnamese war? If Vietnamese would suggest same things, will this community approve to erect the monument? I don't think so.
It is absurd to suggest raising a monument here in Sydney for crimes committed by another nation against people
from other nations.
I have no problem with a monument to these women but put in where it belongs & not here in Sydney just because
the local asian community want it. I'm afraid that this is another example of people coming to Australia & wanting to
change our communities to suit themselves. It's bad enough not being able to read have the shop signage in places like Strathfield & Hurstville because of the refusal from asian shop keepers to comply with Australian laws
so why should we allow them to erect monuments that have nothing to do with Australia.
Sorry to be the one to say it but these things need to be kept in perspective.
If it is built I'm sure there would be some people just as happy to remove it for the scrape bronze value seeing that it is not an Australian monument. Probably would not even be subject to laws protecting war monuments.
"Raking up events from 70 years ago" (building a memorial) isn't going to "sow seeds of hatred" or be “synonymous with apartheid”. It's just acknowledging history and facts, which some people are denying ever happened.
This statue must be erected to remind us that the sins of history must not be repeated. Of course many people would like to sweep this type of event under the carpet. to date the Japanese Government continues to deny its horrific wartime past.So they would much prefer us to just forget about the past but too many people have suffered, including these comfort women, to allow that to happen. Erect the statue and the bigger the better.
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