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Korean American community campaigns to support Fullerton comfort woman statue
Glendale’s comfort woman statue (Yonhap)
More than 1,200 Korean Americans have signed a campaign supporting the installation of a statue at Fullerton Museum Center commemorating comfort women victimized by Japanese soldiers during World War II, the Korean American Forum of California said Wednesday.
Korean churches, language schools, businesses and banks around the region have set up signature booths to collect support for the statue, which would be the second of its kind in Southern California following the controversial memorial in Glendale.
“Since the beginning of this month, the response has been high from supportive Koreans in the Fullerton region,” said Yoon Seok-won, head of the organization.
The campaign began after Fulleton Museum Center received over 300 letters from Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans opposing the statue.
In February, a Japanese American organization unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit against the city of Glendale to take down the city’s statue depicting a young Korean comfort woman, one of many sex slaves taken by soldiers during the war from Korea, China the Philippines and other countries.
The ever-controversial issue has been accused by the Japanese of potentially souring U.S.-Japan relations and has called for a formal apology, as well as compensation, by the Korean community.
The organization said it is overseeing signature booths at several locations in Fullerton, including two Pacific City Banks, Jaseng Center for Alternative Medicine and a handful of small businesses in the area.
“We started the signature campaign to be of help in installing the statue, and now our patients are participating in it,” said Lee Woo-kyung, director of Jaseng Center. “There’s even people coming to the hospital just to sign the campaign. I hope the statue is installed in order to properly educate the public.”
The museum’s 20-member board of directors, two of them Korean, will decide on the statue’s installation in October.
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