NJ州バーゲン郡で
新しい慰安婦の碑がお披露目されたニュースの後半。エントリーが長くなり過ぎるので、二つに分けた。以下の現地紙の報道は、
コメント欄で教えて頂いた。匿名を名乗っておられますが、以前にも情報を寄せて頂いていると思います。差し支えなければ次回からは固定ハンドルでコメント頂ければと思います。
KACEのキム・トンチャン
記事の中で
KACEのキム・トンチャンが語っているように、なぜこの人たちは碑の建立に熱心なのか。「By having the memorial at this location, the Bergen County government is officially recognizing the Comfort Women issue as the same kind of international human rights violation as the other four human rights abuses （ここに
記念碑があることによって、バーゲン郡の
行政府が慰安婦問題が他の四つの人権侵害と同じ種類の国際的な人権侵害である事を
公式に見なしたことになる）」。
他の四つとは、アメリカの黒人奴隷制度・アイルランドの
ジャガイモ飢饉・ナチのホロコースト・トルコによる
アルメニア人虐殺であるが、「日本軍慰安婦問題＝ホロコースト」というお墨付きを一つでも多く集めたいというのが彼らの本音なのだろう。
このニュースを受けて、韓国の名門女子大学の学生もこのようなリツイートを発していた（大元はSBSのキャスターのコメントらしい）。
RT SBS８時のニュース、クロージングコメント。米国の地方政府が慰安婦記念碑をナチのユダヤ人虐殺追悼碑、米国の黒人奴隷追悼碑と並んでたてました。 従軍慰安婦がどれくらい恐ろしい犯罪であったか、日本の極右派はいつ頃分かるのでしょうか？
RT SBS8시뉴스클로징 멘트 미국 지방정부가 위안부 기림비를 나치의 유대인 학살 추모비, 미국의 흑인 노예 추모비와 나란히 세웠습니다. 종군위안부가 얼마나 무서운 범죄였는지, 일본 극우파는 언제쯤이나 깨달을 수 있을까요?
それに対してお花畑な日本人が共感を示すのも、いつもの光景。
私は日本人女性です。 同じ日本人女性が事件に対して無関心なのも理解できません。 私は日本政府がなぜ事実を認めて謝らないか怒りを感じています。
나는 일본인 여성입니다. 같은 여성 일본인이 사건에 대해 무관심한 것도 이해할 수 없습니다. 나는 일본 정부가 왜 사실을 인정하고 사과하지 않는가 분노를 느끼고 있습니다.
パリセイズパーク市の隣の
フォートリーでも、韓国系が働き掛けて慰安婦の碑を作ることが決定している。碑文の内容も議会と市長の了承を得たとのこと。
Bergen County Dedicates Memorial to Comfort Women
Inclement weather moves ceremony inside, but did not deter many from coming out for the dedication.
Despite the fact that the weather moved the dedication of the Comfort Women Memorial indoors, it did not prevent people from coming out to the ceremony.
The memorial, sponsored by the Comfort Women Memorial Committee, takes its place in front of the Bergen County Justice Center (Courthouse) beside monuments commemorating the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, the Irish Great Hunger and African American Slavery.
County Executive Kathleen Donovan, calling this memorial "a long time coming," said it was dedicated to comfort women not only from Korea, but from all of the countries so affected.
Comfort women were women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces. According to the Comfort Women Memorial Committee, the monument honors approximately 200,000 enslaved women.
Donovan, speaking of her trip to South Korea last fall where she visited former comfort women at the Sharing House, said, "I cannot imagine the agony and the suffering that those women went through in the years of World War Two, but the dignity and grace of them now would astonish all of us."
When Donovan asked their permission to tell their story in a monument, they all said yes. They wanted the world to know their story.
"In some small way we are able to do that today with the unveiling and dedication of the Comfort Women Memorial," Donovan said.
Also speaking at the ceremony was Congressman Bill Pascrell. He, too, had the opportunity to meet with former comfort women when they visited Washington, D.C. He told the audience that the stories the women told of their ordeal "strengthen our commitment to the preservation of human rights."
Dongchan Kim, President of Korean American Civic Empowerment, which organized the campaign for the Comfort Women Memorial in Palisades Park, said, "By having the memorial at this location, the Bergen County government is officially recognizing the Comfort Women issue as the same kind of international human rights violation as the other four human rights abuses remembered by Bergen County in front of the Bergen County Courthouse."
Bergen County is home to the largest population of Korean-Americans. In 2012, election ballots were printed in Korean.
Other officials present at Friday's dedication were Sheriff Michael Saudino, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, Freeholder Chairman David Ganz, Freeholder Vice Chairwoman Joan Voss, and Freeholders John Felice, John Mitchell, Steve Tanelli, Maura DiNicola and Tracy Silna Zur.
Councilwoman Gloria Oh from Englewood Cliffs was also present.
Fort Lee is also working with its Korean-American community to dedicate a memorial to Comfort Women. The language of the memorial was approved at Thursday's Executive Session of the Mayor and Council, but a dedication date has not yet been determined.
この碑を巡っては、日本から多くの苦情の手紙が寄せられたはずだが、こういった反対運動は、少なくとも式典当日ほとんど話題にならなかったそうである。群の関係者は、たくさんの手紙が寄せられた事を認めつつ 「I say to you, simply, that when you ignore history you are condemned to repeat it, and this something that can never be repeated （
貴方たちに単刀直入に言っておくと、歴史を無視すれば、同じ事を繰り返す宿命にあるということで、これは決して繰り返されてはいけないことなのだ）」、だ・か・ら・米軍も・・・（以下略）。
現地紙も、記事やYoutubeのコメント欄が議論で沸騰している事は承知している。しかし記者が集めることが出来たコメントは支持派の物だけ。
KACEの弁護士は、抗議しているのは声の大きい日本の極右だけで、彼らは日本国民の声を代表しているわけでもないと説明している。
Bergen County marks International Women's Day with Korean 'comfort women' memorial
HACKENSACK — Officials unveiled a new monument to the victims of WWII-era sexual slavery on Friday — a gesture that's drawn praise from New Jersey's Korean community and the ire of a vocal group of Japanese citizens who dispute its historical accuracy.
The monument pays tribute to 'comfort women' — women, coming from many countries but many of them Korean, who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.
Its dedication coincided with International Women's Day, and was a major event for many in Bergen County's burgeoning Korean-American community, which now represents some 20 percent of the population. It was well-covered by local and international Asian media outlets.
"I'm very proud of Bergen County and its residents for their hard work and passion towards human rights," said Dongchan Kim, a member of the Comfort Women Memorial Committee, which raised funds to build the memorial.
Freeholder John Mitchell, who worked with local Korean groups to get approval for the monument, called it "a milestone in fighting against the ever-increasing activity of sex-trafficking, and another important bridge that solidifies the relationship between the American and Korean peoples."
The effort to erect the memorial, a humble plaque affixed to a stone on the courthouse lawn, has not come without controversy, though. The issue of comfort women has been a point of contention between the Korean and Japanese governments in the past, and boiled over into local efforts to memorialize them.
Opponents of the monument have been inundating media outlets and local officials with letters and e-mails in recent weeks, disputing the veracity of the story of comfort women, claiming that they were actually prostitutes who willingly exchanged money for sex during the war.
That campaign was briefly acknowledged at Friday's ceremony.
"We certainly received correspondence from a number of people on the topic," David Ganz, the chairman of the Bergen County freeholder board, said Friday. "I say to you, simply, that when you ignore history you are condemned to repeat it, and this something that can never be repeated."
This is not the first time the issue has bubbled up in Bergen County: Last year, two separate delegations of Japanese officials visited Palisades Park, a Korean American enclave in the county, to ask officials to remove a similar memorial erected outside the borough's library. They declined, and later that year, the monument was defaced with white wooden stakes — an act local Korean groups say was carried out by the Japanese right-wing extremist group Suzuki Nobuyuki.
In November, a Japanese group took out a full-page ad in The Star-Ledger responding to coverage of the county's plans to erect the comfort women memorial, calling the story of comfort women a farce. To this day, the debate rages in the comment sections of news stories about the memorials, and on YouTube videos created by activists disputing the historical record.
But a 2007 resolution co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell and passed by Congress formally recognized the sexual enslavement of women during World War II and called on the Japanese government to apologize. Bergen County's monument now sits alongside similar memorials recognizing the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, American slavery and the Irish Great Hunger.
"Every country needs to change something," Pascrell said Friday. "Only God is perfect. So that's what we need and that's what we're here for."
Chejin Park, a staff attorney for the group Korean American Civic Empowerment, told NJ.com earlier this year that recognizing the sexual enslavement of women during the war is hardly controversial, and that the opposition comes from a vocal minority of far-right Japanese conservatives.
"They have a loud voice, but they are not representing the Japanese citizens," he said. "Only they are saying it's controversial. It's not. It's a simple historical fact."
Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, who traveled to South Korea late last year, told NJ.com after the trip that she'd visited a home for surviving comfort women, many of them in their 70s and 80s.
"They had been through such unspeakable — I mean, some of them were raped 30 or 40 times a day, day after day for months," she said. "But they were wonderful people, warm and happy. And they want their story told."
