The text of a monument to 'comfort women' -- women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The monument pays tribute to ' comfort women ' β 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. 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.
Korean-American veterans stand in front of the comfort women memorial after its dedication on Friday, March 8, That campaign was briefly acknowledged at Friday's ceremony. 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.
