The largely unknown but tragic history of Asian comfort women will soon be part of the Kupferberg Holocaust Center and Archives, officials announced Thursday.
The permanent exhibit at the Queensborough Community College site would give a voice to a generation of women who were ignored and shamed.
Leaders from the Asian-American community and the center said they want to make sure the stories of young Asian women forced to be sex slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army are not forgotten.
“For more than 75 years, the comfort women of Korea have lived in the shadows of history,” said Arthur Flug, executive director of the Kupferberg Holocaust Center.
Some Holocaust survivors and former comfort women have formed a bond in their joint effort to make sure their respective World War II horrors are not forgotten after they pass away.
“We have to remember, we have to educate the next generation,” said Sung K. Min, president of the Korean American Association of Greater New York.
The controversial comfort women issue has driven a wedge between the Korean and Japanese communities.
Historians say up to 200,000 girls and young women were kidnapped, raped and abused by soldiers during the war. But some Japanese lawmakers and citizens maintain the women were willing participants.
The women who lived through the ordeal often came home to families that rejected them.
Flug and Min said their groups will work together to raise funds for the exhibit, which could cost $50,000 to $80,000 to install and maintain.
It would include images and interactive elements, such as videotaped interviews with survivors and the college students who conducted them.
City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing), Flug and community leaders are hoping to name a street or monument to honor the comfort women but have been unable to find a location.
“Monuments are important, they focus people’s attention” said Flug. “This exhibit becomes part of the curriculum and college experience.”
