A dark, decades-old period in Asian history continues to spark controversy as Queens lawmakers search for ways to honor the comfort women of World War II.
Efforts by state Sen. Tony Avella to remember the largely unknown victims of war with a resolution in the state legislature stalled last week. And City Councilman Peter Koo is still looking for an available location to rename a street and create a monument to comfort women.
“There is a dispute about the wording,” Avella said. “This is an extremely important issue. We will get this done.”
The benign-sounding term, comfort women, belies a violent and heartbreaking legacy. According to historians, up to 200,000 girls and young women were kidnapped or lured from Korea, China and other occupied lands to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese Army during World War II.
While Japanese officials have issued apologies over the years, those words have fallen short of the recognition victims are seeking.
And some Japanese lawmakers and citizens have denied the victims’ stories, saying the women were willing prostitutes who were paid for their services.
Avella and his colleagues have been bombarded with literature and emails from a conservative faction in Japan who claim the women are lying about their past abuse.
Only a small number of comfort women are still alive and willing to tell their stories. But scholars say they are racing against time to archive this painful piece of history. Most of the survivors are in their 90s.
A group of student interns from Queensborough Community College’s Kupferberg Holocaust Center recently interviewed several survivors living in Korea via video teleconferencing. They recounted that experience during a special event at the college on Thursday.
Student Ashley Gee, 23, spoke with Il Chul Kang, who said she was kidnapped from her home in Korea during the war and repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers.
“She wanted some water and didn’t ask the soldier,” said Gee. “He cracked the back of her head open. I cannot imagine not having the power to control myself and what I wanted to do.”
Kang eventually rebuilt her life. She married, had children and went on to become a nurse. Years later, she was rejected by her family when they learned about her past abuse.
Jiaolong Xie said talking to Ok Sun Park about the brutality she suffered was eye-opening.
“She was 14 years old and placed in a dark room with no windows and 20 other girls,” he said. “I knew nothing about this. It made me sad.”
Arthur Flug, executive director of the center, said the emotional reactions of the students was proof of the program’s success.
“We look at this as a hate crime also,” said Flug. “We want the world to know about this.”
Avella said current rules prevent the legislature from delving into murky international waters when issuing resolutions.
But he was confident he could find a way to reword the resolution and get the support of his colleagues.
Koo, who attended Thursday’s Kupferberg event along with Avella, Assemblyman Ron Kim and Assemblyman Ed Braunstein, said he is in negotiations with the Parks Department to find an appropriate memorial site in the borough.
“I hope all of us can learn from this somehow,” he said of the painful history.
Kim recounted a trip to South Korea where he spoke with comfort women at a community center in Seoul.
“We didn’t see a comfort woman,” he said. “We saw a grandmother.”
Kim urged the crowd to honor the comfort women by working to help women currently suffering at the hands of sex traffickers.
The center had previously hosted an event to join together aging comfort women with Holocaust survivors.
“These women are asking us to remember them just like our Holocaust survivors,” Flug said.
