Unveiling Of Bronze Statues In Seoul Representing ‘Comfort Women’ During WWII Is Merely Coincidental With Arrival Of Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Say Creators
In a small park in Seoul, two bronze statues were unveiled on Wednesday to commemorate the tens of thousands of Asian comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War.
The New York Times noted on Wednesday that the statues showed a South Korean girl staring ahead with an "accusatory expression," while a Chinese girl sits beside her in another chair with a clenched fist on her lap.
The reveal of the statues took place days before the arrival of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Seoul, whom South Korea and China believed was covering up Japan's wrongdoing, but the statues' makers claimed that the timing was a coincidence.
Abe and South Korean President Park Geun Hye are set to meet on Monday for a bilateral summit, after the three-way meeting on Sunday with China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
According to Japan Times on Thursday, China has called for South Korea to join them in taking a stand on addressing the issue regarding Japan's transgression in the 20th century.
Many South Koreans have rallied outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in the early 90s as protest for the comfort women and demanded apology and compensation from Japan for the victims who are now in their late years.
Japan remains firm that compensation matters with South Korea have all been settled during the 1965 treaty, which put the two countries' relations to a normal and civil state.
"Koreans and Chinese resisted together like brothers against Japanese aggressions," said Chinese-American filmmaker from San Francisco Leo Shi Young at a dedication ceremony on Wednesday.
According to the organizers of the ceremony, they are planning to build replicas of the statues in Shanghai and San Francisco and are looking at drawing other sculptors from Asian countries whose women have also been put to sexual slavery during the Second World War by the Japanese, such as the Philippines.
An third chair is currently left empty beside the two girl statues where organizers are hoping a third statue will sit.