Judge Lillian Sing’s key-note presentation at the International Joint Nomination Committee for UNESCO on Nov 9, 2018
I am deeply honored to attend this important international conference and humbled to be among so many knowledgeable people gathered in one room. I feel very privileged to share a panel with notable civil rights leaders Dr. Tina Dolgopol and Dr. Heisoo Shin.
First, I need to tell you that the grass roots communities in the United States were very disappointed that IAC did not register the “Comfort Women” related documents as the UNESCO Memory of the World. We could not believe the stated reason was based on the Executive Board’s concern (202 EX/15) to avoid political tension. What is not political? UNESCO has often been the center of controversies in the past. Since when did avoiding inconvenient “tension” become the mission of this organization? If that happens, does it not override the ethical vision, principles, and mandates that were foundational to the creation of that body? Practically everything regarding global issues involves some level of political tension.
Yes. The “Comfort Women” issue is political. It is foolish to pretend otherwise. UNESCO’s requirement that nominators engage in a dialogue is noble but futile and irrelevant, in my view, in the case of “Comfort Women”. If UNESCO requires an agreement with Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government for the registry, an administration that has systematically opposed the truth of the “Comfort Women”, then UNESCO has poisoned the well of knowledge for all future generations
It’s my passionate hope that the experts at this symposium can come up with an antidote for this poison.
In terms of my presentation, I would like to share with you how our organization, “Comfort Women” Justice Coalition, CWJC, brings the local and global communities together by combining a diverse grassroots activism with civic policy and education, with a focus on humanity and an international, geopolitical outlook and vision for peace. It is a case of successful advocacy by grass-roots organizations against the superpower Japan and how we are beating them at their well-financed plan to deny and rewrite history.
First, I want to give you a little background about how most Americans perceive events of WWII. The US is notoriously Eurocentric in its depiction of and education about WWII. For many Americans, the war in the Asia-Pacific Region is extremely vague at best and non-existent at worst. Many Americans have heard about the Nazi atrocities but very few have heard about what the Imperial Japanese military did in Asia Pacific. The textbooks in the US schools reflect this myopia. In California, the textbook “Modern World History” devotes three pages to the Pacific War as opposed to three chapters to the war in Europe.
So, one of our most difficult jobs is to educate the public about WWII in Asia Pacific. And that is one of the reasons we wanted to build a “Comfort Women” Memorial to educate the public about who the “Comfort Women” were and how Japan cruelly and systematically enslaved them; and why it is important to have Japan acknowledge her war crimes and apologize to the victims. This is precisely the reason the ultranationalists in Japan are against “Comfort Women” Memorials. Those fanatics are afraid of the historical truth and moral lessons of our Memorial.
1st Slide: “Comfort Women” Memorial
Our “Comfort Women” Memorial is the first statue to commemorate the experience of the “Comfort Women” in a major city in the United States. “It depicts three young women facing outward: Chinese, Filipina and Korean. They stand united, their hands clutching each other, sad but strong, looking at the world. They represent those who didn’t survive and those who lived to tell the truth. Below them, a life size replica of Hak Soon Kim, looks up at them. She sees her past, her present and her future”.
Thousands of people have already seen this Memorial and millions more will see it. Many people have been deeply moved by the power of its physical testimony. Prime Minister Abe and Osaka Mayor Yoshimura are really afraid of that simple but powerful message of humanity.
Our movement comes at a time when the #Me Too Movement is erupting and a wave of women’s movements is rising to declare that the subservient norm is no longer tolerable. We build on but prefigure the tide of the #Me Too Movement. We connect the “Comfort Women” system to the oppression occurring at the present time in the wars in Syria, and the Congo and to the women captives of the Boko Hiram in Nigeria and to the Yazidi in Iraq and the Rohingya in Myanmar. We advocate the need to analyze and remember the past in order to understand and change the present and the future.
The Memorial in San Francisco does not speak of the “Comfort Women” alone. It speaks of “Comfort Women” history as part of that inexorable continuum of women speaking out, of truth to power. It makes the connection between the state-sponsored sexual enslavement then and the issue of globalized sex trafficking now. It is the story of the brutal commodification of women, and the history of resistance. It forces people to examine history generally in terms of the use of sexual violence, of the historical economic exploitation of women, and specifically the weaponization of rape during military conflicts.
Our movement is dedicated to pursuing justice for the “Comfort Women” but also dedicated to eradicating sexual violence and sex trafficking throughout the world. Our inscription says exactly that.
