JAPAN KEEPS ON TRYING BUT SAN FRANCISCO STANDS WITH THE “COMFORT WOMEN” MEMORIAL
Over the past several months, Japan’s Consul General Uyama has been doing overtime lobbying SF Supervisors to take down the SF “Comfort Women” Memorial. In February 2019, he was busy visiting the new SF Supervisors to complain about the language of the Memorial plaque that states “hundreds of thousands” of women were coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during WWII. He denies the accuracy of those figures and other facts inscribed on the plaque.
SF Supervisor Shamann Walton of district 10 is one of the new supervisors Consul General Uyama visited. Supervisor Walton told Mr. Uyama that he stands by the “Comfort Women” memorial. He reminded Mr. Uyama that as President of the San Francisco Unified School District Board, he and the Board resolved in 2015 that the “comfort women” curriculum would be taught in SF public schools, making SF the first School District in California to adopt the “comfort women” curriculum.
PETITION UNESCO TO INCLUDE THE “COMFORT WOMEN” IN THE MEMORY OF THE WORLD.
On November 20, 2018 CWJC co-chair, Judge Lillian Sing, ret, and KAFC ED, Phyllis Kim, presented papers in Tokyo at the International Symposium sponsored by the International Committee for Joint Nomination of Documents on the Japanese military on the inclusion of the CW dossier into UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
Click HERE to see Lillian Sing’s speech at Tokyo symposium.
Click HERE to watch a short video urging UNESCO to include the “Comfort Women” documents in the Memory of the World Register.
Following the meeting, CWJC, KAFC, and Jin Duck & Kyung Sik Kim Foundation produced a petition to urge UNESCO to include thousands of documents detailing the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces’ “comfort women” system into the Memory of the World Register. This is an important trove of materials for the history of WWII in Asia and for women’s human rights, yet Japan has consistently blocked the inclusion of any mention of the “comfort women,” going so far as to threaten to withdraw from UNESCO if the materials are allowed in.
To sign a Change.org petition to UNESCO, click HERE
WE NOW HAVE A PUBLISHED CURRICULUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS!
Since our inception in 2015, CWJC has been committed to educating the public, particularly our youth on the history of the comfort women and the issues of sexual violence and sex trafficking. That’s why we went to the SF school board and the CA Board of Education and successfully lobbied for resolutions, mandating the teaching of these subjects in high schools.
In 2019 we partnered with the Korean American Forum of California and published our curriculum guide: Curriculum and Resources for “Comfort Women” Education, We have already distributed hundreds of copies including at the 58th annual California Council for Social Studies (CCSS) where we joined 600 teachers from around the state.
One teacher said after examining the curriculum: “This is fabulous! It will be my go to guide for everything I need to know when I teach “Comfort Women” history.”
For the PDF version of the booklet and more resources, go to: www.ComfortWomenEducation.org
