hankyoreh

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

The New York State Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Jan. 29 recognizing the suffering and sacrifices of so-called “comfort women” forcibly drafted to provide sexual services to the Japanese military during the Second World War.

It became the second US state legislative body to adopt such a resolution, after the California House of Representatives in 1999, and the first state Senate to do so.

In its resolution, the Senate affirmed that 200,000 women were drafted to serve as comfort women during the war and said that a monument erected in the state in June 2012 had become a symbol of their suffering and a reminder of crimes against humanity.

A monument in New York dedicated to the Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. The red granite monument at the Veterans Memorial at Eisenhower Park in Nassau County is the second of its kind in the United States following the first one set up at Palisades Park

The Senate also expressed its respects to the women who were victimized.

The draft of the resolution included a message of support for the surviving comfort women who are still demanding an apology from the Japanese government. Due to state legislature rules against interference in international matters, the senate passed a revised version that omitted that sentence.

Tony Avella, the state Senator who presented the resolution, said, “After meeting with comfort women, I came to realize that their drafting was illegal trafficking in the form of sexual slavery that Japan should apologize and take responsibility for.”

He added, “The comfort women issue must be resolved in the interests of historical truth and human rights.”

David Chulwoo Lee, president of the Korean American Public Affairs Committee, said he was gratified to see the resolution passed so swiftly, just two weeks after being presented before the Senate.

“The comfort women issue is more than just an issue between South Korea and Japan,” he said. “It’s about universal human rights, women’s rights, and human dignity.”

New Jersey

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