Posted on 01/04/2014 9:53:56 AM PST by BenLurkin
GLENDALE (CBSLA.com) — A petition asking for the removal of a bronze statue in the city of Glendale has been submitted to President Barack Obama’s website, “We the People.”
Opponents of the 1,100-pound bronze statue honoring the so-called “comfort women” have collected more than 100,000 signatures.
Although that is the number needed to receive a response from the White House, that is no guarantee that any action will be taken.
“We don’t really think much of it because 1) it is the local government jurisdiction to install or remove a statue,” said Phyllis Kim, a member of the Korean-American Forum of California. The group helped pay for the monument.
Since its installation last summer, the statue honoring “comfort women” – mostly Korean and Chinese women who were used as sex slaves by the Japanese army during World War II – has been met with controversy.
But despite emails to city leaders and pleas from the Japanese government, the memorial remains at Glendale’s Central Park on East Harvard Street.
“A lot of them don’t know what actually happened during this time and a lot of them are in denial and try to downplay what has happened in the past,” Kim said.
The petition was started by a Texas man by the name of Tony Marano. On his YouTube channel, he states, “these women were recruited and they volunteered to serve in these comfort women houses for the Japanese Imperial Army.”
Kim says that although the Japanese government issued a formal apology in 1993, it wasn’t enough for surviving comfort women.
“All they want is to receive a sincere apology,” Kim explains.
CBS2 was unable to reach Marano for comment on Friday night.
Meantime, city officials for Glendale said that most of the signatures on the petition were from people overseas.
It really did happen. The truth hurts. China is now readying for payback due to economics. The only people who are in denial are the perpetrators.
That seems like a strange statue in a strange location; are you supposed to sit next to her and comfort her over her suffering?
In any event, it is certainly not an issue for the federal gov’t.
Oh, wait ...
As an artist, a woman, and a student of WW2, I find the statue very poignant and inoffensive.
It happened. It is entirely appropriate to remember these women, and while we are at it, let us also remember the thousands of women civilians who were raped in Nanking, the 3000 that were killed in the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and the 200+ American POWS that my Dad found beheaded and abandoned in a Japanese POW Camp on a nameless, godforsaken atoll in the Pacific AFTER the surrender was signed.
I'm tired of sending history down a black hole because it becomes uncomfortable or inconvenient.
“...and the 200+ American POWS that my Dad found beheaded and abandoned in a Japanese POW Camp on a nameless, godforsaken atoll in the Pacific AFTER the surrender was signed.”
The Jap prison guards had standing orders to kill prisoners if Allied forces approached. Most didn’t because they knew that wouldn’t end well for them either. But some...
Sitting? Really?
So what you are saying is that this was government policy...not just the panicky reaction of crazy guards on an isolated island.
Which, of course, makes the Japanese Nation even more culpable, IMNSHO.
I Agree with you.
Tony Marano = bizarre Japanese war crimes apologist, also fan of whale hunting. Was served dolphin & whale dishes when he visited Japan
“But despite .... pleas from the Japanese government”
Pretty much says it all there.
Why Glendale for the locale? I thought that city was pretty much South American and Armenian demographic these past many moons.
The petition was started by a Texas man by the name of Tony Marano. On his YouTube channel, he states, “these women were recruited and they volunteered to serve in these comfort women houses for the Japanese Imperial Army.”
Bravo Sierra!
There were likely some who “volunteered” to be prostitutes (those who were already prostitutes?); but many were captured and raped.
Would you rather have a graphic representation of what was done to these women?
I think it’s a good design.
Well said.
“The petition was started by a Texas man by the name of Tony Marano. On his YouTube channel, he states, “these women were recruited and they volunteered to serve in these comfort women houses for the Japanese Imperial Army.”
Mr Marano, an idiot, should have no problem getting a teaching position in Japan, where the military-imperial period of Japan is taught leaving out a lot of the truth of atrocities and inhumane behavoir on the part of the Japanese military.
I’ve seen the box of signed volunteer forms which led Mr. Marano to that conclusion. They’re stored right next to the box of forms where citizens of Hiroshima volunteered to serve in trials on the effects of atomic bombs on Japanese cities.
This makes me wonder whether Mr. Marano and those supporting his petition themselves used “comfort women” when they were overseas.
Seems odd that a CA city would insert itself into this controversy. A statue in Seoul or Beijing would seem more appropriate.
Also odd that a TX man is concerned enough about a statue in a CA city to start a petition drive.
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