New America Media
By Peter Schurmann, Aug 10, 2011 2:11 PM
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New York’s Holocaust Resource Center is set to open its latest exhibit, which focuses on the sexual exploitation of Korea’s so-called “comfort women” by Japanese forces up to and during WWII, reports the Korea Daily.
The exhibit, which is set to run from Aug. 11 through the 18, will feature paintings by some 40 Korean and American artists, including several by former comfort women, the report notes.
The article notes that the exhibit marks the first time the center has focused on this issue, which has long plagued relations between Korea and her one-time colonial master, Japan. According to Dong-seok Kim with the New York-based Korean American Voter’s Council, the exhibit shows that “mainstream American society is acknowledging the humanitarian crimes committed by the Japanese military and denouncing them.”
Japan colonized Korea in 1910, ruling over the country for close to 40 years until its defeat in WWII in 1945. During this time, the imperial army is alleged to have forced some 200,000 women from across Asia into sexual servitude. Many returned to lives of shame and isolation.
Japan has offered several apologies in the past, though none have been in an official capacity and have therefore failed to assuage those who say the country has not gone far enough in making amends for past crimes.
The Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center, part of Queensborough Community College, has published 25,000 copies of educational materials about humanitarian crimes around the world, the report notes. It recently shed light on the Nanking Massacre in China, distributing 5,000 educational materials on the incident to junior high and high schools across the United States.
Holocaust & Comfort Women Survivors Calling for Justice Together
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