California statue honors ‘comfort women’ of WWII

SAN FRANCISCO -  A monument memorializing the "comfort women" of World War Two was unveiled in San Francisco on Friday.

Depicting three, life-size women from China, Korea and the Philippines holding hands, the statue honors those who were forced into prostitution in Japanese wartime military brothels.

"We want to remember them so that the same thing that happened to them, the suffering that they endured at the hands of the Japanese soldiers, will never be repeated anytime, anywhere,"said Comfort Women Justice Coalition (CWJC) Co-Chair  Julie Tang

A separate statue depicts Grandma Haksoon Kim, the first woman to testify in 1991 about being a comfort woman, looking at the three women.

Japan apologized to former comfort women in 2015 and promised 1 billion yen ($9 million) for a fund to help them.

It's been a sensitive issue between the country and its neighbors, specifically South Korea - where earlier this year another statue commemorating the women was erected forcing Japan to temporarily recall its ambassador, citing that it violated an agreement to resolve the issue.

The exact numbers of comfort women victimized is highly disputed. South Korea claims there were as many as 200,000 from their nation alone. — Reuters