Honor Comfort Women Memorial

Senate Resolution No. 2648 BY: Senator PHILLIPS COMMEMORATING the 5th Anniversary of the New York State Memorial Monument that pays tribute to 'Comfort Women' WHEREAS, During the Japanese colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II, approximately 200,000 young women were coerced into the Comfort Women system of forced military prostitution; and WHEREAS, In 2011, a civil group began erecting statues of peace showing a seated women dressed in traditional Korean garb, first outside the Japanese Embassy, and later around the world; and WHEREAS, On June 16, 2012, the Comfort Women Memorial Monument was established in the Veterans Memorial at Eisenhower Park in Westbury, New York, to honor and commemorate the victims of the Comfort Women system; and WHEREAS, The Memorial Monument, being the second memorial of its kind in the United States, symbolizes suffering endured by comfort women and serves as a reminder of the crime against humanity committed through the Comfort Women system; and WHEREAS, The 110th Congress, United States House Resolution 121 called on the Japanese government to acknowledge, apologize, and accept responsibility for the coercive recruitment of young Korean women into the system; and WHEREAS, In December of 2015, more than 70 years since the end of World War II, South Korea and Japan reached an agreement to resolve their dispute over the people exploited as comfort women; the Japanese government officially apologized and promoted to pay an $8.3 million settlement to care for the many women involved in this demoralizing system; and WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body to recognize historical monuments within the State of New York that are established to increase awareness of serious events that have taken place in history; and WHEREAS, The United Nations reports that 2.4 million people across the globe are victims of human trafficking at any one time, and 80 percent of them are being exploited as sexual slaves; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to commemorate the 5th Anniversary of the New York State Memorial Monument that pays tribute to 'Comfort Women'; and be it further RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted to the Korean American Public Affairs Committee, the Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Korean American Civic Empowerment.