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Group to appeal dismissal of lawsuit over ‘Comfort Women’ statue in Glendale

August 11, 2014
Comfort

The monument, which depicts a Korean woman sitting in traditional garb next to an open seat, honors the estimated 200,000 or more Korean and Chinese women thought to have been forced into sexual slavery between 1932 and 1945.

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A nonprofit group said today it would appeal dismissal of a lawsuit seeking the removal of a bronze statue in Glendale honoring women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

Glendale resident Michiko Gingery and the nonprofit Global Alliance for Historical Truth alleged in a February complaint that the so-called “comfort women” monument could negatively affect U.S. relations with Japan and has the potential to infringe on the federal government’s constitutional power to set foreign policy.

However, in his ruling dismissing the lawsuit last week, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson wrote that Glendale’s placement of the statue “does not pose the type of interference with the federal government’s foreign affairs powers that states a plausible claim for relief.”

The nonprofit group called Anderson’s decision “highly subjective,” and promised to appeal.

The judge wrote that the statue in the city’s Central Park is “entirely consistent with the federal government’s foreign policy,” and determined that the monument is similar to other symbolic displays related to historical foreign issues. He also found that the plaintiffs lacked standing because they suffered no tangible harm from the statue.

The monument, which depicts a Korean woman sitting in traditional garb next to an open seat, honors the estimated 200,000 or more Korean and Chinese women thought to have been forced into sexual slavery between 1932 and 1945.

The Global Alliance and other plaintiffs believe the number of victims has been inflated.

6 Comments

  1. konohazuku001

    August 13, 2014 at 5:51 AM

    Based on these following facts,there was no Korean comfort-woman unwillingly kidnapped by Japanese army or officials.
    1.No one knows the names of the villages or towns where the comfort-women were actually kidnapped.
    2.So far as the comfort-women kidnapping issue is concerned, there is no obvious record which had been written before 1990s.
    3.It is quite strange that so many as 200,000 victims had kept silence from 1945 to the 1990s.
    4.A large amount of money were paid to the Comfort-women in reward for their jobs. Back in those days,it was not a rare case that poor parents necessarily sold their daughters to get money.
    5.There have been no witnesses who can testify the kidnapping incidents. If there had been many comfort-women who were kidnapped, there must have been many witnesses. But nobody saw the incident.
    6.There was no real testimony by the kidnappers. It was already proved that Seiji Yoshida’s testimony was absolutely false statements. At that time in Korea, most of policemen and officials were Koreans, not Japanese.
    7.There was no protest opposing to the kidnapped comfort-women.If there had been kidnapped comfort-women as real events, riots must have been raised.
    8.In Korea, from time immemorial to now ,there always have been many prostitutes. In the period of the World WarII,it is quite natural that there must have been prostitution markets there.
    9.Most of Korean comfort-women say “I was sold.” or “I was deceived.” A small number of women say “I was kidnapped.” The credibility of their testimonies are in question. The contentions are rather suspect evidences.
    10.Although The Japan-Korea Basic Relations Treaty was concluded in 1965, South Korea currently lodges various reasons in order to draw out as much money as possible from Japan.
    However,at the time of the conclusion of the treaty, they never argued about the comfort-women issue at all.

    Reply

  2. Grace Lee

    August 16, 2014 at 5:51 PM

    Konohazuku001 SHAME ON YOU. How can you honestly believe the crap you’re spewing? So because the women said they were sold but not kidnapped, it makes them uncredible? And you don’t believe it because the kidnappers didn’t testify? How many nazis do you know of that came forward to confess? Does that make he holocaust any less true? You should be ashamed of yourself.

    Reply

  3. konohazuku001

    August 16, 2014 at 8:39 PM

    Comparison of the Japanese army with the South Korean army and the US army

    Did the army utilize the prostitutes?
    Japanese army=Yes. Korean army=Yes. US army=Yes.

    Did the army rape any women?
    Japanese army=Yes. Korean army=Yes. US army=Yes.

    Did the army kidnap Korean women to make them be comfort women?
    Japanese army=No. Korean army=Yes. US army=No.
    (At the time of the Korean War,the South Korean army kidnaped
    women who were likely considered to be communists, and forced them
    to be comfort women.)

    Were the women who were forced to serve as comfort women for the army unhappy?
    Japanese army’s=Yes. Korean army’s=Yes. US army’s=Yes.

    Were there any girls sold by their parents among the comfort women?
    Japanese army’s=Yes. Korean army’s=Yes. US army’s=Yes.

    Had the comfort women got a large amount of money?
    Japanese army’s=Yes. Korean army’s=No. US army’s=No.

    Did the government apologize for the prostitution?
    Japanese government=Yes. Korean government=No. US government=No.

    Reply

  4. Grace Lee

    August 17, 2014 at 10:19 AM

    What’s the point of doing factually unsupported comparisons? That has absolutely nothing to do with what happened. And let me ask you this….if indeed the comfort women did not exist. Why would the Japanese government apologize for it?????

    Reply

  5. konohazuku001

    August 18, 2014 at 3:51 AM

    Prostitution is immoral and is accompanied by human rights abuse.
    Japanese government admitted having participated in prostitution and apologized.
    I think that it should apologize for the U.S. Forces or the South Korean army similarly.

    Reply

  6. konohazuku001

    August 21, 2014 at 2:29 AM

    http://rt.com/news/169232-military-comfort%20women-korea/

    U.S. Forces and South Korean army should apologize.

    Reply