TRES FIGURAS Y LETRAS
Comfort Woman, Roxas Boulevard, Manila
Naked, you were raped. Clothed,
You are memorialized.
Pyeonghwaui Sonyeosang, Japanese Embassy, Seoul
You sit, waiting for a nation to acknowledge
Their crimes against humanity.
Memorial to Comfort Women, St. Mary’s Square, San Francisco
Words outspoken ennoble you whom
Brutality and lust has shamed.
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| Comfort Woman, Roxas Boulevard, Manila |
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| Comfort Woman (detail) |
“Tres Figuras y Letras” originally published in vox poetica (September 5, 2018)
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December 2, 2018 is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
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Photos are posted on this website according to principles of fair use, that is, they are posted for the purposes of information and education. Also, the poem directly refers to the photos.
ReplyDelete“Comfort Woman” photo link:
http://www.bworldonline.com/duterte-defends-removal-of-comfort-woman-statue/
“Comfort Woman (detail)” link:
http://www.newagebd.net/ataglance/1212/Todays-Gallery/1
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Year and Artist:
ReplyDeleteComfort Woman (2017) by Jonas Roces
Gonzalinho
LET’S NOT INSULT JAPAN: DUTERTE BACKS REMOVAL OF ‘COMFORT WOMAN’ STATUE
ReplyDeleteABS-CBN News
Posted at Apr 29 2018 10:53 AM
MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday defended the removal of a “comfort woman” statue along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.
“Comfort women” was Japan’s euphemism for Asian women who were forced to work in its wartime brothels. Japan has apologized to the women and provided funds to help them.
The comfort woman statue in Roxas Boulevard was removed recently to give way to a drainage improvement project, the public works department said Saturday.
Duterte said the statue can be placed in a private property so as not to insult Japan.
“We can place it somewhere else. If you want to place it in a private property, fine, but do not use -- because that issue, in so far as I am concerned, tapos na iyan (that’s over),” he said in a speech in Davao City.
“The Japanese has paid dearly for that. Iyung reparation started many years ago. Huwag na lang natin insultuhin... It is not the policy of government to antagonize other nations,” he added.
(The repatriation started many years ago. Let’s just not insult them.)
Duterte also said bringing up the plight of comfort women repeatedly would bring pain.
“Masakit kasi na ulit-ulitin and you start to imagine how they were treated badly,” he said.
Women’s rights group Gabriela had condemned the unannounced removal of the statue, saying it was a “desecration of Filipino women’s dignity as it casts a foul insult on hundreds of Filipina sex slaves victimized under the Japanese occupation.”
Japan earlier aired its displeasure over the structure to President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte had responded by saying that the statue is a symbol of freedom of expression, which relatives of comfort women and living comfort women are entitled to use.
“That is a constitutional right which I cannot stop. It’s prohibitive for me to do that,” he said.
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines on December 8 unveiled the 2-meter-high bronze statue. It followed the erection of similar statues in South Korea, China and Australia.
Some 1,000 Filipinos served as comfort women during the 1941 to 1945 Japanese occupation.
Link: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/29/18/lets-not-insult-japan-duterte-backs-removal-of-comfort-woman-statue
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‘COMFORT WOMAN’ STATUE NOT AN INSULT VS JAPAN
ReplyDeleteChinoy leader defends ‘enthusiastic approval’ for project
By: Aie Balagtas See - Reporter / @ABalagtasSeeINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:05 AM December 26, 2017
The controversial artwork remains on Roxas Boulevard, for now. Will it remain there or will it be eventually removed? — MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
A prominent member of the Chinese-Filipino community and anticrime advocate has written Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada to question the government’s stand on the installation of a “comfort woman” statue on Roxas Boulevard and its seeming subservience to the Japanese government.
Teresita Ang See wrote the letter after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in response to a complaint from the Japanese Embassy, asked Manila officials to explain why the statue was put up.
For its part, the city government said it merely provided a place for the statue on top of technical support. It pointed to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) as the agency responsible for its installation.
“I do understand that we have to deal with our friends and neighbors cordially and diplomatically. But this does not mean we have to be subservient to unreasonable demands,” Ang See said in her Dec. 22 letter.
Undeniable facts
“The Japanese occupation is a fact. The atrocities, persecutions, massacres, rape and other war crimes are facts. These we cannot and should not deny. There is a park at the corner of Anda and Gen. Luna Streets in Intramuros, put up by the Memorare Manila, to remember the more than 100,000 civilians killed during the Battle of Manila,” she added.
Ang See, Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order chair and Philippine National Police Foundation Inc. vice chair, stressed that the statue was “not [an] insult to the Japanese people.”
“It serves to remind humanity that violence against women is unacceptable any time and under any circumstances. It also serves to remember the women who suffered and to pay tribute to their courage and resilience. Unveiling the statue at this time is most timely, considering the fact that even in the West, women are coming out to protest against the violence visited upon them,” she said.
In a separate interview, Ang See told the Inquirer that she only read in the papers the move taken by the DFA and the city government’s reply, adding that she was “shocked” at how these government officials treated the country’s history.
The “comfort woman” statue was officially unveiled on Dec. 8 on Roxas Boulevard. Created by artist Jonas Roces, it pays tribute to Filipino women forced into becoming sex slaves of Japanese troops during World War II. In September, the unveiling of a similar statue in San Francisco, California, angered the Osaka mayor, who vowed to cut his city’s sister-ties with San Francisco.
The statue in Manila was commissioned by Tulay Foundation’s Manuel Chua. After Chua died, the NHCP contacted Ang See and she gave its installation her “enthusiastic approval.”
To be continued
‘COMFORT WOMAN’ STATUE NOT AN INSULT VS JAPAN
ReplyDeleteChinoy leader defends ‘enthusiastic approval’ for project
By: Aie Balagtas See - Reporter / @ABalagtasSeeINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:05 AM December 26, 2017
Continued
Adverse reaction
But days after its unveiling, the DFA asked the Manila government to explain what led to the statue’s installation. A representative from the Japanese Embassy also went to City Hall to make similar inquiries, according to Jojo Alcovendaz, the city administrator.
In her letter, Ang See asked: “I am wondering what your position is on the statue. I hope your query does not mean disapproval of putting up such a statue. If so, why? Is it because the Japanese Embassy protested?”
“Japan’s Embassy has to make a pro forma objection. That is its job. It is, however, our government’s job is to defend our position and I am sure Japan will think the better of our country for standing its ground. Remember, even Germany apologized for the millions of Jews massacred by the Nazis. The Germans even built the Holocaust Memorial to teach their people a lesson—that never again should they visit such atrocity on any human being,” she said.
Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/955174/comfort-woman-statue-not-an-insult-vs-japan#ixzz5YrJVbZzV
Gonzalinho
RELOCATE ‘COMFORT WOMAN’ STATUE
ReplyDeleteInquirer.net
05:01 AM May 02, 2018
The Department of Public Works and Highways has committed the foul deed of removing a bronze statue symbolizing comfort women on Roxas Boulevard in the dead of a weekend night.
I join those who vehemently protest this insult to some of the worst victims of World War II.
The excuse given is a flood control project, but if this were the only reason, why was no provision made for relocating the statue?
Without relocation it seems like a craven capitulation to the complaint of the Japanese Embassy.
Manila, which was the second most devastated city in World War II, has few memorials for that period, the only other being the Memorare Manila 1945 in Intramuros.
Removing the statue reduces Manila’s already few World War II memorials. I call on Prof. Rene Escalante and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines to initiate the relocation of the statue to a prominent place.
BENITO LEGARDA JR,. otineb6291@gmail.com
Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/112861/relocate-comfort-woman-statue#ixzz5YrKjASuu
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COMFORT WOMAN STATUE
ReplyDeleteInquirer.net
05:03 AM October 22, 2018
What’s become of the “comfort woman” statue that was removed by the authorities soon after it was installed by a brave group earlier this year on Roxas Boulevard?
A recent report said Osaka has cut its 60-year sister-city ties with San Francisco because that city set up its statue honoring comfort women in SF’s Chinatown.
Japan has long played down the scale of its World War II military brothels, where Chinese and Filipino women were kept captive, and Tokyo has offered only half-hearted apologies for it.
For Manila to kowtow to the Japanese for their aid is downright disgusting.
ISABEL ESCODA, isabelescoda@yahoo.com
Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/116909/comfort-woman-statue#ixzz5YrLGldoW
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MEMORIALIZING WARTIME ATROCITIES
ReplyDeleteBy: Jesse Angelo L. Altez - @inquirerdotnet 05:06 AM January 23, 2018
Tokyo—The recent controversy involving the 7-foot bronze statue of a Filipino “comfort woman” on Roxas Boulevard stirred debate on how it would affect the relationship between Japan and the Philippines. Seven decades after World War II, the two countries have transformed their relationship from foes to partners, both wishing to foster mutual peace and development in Asia.
…M. Evelina Galang’s book “Lolas’ House: Filipino Women Living with War” (Northwestern University Press, 2017) tells the story of 16 Filipino comfort women interviewed by the author. The harrowing narrative of these women—one attested that she was raped by 20-30 men in a day—shows how no one can be capable of fabricating such stories, as alleged by right-wing elements in Japan.
As much as the atonement money can help the victims of this wartime aggression, band-aids do not fix bullet holes and cannot erase the fact that these wartime atrocities happened. And while economic reparations can help the victimized women move forward with their lives, such atonement money speaks more about Japan than for the women. It implies regret. Thus, the response of the Japanese Embassy to the bronze statue on Roxas Boulevard—in which it finds the process of memorialization “extremely regrettable”—is quite unfortunate.
…what happened 70 years ago cannot be changed. And as much as the Japanese government disagrees with this process of remembering, we owe the victimized comfort women the chance to be memorialized to prevent the repeat of their harrowing experience. Never again should we allow any form of sexual violence. Let the bronze statue on Roxas Boulevard remind us of that.
Jesse Angelo L. Altez is an Asian Development Bank-Japan scholar pursuing public policy at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. React: @AngeloAltez
Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/110478/memorializing-wartime-atrocities#ixzz5lcgwYHrB
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Pope's Intentions for the Challenges of Humanity and Mission of the Church - February 2021
ReplyDeleteUniversal Intention - For women who are victims of violence
“We pray for women who are victims of violence, that they may be protected by society and have their sufferings considered and heeded.”
Link: https://clicktopray.org/pray-with-the-pope/
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