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Yonhap |
30일 버지니아 페어펙스카운티 정부 청사에서 미국 지방정부 청사로는 1호인 위안부 기림비 제막식이 펼쳐졌다.
기림비 앞면에는 일제에 의해 한국과 중국 등 여러 나라 여성들이 강제로 성노예로 동원됐다는 내용이, 뒷면에는 일본 정부의 배상을 요구하는 내용이 각각 표기됐다.
이날 제막식에는 현지 한인들과 페어팩스카운티 관계자들 등 약 150명이 참석했다.제막에 앞서 지역 한인 학생들의 소고춤과 북춤 공연이 있었고, 제막 후에는 살풀이 공연과 아리랑 독창 등의 축하 행사가 이어졌다. 갈색과 검은색이 섞인 나비 20여 마리를 하늘로 날려보내는 이벤트도 진행됐다.
제막식 참석을 위해 미국을 찾은 군위안부 피해자 강일출(86) 할머니는 기념사에서 "미국 동포들이 힘써줘서 감사하다"라며 "일본 정부는 (군위안부 문제를) 신속하게 사과해야 하고, 한국 정부가 사과와 배상을 받아내야 우리가 이 세상을 떠날 수 있다"라고 말했다.
(
onlinenews@heraldcorp.com)
<관련 영문 기사>
Korean 'comfort women' honored near US capital
A suburb of the US capital dedicated a monument Friday to World War II sex slaves in the latest local victory by Korean Americans in historical disputes with Japan.
After a campaign and fundraising by Korean American activists, the government center of Fairfax County, Virginia, unveiled twin sculptures of butterflies and a plaque in honor of so-called "comfort women" -- the up to 200,000 women from Korea and elsewhere forced into brothels for imperial Japan's soldiers.
On a green knoll on the government building's sprawling lawn, supporters released butterflies and sang the Korean folk anthem "Arirang."
A dancer in Korean costume cried as she glided around the plaque, which calls for "eternal peace and justice" for comfort women.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, in a proclamation, said the monument "will serve as a lasting reminder and an affirmation to the world that all crimes against humanity, such as human trafficking, will not be condoned or tolerated."
Former comfort woman Kang Il-Chul, 87, flew in from South Korea to thank the crowd, saying she would share news of the monument to the dwindling number of remaining survivors.
"The Japanese government should make a prompt apology for the comfort woman issue," Kang said.
Japan apologized to comfort women in 1993 and set up a fund to compensate survivors.
While comfort women in the Philippines and elsewhere accepted the money, most South Koreans refused because the funds came primarily from private sources and not the Japanese government.
Japan's embassy in Washington said that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood by Tokyo's "sincere apologies and remorse" for comfort women's "immeasurable pain and suffering" and did not want the issue to be "politicized."
Abe has said he will not revise the apology, after in the past triggering concern in South Korea over his conservative views on wartime history.
Some Japanese politicians have rejected the official line on comfort women and accused South Korea and China of keeping alive historical grievances for political gain.
Korean American activists have increasingly taken the battle over history-linked disputes to the local level in the United States.
State lawmakers in Virginia, which has a sizable Korean American community, in February voted to include the Korean term "East Sea" in textbooks for the body of water more frequently called the Sea of Japan. (AFP)
