Groups Remain Divided Over Comfort Memorial Design

With at least one version already constructed, the groups entangled for the last month in the controversy surrounding the Fort Lee Korean Comfort Women Memorial remain divided on the design of the proposed monument.

At a council meeting last Thursday, representatives of the groups involved made their case for differing versions of the monument, some explaining that the disagreements have stemmed from important regional, and even international meanings of the form the monument would eventually take.

“I hope we can make one voice. Somehow there is discrepancy between the groups,” said Howard Joh, of the Korean American Association of Fort Lee. “It’s not only a Fort Lee thing, it’s for the Korean community as well as all the nations that got involved.”

A design had been set for the monument in late March, but outside groups like Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE), based in Queens and Hackensack, became involved due to concerns over the wording on the memorial.

The Fort Lee Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) made concessions, including the removal of a Japanese imperial flag from the back of the monument, and the groups involved had reportedly reached a consensus in April on the wording of the memorial.

“They’re not working with us, they’re working against us,” VFW Commander Jim Viola told the council, referring to the several groups that have objected to aspects of his group’s design over the last month. “Whenever we say yes, they come back with something new.”

The groups currently are divided on the design of the monument, with one proposal featuring the nondescript silhouette of a woman and another, the VFW's, that some say is more distinctly Korean.

“This is a stalling tactic,” Viola said of the continued disputes over the design, urging the council to step in and disregard groups that have come in from outside the borough. “Their object is to stop the memorial from being built in Fort Lee.”

The VFW’s proposal, said Paul Lee, representing a Korean Vietnam War Veterans group, is similar to one placed outside the Japanese Embassy in South Korea, an “angry” design that he says places too much emphasis on the conflict between the two countries and not enough on the international women’s rights generally.

“That [design] will make trouble with the Japanese community,” Lee told the council, adding that Korea has had diplomatic disputes arising from similarly designed monuments.

Lee told Patch that his group has already completed construction of its design, but is open to paying for changes to the wording of the monument should it be necessary. Council members have discussed seeing photographs of a separate, already constructed memorial, though were unable to confirm what group had submitted it.

KACE President Dongchan Kim, whose appearance the council had requested after his group issued an open letter urging them to address their concerns over wording or face opposition at the polls, also spoke at the meeting, apologizing for the threatening tone and explaining that it had been released only to ensure the opportunity to air their concerns in a meeting with officials.

“I’m grateful for your apology, and I appreciate your apology,” Mayor Mark Sokolich said. “And I’m hopeful that it starts us in the right direction.”

But with no end in sight to the process that began last October, some speakers, Kim included, urged the council to step in and make a decision, which the council has so far avoided doing in the absence of a consensus among the groups.

“Many people have different ideas,” Kim said. “That’s why there is a council.”