New Jersey

The first picture is a memorial in Palisades Park, New Jersey. This one was located right next to the library in Koreatown, which had rich selection of Korean and Spanish books.

The monument label reads: "In memory of the more than 200,000 women and girls who were abducted by the armed forces of the government of imperial Japan.

1930's - 1945

Known as 'Comfort Women,' they endured human rights violations that no peoples should leave unrecognized. Let us never forget the horrors of crimes against humanity.

Dedicated on October 23, 2010 County of Bergen County Executive The Board of Chosen freeholders, and the Borough of Palisades Park"

The second picture shows a memorial in Hackensack, New Jersey, which is located right next to the county's courthouse (Bergen County Justice Center). The monument was part of a series of monuments dedicated for different genocidal occurences, which are the Great Hunger (Ireland), The Holocaust (Germany), Armenian Genocide, and Slavery and racial segregation (United States). On the way from Fort Lee to Hackensack on a bus, I saw several signs in Hebrew. I assumed this was a Jewish neighbourhood. 

The monument label says:

"In memory of hundreds of thousands of women and girls from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and Indonesia who were forced into sexual slavery by the Armed Forces of Imperial Japan before and during World War II.

Dedicated on March 8, 2013

County of Bergen, New Jersey Bergan County Executive The Board of Chosen Freeholders Comfort Women Memorial Committee Residents of Bergen County"

The third picture is a memorial in Fort Lee, New Jersey. My impression on Fort Lee was a wealthy Korean neighbourhood surrounded another wealthy neighbourhood. This memorial was located in the Constitution park, specifically right in front of the memorial dedicated for the United States veterans who fought in the battle of the bulge. The park also had a monument dedicated for the victims in 9-11.

The monument label has a piece of poetry:

"Comfort Women Memorial

Stories My Grandmother Tells Me

Halmoni remembers, despite her failing memory: the first sightings of soldiers in her village. Not yet knowing they would soon meet again, only at her doorstep. Taking one good look at her, seeing she was fit for the 'factory.' Not yet knowing, years later, she would never find her family.

A knapsack clutched in one hand, her naivete trembling in the other. Wearing their best hanboks, treated lesser than the dogs: Fifty dewy-eyed girls crammed into a single boxcar where the wind howled through cracks and the mice nibbled at their feet. At night, their cries, a sinister lullaby.

The door creaking open, an alarm clock. The door slamming behind him, a wake up call, It was one hundred soles a day, chugging towards her thirteen-year-old body like that rickety boxcar.

At this part Halmoni trembles even harder: Oh, and the stench of sake and sigarettes! Even after they left, she would still smell their scent. Making it even harder to forget the unclean men who were not just dirty from war.

Then there are the things Halmoni cannot remember: Her name, the Korean one. Her family, the one in Korea.

An apology."