The San Francisco Comfort Women memorial is a monument dedicated to comfort women before and during World War II. It is built in remembrance of the girls and women that were sexually enslaved by the Imperial Japanese Army through deceit, coercion, and brutal force. It is approximated that there were around 400,000 "comfort women" from Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and other Asian countries. The site is located near the Saint Mary's Square, at the crossroads of San Francisco Chinatown and the Financial District. The statue "Comfort Women" Column of Strength, by sculptor Steven Whyte, is one of nine and the first sculpture placed in a major U.S. city to commemorate the comfort women.
In 2017, in protest of the memorial, Hirofumi Yoshimura—the mayor of Osaka, Japan—dissolved the sister-city relationship between Osaka and San Francisco that was established in 1957.
Column of Strength statue
The San Francisco Comfort Women memorial and its bronze, 10-foot-tall "Comfort Women" Column of Strength statue were unveiled on September 22, 2017. The memorial statue was designed by the Carmel-based sculptor Steven Whyte. It depicts three teen-age girls, with each being of a specific nationality—Chinese, Korean, and Philippine—and altogether representing the estimated 200,000 "comfort women" from countries across East and Southeast Asia that were occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II. These three girls are cast in bronze, standing in a circle atop a pedestal and holding hands in a back-to-back posture. Standing next to the pedestal and gazing up at them is another bronze figure of a halmoni (Korean for grandmother). It bears a resemblance to the Korean human rights activist Kim Hak-Sun, who was a victim of the forced enslavement to the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII and the first woman in Korea to come forward publicly about her experiences as a comfort woman.
Steven Whyte
Steven Whyte, the sculptor of the "Comfort Women" Column of Strength statue, is a British-American artist living in Carmel, California. His works also include a life-sized Jumbo the Elephant at Tufts University and a multi-sculptures monument entitled National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military.
Whyte describes himself as "a figurative sculptor," with a strong emphasis on the creation of characters in his works. He has a preference in human form as the sculpture subject, and often works with live models when designing sculptures. For "Comfort Women" Column of Strength, he found models from the Central Coast and designed the figures of the teen-age Chinese, Korean, and Philippine girls partially based on the models.
Whyte also describes himself as a "sculptor of people" who prioritizes "the emotional quality and impact of the sculpture" and intends for his work to become catalysts for public responses, interactions, and conversations. To make "Comfort Women" Column of Strength resonate with its audience emotionally, Whyte puts an emphasis on the girls’ strength and solidarity through their posture, and makes them look at viewers directly "in an almost accusatory way" and with "post-traumatic" stress and shock.
Whyte reflects on the Column of Strength statue that "this is a story that has been hidden for so long that if it serves a purpose —to make people look into history and learn from history a little more— then my work is done."
Development
In 2015, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the resolution to build a memorial dedicated to comfort women, under the push led by retired judges Lillian Sing and Julie Tang. According to District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar, the memorial is expected to serve as the starting point for education and healing process, with an aim to "keep the issue alive when some in Japan are trying to silence the issue."
The memorial is privately funded by the Comfort Women Justice Coalition and was established in cooperation with other community organizations and city agencies. The organization raised $205,000 to make and install the statue. In a double-blind competition, British-American artist Steven Whyte’s design was chosen from more than 30 submissions from all over the world by an expert jury of arts professionals, community organizers and citizens. Whyte was then tasked with sculpting the memorial piece. The sculpture was installed on September 22, 2017.