Advocacy groups voiced outrage Sunday after a memorial to women forced to work as sex slaves to Japanese soldiers during World War II was taken down in Manila. City authorities said the bronze sculpture of a blindfolded woman, which was on a bayside promenade in the Philippine capital, was removed…
Advocacy groups voiced outrage Sunday after a memorial to women forced to work as sex slaves to Japanese soldiers during World War II was taken down in Manila.
City authorities said the bronze sculpture of a blindfolded woman, which was on a bayside promenade in the Philippine capital, was removed Friday to make way for a drainage and footbridge project.
However, advocacy groups for the memory of so-called “comfort women” wondered whether the Philippine government had yielded to Japanese displeasure over the memorial.
While Japan occupied the Philippines during the war, it is now one of the Philippines’ top investors, trading partners and aid donors.
After the statue was installed in January, some two kilometers from the Japanese embassy, Tokyo said the move was “very unfortunate”.
“The Japanese government is working hard… they also wanted to get rid of a similar statue in New Jersey,” said Rechilda Extremadura, executive director of Lila Pilipina, an organisation of comfort women survivors and advocates.
