In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017 photo, college student Choi Hye Ryeon, left, sits with others in a tent made of plastic sheets to protect a statue of a girl representing thousands of Korean women enslaved for sex by Japan’s imperial forces before and during World War II, during a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. “Whenever I see the statue, I think about how that could have been me if I’d been born during those times,” said Choi. “We want to create discomfort. We want Japan to see us here and think, ‘This is not over,’ and we want the South Korean government to know that we will never let them remove the statue.” (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
(The Associated Press)
In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017 photo, South Korean college students sit in a tent made of plastic sheets to protect a statue of a girl representing thousands of Korean women enslaved for sex by Japan’s imperial forces before and during World War II, during a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. Some young protesters have been camping for more than a year near a small bronze statue of a girl that sits across from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, determined to protect a symbol that plays an outsized role in the relations between Seoul and Tokyo. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
(The Associated Press)
In this Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017 photo, a tent made of plastic sheet is set by students to protect a statue of a girl representing thousands of Korean women enslaved for sex by Japan’s imperial forces before and during World War II, during a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. Some young protesters have been camping for more than a year near the small bronze statue of a girl, determined to protect a symbol that plays an outsized role in the relations between Seoul and Tokyo. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
(The Associated Press)
SEOUL, South Korea – Every night they sleep above cold concrete, curled up in sleeping bags on rubber mattresses in a tent made of plastic sheets held together with tape. Their heads are inches away from cars zooming by — and from a bronze statue of a young girl that sits across from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
Most of the protesters are not much older than the girl the statue depicts. It represents thousands of women enslaved for sex by Japan’s imperial forces before and during World War II, when Korea was a Japanese colony.
Some of these young protesters have been camping here for more than a year, determined to protect the small monument, which plays an outsized role in relations between Seoul and Tokyo, two vibrant democracies and U.
