7 hours ago
8
Diplomatic relations between Japan and New Zealand could be jeopardised if a statue symbolising the thousands of women Japan forced into sexual slavery before and during the second world war is erected in an Auckland garden, the Japanese embassy has warned.
The bronze statue depicts a seated girl next to an empty chair and was given to New Zealand by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance, a non-government organisation, to commemorate survivors of wartime sexual violence.
If local authorities approve the proposal at a meeting on 28 April, it will be installed in the Korean cultural garden at Barry’s Point reserve in Auckland.
Some historians say as many as 200,000 women – mostly from Korea, but also China, south-east Asian, as well as a small number from Japan and Europe – were forced or tricked into working in military brothels between 1932 and 1945. They were euphemistically referred to as “comfort women” – a term Japan continues to use, despite survivors having taken issue with the label.
The women were forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers in frontline, makeshift brothels. According to testimony from surviving women, they were forced to have sex with 10 to 30 men a day in dimly lit rooms furnished only with beds. Condoms were washed and reused, and offered little protection against sexually transmitted diseases. Medical examinations were infrequent, and many women became addicted to the mercury 606 used to treat syphilis. Forced abortions were commonplace.
In a submission to Auckland council, the Japanese ambassador, Makoto Osawa, said “needlessly stirring up interest” in the issue could become a burden not only for Japan and South Korea’s cooperation but for Japan-New Zealand relations.
Osawa argued the government’s funding of water and electricity for the development of the garden in 2015 could “give the impression that the New Zealand government is also supporting the installation”, were it erected.
A spokesperson from the Japanese embassy, who did not wish to be named, told the Guardian the statue would create division and conflict within Japanese and Korean communities and could result in Japanese cities cutting ties with New Zealand cities.
The relationship between Japan and South Korea has become strained since the first survivor went public with her story in the early 1990s. The first “peace statue” honouring the women was erected in Seoul in 2011. Since then dozens more have been erected overseas, prompting Japan to call for their removal.
In 2018, Osaka ended its 60-year “sister city” relationship with San Francisco after the city agreed to recognise a similar statue – erected by a private group in San Francisco’s Chinatown district – as public property. In 2020, Japan reacted angrily to statues in South Korea that appeared to depict the former Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, prostrating himself before a young woman. In 2025, a peace statue was removed from Berlin, after a years-long dispute over its presence.
Japan insists that the “comfort women” issue was settled “finally and irreversibly” by a 2015 agreement reached by Abe – who agreed to provide 1 billion yen (US$9m) in “humanitarian” funds to a foundation set up to support the survivors – and then-South Korean president Park Geun-hye, who agreed not to raise the issue in international forums.
Park’s liberal successor, Moon Jae-in, effectively dissolved the fund in 2018, saying it did not take into account the feelings of survivors and the South Korean public.
Successive Japanese administrations have refused to provide official recompense, insisting that all compensation claims were settled under a 1965 bilateral peace treaty.
Japan had no intention of denying or underestimating the experiences of the women, its embassy in New Zealand said, but it believed the statue was part of an “anti-Japan” movement led by a group of Korean people who wanted to make the issue “more sensational”.
“This statue actually has brought division and conflict to the community in [other] countries, instead of reconciliation between Japanese people and the Korean people.”
The Guardian contacted the Korean embassy and the office of New Zealand’s minister of foreign affairs for comment.
The proposal for Auckland’s statue received 672 submissions, with 51% of individuals strongly opposing it, and 13 out of 21 organisations also against it, according to Auckland council. New Zealand-based Japanese submitters accounted for 36% of submitters while 34% were Korean. Many supporters believed the statue would serve as an appropriate way to highlight sexual violence, while those opposing it felt it would be too politically charged.
The Aotearoa New Zealand Statue of Peace committee – a group working with the Korean Garden Trust to install the statue – told the Guardian the project was about “acknowledging the violence inflicted on these girls and young women” and remembering the humanity of all survivors. Rebekah Jaung, the chairperson, said it was shocking that Japan “would so blatantly try to silence a monument honouring women on the other side of the world”.
“Every one of the girls and women who were taken, and their families, have their own heartbreaking story and many of the survivors also have legacies of reclaiming their power through activism,” Jaung said. “The statue is a small way to unite and share their stories.”
Additional reporting by Justin McCurry in Tokyo
