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suggesting hate-driven vandalism. (provided by the Comfort Women Justice Coalition)

The first comfort woman monument in a major American city was raised on Sept. 22, 2017, in central San Francisco. On Sept. 10, advertisements publicizing the monuments were placed in two sites to mark the first anniversary: at the St. Mary’s Park bus stop near the monument site, and at the Bay Bridge, which sees heavy traffic.

“We placed the advertisements on Sept. 10 to share the seriousness of the comfort women victimization issue with young Americans,” explained Kim Han-il, representative of the Kim Jin-deok and Jeong Kyung-sik Foundation. The advertisements will remain in place for around one month.

The comfort women memorial advertisement at St. Mary’s Park bus stop

Last month, marks of green and white paint were found on the clothes and eyes of the monument’s statue of former comfort woman Kim Hak-soon.

“Last year, someone made deep knife gouges on the memorial’s copper plate,” said the Comfort Women Justice Coalition, which led the monument raising effort.

“These acts of statue defacement appear to be hate crimes and must not be overlooked,” the group stressed, calling for a thorough investigation by police.

Marks of green and white paint were found on the clothes and eyes of the monument’s statue of former comfort woman Kim Hak-soon

Since last year, the Japanese city of Osaka has been threatening to end its sister city relationship with San Francisco if the latter does not remove the comfort woman statues from the public land where the monument was raised.

By Kang Sung-man, senior staff writer

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