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Former comfort woman Gil Won-ok poses next to the comfort woman statue during its unveiling ceremony in Annandale, Virginia, on Oct. 27.

The chant was raised by members of a crowd, standing with fists clenched, at a ceremony unveiling a comfort woman statue on Oct. 27.

The statue was installed in the front yard of a building in Annandale, Fairfax County, Virginia, near Washington, DC, known for its large Korean population.

This ceremony ended three years of limbo for the statue, which has finally found a home after arriving in Washington in November 2016. The groups behind the statue are committed to working even harder to raise historical awareness and to secure an apology from Japan.

The unveiling ceremony was organized by the Washington Committee for Installing the Statue of a Young Woman of Peace, which represents the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues (Lee Jeong-sil, chair), Washington Butterfly for Hope (Cho Hyeon-suk, president), and the Washington chapter of the National Unification Advisory Council (Lee Jae-su, chair).

Former comfort woman Gil Won-ok, 93, and Yoon Mi-hyang, president of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, flew in from South Korea to see this statue, which is the fifth comfort woman statue to be installed in the US. The others are in Glendale, California; Brookhaven, Georgia; Southfield, Michigan; and Manhattan, New York City.

In attendance at the ceremony were a large number of Korean-Americans as well as figures from the Virginia state government and legislature.

After the covering was removed, Gil took a flower wreath from around her neck and draped it over the comfort woman statue, grinning broadly, before making a respectful bow. Gil, who was abducted by the Japanese military at the age of 13, recited a poem called “I’ve Come All the Way Here After Becoming the Washington Statue of a Girl of Peace.” The poem, written by Yoon Mi-hyang, tells Gil’s own story.

“It feels great to have so many people here to welcome me. We’ve set up [the comfort woman statue] here in the US so that more people can learn about this,” Gil said when reporters asked her to share her feelings.

Former comfort woman Gil Won-ok, 93, waves to a comfort woman statue after placing a floral wreath on it during the statue’s unveiling ceremony in Annandale, Virginia, on Oct. 27. (photos by Hwang Joon-bum)

The comfort woman statue is the same size as the statue that was installed across the former Japanese Embassy in Seoul: 200cm wide, 160cm long, and 123cm tall.

Although the statue arrived in Washington in 2016 and even received a welcome ceremony, efforts to erect it in downtown Washington or on the campus of Salisbury University in Maryland were foiled time and time again by Japanese obstruction.

The statue was left to languish in a warehouse near Washington until Aug. 15, Korea’s Liberation Day, when it was taken on a “surprise outing” to Washington. Later, the organizers were put in touch with the Korean owner of a building in Annandale who was willing to provide land at a token rent, and the installation moved forward quickly after that.

With the help of local Koreans, a small exhibition about the comfort women was also set up on the first floor of a building next to the comfort woman statue.

“We did it!” said Lee Jae-su, chair of the Washington chapter of the National Unification Advisory Council, while thanking local Koreans for their help.

“We haven’t abandoned our original goal of setting up a comfort woman statue in downtown Washington. There are Koreans who have offered their own land in Washington, and another idea is to install it at a university. I think this will move forward faster than expected,” said Lee Jeong-sil and Cho Hyeon-suk, co-chairs of the Washington committee for erecting the statue.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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