By Kang Gahui and Lee Hana

The dispute over a memorial statue for the "comfort women" set up in St. Mary's Square in San Francisco has finally been settled.

The statue, donated by a private organization and unveiled in September this year, was met with fierce, ongoing protests from the Japanese government in Tokyo. Despite this, San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee signed a confirmation on Nov. 22 stating that the city council would officially accept the monument.

The statue shows three figures standing in a circle holding hands, representing young women from Korea, China and the Philippines. Beside these three stands a statue of the late Kim Hak-sun, the first woman to speak publicly about her experiences as a "comfort woman," a victim of sexual slavery enforced by the Imperial Japanese government during colonial times and World War II.

An inscription on the side of the statue reads, "This monument bears witness to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of women and girls euphemistically called 'comfort women' who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Armed Forced in 13 Asian-Pacific countries from 1931 to 1945."

Another inscription quotes former "comfort woman" Lee Ok-sun. "What we fear most is that the suffering we endured during World War II will be forgotten."

kgh89@korea.kr