The mayor of Japan’s second city of Osaka yesterday said he would end sister-city relations with San Francisco after the US city decided to accept a donated memorial to “comfort women.”
Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura said trust between the two cities, which have been “sister” cities for 60 years, had been “completely destroyed” by the incident.
“The sister city relationship with San Francisco will be terminated,” Yoshimura said, adding that the split would be formalized next month.
Japan’s national government has stepped in to urge San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee (李孟賢) to reject the memorial, as Tokyo struggles to explain its position to the international community.
Lee on Wednesday signed a document formalizing the city’s acceptance of the memorial, Kyodo News reported.
Mainstream historians have said up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, but also other parts of Asia including Taiwan and China, were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II.
Activists have in recent years set up dozens of statues around the world in honor of the victims.
Japanese conservatives have said the 200,000 figure has no factual basis and have accused activists, as well as the South Korean government, of politicizing the issue, even after the two nations officially settled it.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who also faces criticism as a nationalist attempting to gloss over the nation’s wartime acts, has said that San Francisco’s “extremely regrettable” plan was “in conflict” with Japan’s position.
“The government has explained our position to the San Francisco mayor about the comfort women issue” and urged authorities there to veto the measure to accept the memorial, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said yesterday. “We will make efforts so that similar incidents will not happen again.”
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