New York Holocaust Center to open comfort women’s hall

The Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center & Archives located at Queensborough Community College in New York has decided to team up with the local Korean American association to install a permanent exhibition hall to introduce to Americans pain and suffering of comfort women who were forced to be sex slavers for the Japanese military by investing 80,000 U.S. dollars.

According to the Holocaust Resource Center & Archives and the Korean American Association of Greater New York on Monday (local time), Dr. Arthur Flug, executive director of the Holocaust center, visited the association’s office and agreed to implement the measure. Flug said, “We plan to create an exhibition hall at 100 sq. meter space within the center, and the center will pay 30,000 dollars of the 80,000-dollar expense.” The Korean American association will hold a board meeting next week and discuss measures to mobilize the remaining 50,000 dollars. The exhibition hall will display voice records of sex slavery victims, interview videos, photos and historical materials.

Chairman Min Seung-ki of the Korean association quoted Director Flug as saying at their meeting that “thinking what I would feel if my own granddaughter fell victim to sex slavery, I decided to do this without fail before I die. It is our obligation to teach next generations to ensure such a thing will never happen again.”

“The Korean American community should have taken the initiative, and we feel sorry that the Holocaust Center took the lead,” Min said. “If a permanent exhibition hall is installed, we expect it will spread to hundreds of other holocaust museums within the U.S.” The Holocaust Museum in Long Island, New York, is also reportedly considering setting a special exhibition hall jointly with a Korean American organization.