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The monument has been in San Francisco for a year. He represents young women from Korea, China and the Philippines standing on a pedestal, holding hands, while a statue of Kim Hak-sun, a Korean activist, looks at them.
But Osaka's vision in Japan of the memorial, which commemorates the tens of thousands of "comfort women" who were arrested and raped by Japanese soldiers before and during World War II, was critical. This week, controversy erupted when Osaka officially broke off its partnership with San Francisco.
In a letter dated Tuesday, Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura responded to a threat issued a year ago to end his long-standing relationship with San Francisco in protest against the monument, saying that he presented a one-sided message.
"I urge you to quickly remove" the memorial and plaque "without further delay," Yoshimura wrote, according to a copy of the letter sent by email. He added that he would restore links with San Francisco if they were removed from the city property.
That will not happen, according to Judith Mirkinson, the president of the Comfort Women Justice Coalition, an alliance of immigrant women's groups who have worked for years at the erection of the statue and who have financed it with private donations.
"He does not come down," she says.
Jeff Cretan, a spokesman for the mayor of London Breed, told local media on Tuesday that he expects relations between the two cities to continue through members of the San Francisco Citizens' Twin Committee. -Osaka and their counterparts in Osaka.
On Thursday, Ms. Breed said in a statement that a mayor could not unilaterally terminate a relationship that has existed between the two cities for more than 60 years.
She described the memorial as "a symbol of the struggle facing all women who have been and are currently forced to endure the horrors of slavery and sex trafficking."
"These victims deserve our respect and this memorial reminds us of all the events and lessons we must never forget," she added.
Japan's position on comfort women has been evolving for decades. In 1993, he officially recognized that his wartime army forced women to work in brothels. Former comfort women began to complain of being forced to visit brothels, euphemistically called "comfort posts", in the territories occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. .
The issue continues to undermine relations between South Korea and Japan, two key US allies whose cooperation is essential to control North Korea and balance China's power in East Asia.
The Twin Cities Partnership was established in 1957 between Osaka and San Francisco, a city with an Asian population of about 40%. In recent years, she has supported student exchanges and cultural events, "said Julie Tang, Chair of the Comfort Women Justice Coalition.
But it also paved the way for the monument, known as "Women of Comfort: Pillar of Strength", to become a lightning rod between the two cities.
Several years ago, the coalition and 11 human rights groups organized a popular campaign for the construction of the memorial. In 2015, the city's supervisory board approved the construction of the mainly bronze monument.
Despite several letters from Mr. Yoshimura and his predecessor opposed to this statue, it was unveiled in downtown San Francisco on September 22, 2017, the first of its kind in a major city in the United States. A city resolution later proclaimed this date as Comfort Women's Day to honor the victims.
In November 2017, Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco signed a resolution to officially designate the statue as a monument of the city. The controversy has widened. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said the decision was "not only deeply regrettable but also opposed to the views of the Japanese government". Mr Yoshimura said that he would end his ties with the sister city by the end of the year.
But in December, Mr. Lee died in a hospital after collapsing in a supermarket. Mr. Yoshimura waited until July, when he sent a letter in which he set out his objections to Ms. Breed.
In his letter of 2 October, Mr. Yoshimura did not take any action on the statue, he stated that the official links between the two cities were no longer possible, and pointed out one of his objections to the registration, which says in particular:
"This monument bears witness to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of women and girls, euphemistically called" comfort women ", who were sexually slaves to Japanese imperial armies in thirteen countries of the Asia-Pacific region from 1931 to 1945. "
He stated that he would support an inscription that would raise awareness of sex trafficking "applicable in the same way to all countries".
"He wants to remove the memorial because he is afraid of the truth," said Lillian Sing, retired judge of the Superior Court and president of the coalition. "Delete it does not delete the story."
