WWII

SF Visual Art Committee Selects Final Design for San Francisco's Comfort Women Memorial

SF Visual Art Committee Selects Final Design for San Francisco's Comfort Women Memorial

San Francisco Visual Art Committee in the Arts Commission selected the final design for the San Francisco 'Comfort Women' memorial.  The design was among the 30+ applications that were submitted for the Call for Artists.  The three girls on top of a cylindrical pedestal represent the victims from different parts of the world, and the grandma figure represents the survivors who are continuing their struggle for justice and dignity. The memorial will be accompanied by a plaque that explains the 'Comfort Women' history and its meaning today. 

VICTORY! President Obama Signs WWII Filipino Veterans Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015

VICTORY! President Obama Signs WWII Filipino Veterans Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015

After years of waiting, Fil-Am WWII veterans will finally be recognized for their dedicated service. On December 14, President Obama signed into law Senate Bill No. 1555 (S.1555), the "Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015," which provides the Congressional gold medal of appropriate design on behalf of the U.S. Congress, to the Filipino Veterans of WWII.

Birthdays in the Cemetery by Katinka Floro Rodriguez, A Memoir of a Filipina Woman’s World War II Childhood

Birthdays in the Cemetery by Katinka Floro Rodriguez, A Memoir of a Filipina Woman’s World War II Childhood

Just after Pearl Harbor Day, a motherless six-year-old girl awakens when a bomb falls a block from her home, the beginning of years of shattering deprivation.

In World War II Manila, Katinka suffers starvation, illness, and cruelty and loses family in the infamous Bataan Death March. She survives the Japanese occupation and the Battle of Manila. By the end of the war, Manila is destroyed and a million Filipinos are dead, but Katinka has endured the worst and now experiences the American liberation and reconstruction.

Available now on Alford Marr Press.

DENOUNCED: Japan and South Korea Agreement to Reconcile Dispute Over Comfort Women During WWII

DENOUNCED: Japan and South Korea Agreement to Reconcile Dispute Over Comfort Women During WWII

Healing at last? More than 70 years after the end of World War II, South Korea and Japan reached a landmark agreement last Monday to resolve their dispute over Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan’s Imperial Army. Recently, hundreds of South Korean protesters joined two surviving comfort women to denounce the agreement. The remaining survivors were not consulted by South Korean officials as they brokered an agreement with Japan. It is still unclear whether the comfort women will actually receive the compensation money. The 70 former comfort women in the Philippines, China, Indonesia, and North Korea, have yet to receive any financial compensation nor a formal apology from the Japanese government. News story from New York Times.