Despite standing barely 1.5 meters tall and being humble in appearance, it's been dubbed by some media reports as the statue dividing Sydney, especially between the local Korean and Japanese communities due to its huge symbolic significance.
Named the Peace Statue, this life-sized sculpture was unveiled at Croydon Park over the weekend before a crowd of over 200 guests and dignitaries from different parts of Australia and South Korea. Designed by sculptor Kim Seo Kyung in memory of young girls and women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II, the statue is the first of its kind erected in Sydney. It joins a number of other statutes of the same design displayed in cities in the United States and Canada.
Tensions surrounding the statue actually began over a year ago when initial plans to display it at a public place in Strathfield was abandoned by Strathfield Council after protests by opponents of the statue.
The statue was then left without a home until this year when the Exodus Foundation's Rev Bill Crews agreed to display the statue on the grounds of the Ashfield Uniting Church (being private land and not subject to local council approval). But it was not without further heated debate and legal threats against the church which have been widely reported in the media recently.
Opponents of the statue have argued the sculpture reopens old wounds and could incite racial hatred against the Japanese community in Australia, which is unlawful under section 18C of the racial vilification laws.
The application of section 18C in this situation is untested. On its face, the law does not make unlawful anything said or done reasonably and in good faith in the exhibition of "artistic work". It also exempts the making or publishing of fair comment on any event or matter of public interest if the comment is an expression of a genuine belief held by the person making the comment.
If section 18C applies in this situation, then scores of other war memorials and historical monuments could potentially be caught in the same boat as well. By definition, all wars involve conflicts between peoples of various nationalities. So could a war memorial commemorating the sacrifices of Australian soldiers similarly offend people of nationalities that Australia have fought against in past wars? There are also other memorials, for example one in Meadowbank, commemorating the Armenian genocide (an issue hotly contested by the Turkish Government).
The more poignant issue is the debate over the historic accuracy of the relevant events, as some right wing groups in Japan have reportedly continued to dispute whether the Comfort Women were actually forced into sexual slavery or whether they were willing participants.
At the unveiling ceremony, the crowd heard from Carol Ruff, daughter of Australian Comfort Women survivor Jan Ruff O'Herne (now 93 and unable to travel from Adelaide). She expressed dismay at how women like her mother who were captured and enslaved in a military brothel in Java during World War II could be viewed as willing prostitutes. She and other supporters of the statute have warned against historic facts being forgotten or rewritten, lest we repeat the same mistakes in history.
So what is truth? It's the same question Pontius Pilate put to Jesus over 2000 years ago in the gospel account of John in the Bible. (Of course, some today also dispute that account and the Bible itself, too - a debate for another time).
It's true that accounts of wars and historical events are rarely one-sided or wholly black and white. But that doesn't mean when it comes to educating future generations, anything that's controversial or the subject of disagreements, should thereby be relegated to the status of opinions or perspectives only - especially when one is dealing with the serious subject of sexual abuse of women and young girls. In an age where anyone can self-edit Wilkipedia entries, there's clearly a risk that on any controversial issue, opinions are given the same weighting as facts and the issue is parked in the "disputed category" for the sake of political correctness.
If nothing else, the Peace Statue being displayed in Ashfield should at least generate awareness and encourage new generations to do their own research on some of humanity's darker events. In our information-rich world, we have a greater ability today than ever before to seek to know the facts for ourselves. There's certainly a wealth of materials available in libraries and online today containing first-hand accounts from these women and ex-military officers. However, the time to hear these accounts first-hand is fast running out as ageing survivors die out. At the unveiling ceremony on the weekend, survivor Gil Won Ok (now 89) made the uncomfortable journey from South Korea to Sydney despite her frail health to tell her story to newer generations. But there's no guarantee she can make a repeat trip in the future.
As newly elected and first indigenous NSW woman Federal MP for Barton, Linda Burney told the rally at Croydon Park the truth may sometimes be suppressed, but the truth remains the truth. I guess not unlike in our own personal relationships with people, real trust and lasting harmony cannot be built on avoidance of difficult conversations, but only in an environment where there's open and frank discussion based on the facts. Even if that discussion may cause some discomfort in the short term.
is a former deputy mayor in the City of Ryde and has been an independent local government councillor since 2008. He is also editor of (modelled on Humans of New York) publishing stories of people from multicultural Eastwood in Sydney's North West.
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