ESJF intern Esmé Lee-Gardner participated in the 2022 International Youth Workshop on preserving the history of the Japanese military sexual slavery system hosted by the Machangjin Civil Assembly for Japanese Military Sexual Slaves. Representing ESJF, she was the only participant from the U.S. to attend the workshop. From Aug. 26–28, despite language barriers, the participants from Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and the U.S. engaged in discussions and presented ideas for fighting historical denialism and presented their resolutions in a press conference. Here’s part of Esmé’s reflection on the event:
 
Through this workshop, I was able to hear in-depth about Korean, Japanese, and Filipino youths’ experiences encountering the topic of “comfort women” in school, home, and society. I’m so thankful that this event presented an environment for us to discuss this issue with youths from different countries. … Although this event did not bring me hope for a major change in the near future, it did instill in me a determination to contribute to the continuation of the movement to preserve the true history of Japanese military sexual slavery victims.

​On Aug. 25, Sung discussed both the movement to preserve “comfort women” history as well as opposition to the movement in California with the 2022 AJ Rookie Media Program participants from the School of Media Studies at Korea University (고려대학교) before they visited the SF memorial Women’s Column of Strength. This media program is Korea University’s annual initiative that competitively selects a group of undergraduates to visit innovation hot spots in the contemporary mediascape. The group participated in a program at Stanford University before coming to San Francisco. Russ Lowe, ESJF co-founder, and Eric Mar, a former SF Board of Supervisors member who proposed the resolution to install the memorial, also joined the discussion.

​https://mailchi.mp/25d28361b438/esjf-july-newsletter?e=9408bfc1cd

​https://mailchi.mp/25d28361b438/esjf-july-newsletter?e=9909c84291