This is first september 17th, 2015. The meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services committee of the San Francisco board supervisors. My name is eric mar. Im the chair. To my right is vice chair campos. To my left is julie. Our clerk is mr. Derrick evans. Mr. Evans, please give us our announcements. Silence all cell phones and Electronic Devices and complete speaker cards and documents should be submitted to the clerk. Items will appear on the september 29th, 2015 board supervisors. Theres three items on our agenda. Please call the first item. Resolution urging the city and county of San Francisco to establish a memorial for comfort women. Thank you. Colleagues, i wanted to say that today is a historic day in these chambers. Were joined by incredibly courageous woman, mrs. Hamaney, grand lee, young su lee from korea. I wanted to start by saying todays hearing is about a history of breaking silences. Its about a fight for empathy, for hundreds of thousands of women and girls. Its a fight for justice, and my hope is that we focus on the stories that are told today. I wanted to say that, as a member of this board of supervisors, we pass lots of laws and policies, but i think there are times where something in our chambers within us and with visitors transforms us. It changes us to be more human as detroits how we become more human with more compassion and empathy for others is a way to move our city forward. As a chinese america, with a daughter who is chinese and japaneseamerica who is 15yearold, i want our young folk and future generations to know the stories that are told in these chambers today and allow those stories and that spirit to transform them as well as we move forward with a history and with a passion for peace and justice like lee. I also wanted to say that many people spoke at a Board Meeting on tuesday. Lots of them, veteran leaders from many movements and i wanted to also say that from the inner face communities like rabbi doug to reverend brown, and to those they talked about how people may come from different nations and different communities and neighborhoods, but we all bleed the same in the same color, in the same way, and thats why i say lee, grandma lee brings us together, unifies our communities for a future without oppression of women and girls, a few of peace and justice for all. I wanted to also start by saying that i, as a chinese american have been an ali of japanesechinese communities. I wanted to say that grandma lee helps to bring together many of our communities. I wanted to start with a palm from one of my heroes, janice from 1981. Its from a book called breaking silence. And its a poem about three generations of women and girls, janice and her mother and her daughter, and its about breaking silences, you know, a fight for japaneseamerican redress and repriation and she talks about her mother gaining strength and spirit to speak out after generations like 40 plus years of silence. Janices poem, apart goes, we were made to believe our faces betrayed us. Our bodies were loud with yellow screaming flesh. Needing to be silenced behind barwwire. When you tell me i must limit my when you tell me my time is up, pride has kept my lips pinned by nail and my rage confined, but i exassume my pass. I kill the silence, there are miracles that happens, she said. And everything is made visible. Our language is beautiful. I think this captures the spirit of today, lee and the surviving 50 or more comfort women, homani as theyre respectfully referred to represents living history that can never be denied. Im hoping that we put to rest the right wing propaganda thats flooding from japan to infra trait japan leaders. I hope we pass this resolution as strongly as we can as a city so we say never again will this happen to anyone. We focus on the current and present issues as well, but we learn from the past and we make the past visible. We make the past visible. We make suffering visible. And we break the silence so that we, as San Francisco, can unite and help heal the wounds that have happened in the past. Were really honored to have ms. Young su lee with us. Shes courageous, shes a persevering survivor of the world war ii Japanese Army, so called comfort station. Her fighting spirit, emerges from the Womens Movements of korea and japan and the u. S. And where ever women and girls are, and it has been a fight across the pacific and here for over 20 years as well. Ms. Lee was born in 1928 near dabu korea. She was 15 or 16yearold when she was lured out of her home in the middle of the night by japanese or a soldier with a hat covering his face. She and her friend who was also lured were taken to a so called comfort station for a unit in japanese occupied taiwan. She returned after the war and lived in silence. She lived in silence until 1992 when she registered with a korean government as slavery. She thought what happened to her was isolated, but she realized so many women, well over 200,000 according to scholars over the world and she was subject to the same horrors she was subject to. Since then she has become a leader to demand an apology and government lee, grandma lee was the three survivors who testified here in the United States before the us congress, committee on Foreign Affairs, subcommittee on foreign affair in 2007. She embodies, courage and determination, and i think she brings that spirit to the Comfort Women Coalition within San Francisco and the bay area. I wanted to thank a few people before we allow a statement from the coalition or the Comfort Women Coalition and hear from lee and many other speakers from the community. I wanted to thank two particular judges who have helped to open my eyes and my heart. They have been advocating for a memorial, judges sing and julie tang helped me understand my own roots but how to open up our heart to korea americans, filipinoamericas and those harmed from the atrocity. I wanted to thank judges sing and tang and the rape mansion coalition. I wanted to thank the members of the coalition, i cant name everyone, but we do have a number of important visitors from outside of the San Francisco bay area. Kim has been tra mend us in building awareness throughout the state, and in many other places. She will not translating for lee. Also members of the asia america for peace and justice and the Japanese American Community and commission on the status of women, mr. Julie sue have helped to build abroad deep coalition well continue to build as we enact an memorial, but enact curriculum i am movement so theres materials for teachers so more young people are aware. But as we enact days of remembrance types of programs so we can commemorate and unite and bring people together around a common goal of peace and justice for everyone. I wanted to say we had emotional board of supervisors meeting on tuesday. And we had a 1 00 p. M. Press conference with the leaders of the Comfort Women Coalition today. So many of us are exhausted. Some have traveled from far to be here with us. But ill say that in our public testimony, they will bring this out. At this time, there are no set plans for the design or location of the memorial. We hope a task force will come together including members of the asianAmerican Community and the japaneseAmerican Community and Korean Community so we establish a memorial thats forward looking for the future. Well work through the comfort women human Rights Groups to construct an empowering, healing and peaceful memorial. This year marks the 75th or the 70th anniversary of the end of world war ii and the pacific war. During its 15 years of asian countries, unspeakable and well documented war crimes including mass rape, whole sale massacres, 15 years of asian countries, unspeakable and well documented war crimes including mass rape, whole sale massacres, torture and other atrocity were committed by the Japanese Army during the territories and the colonies within the pacific. Many of the comfort women have died without represent ragss and without an apology. The historical memory of the term oil and the pain. Its not just the women and girls, its their families, its whole generations as well, the pain and term oil endured by them must never be denied. I wanted to also acknowledge that as we move forward to the vote before the board of supervisors meeting, im meeting with many of the members of the coalition, but also others from the japan Town Community and japanese americans so we bring them in to help us design and make sure that the memorial is one that all of our communities can come together around. With that, i wanted to invite judge julie tang to give a short statement on behalf of the Comfort Women Coalition. Judge tang. Thank you very much for giving us this audience. Lets build a memorial to remember the comfort women. It has been braced by a multi ethic, multi Sexual Orientation of those who represent San Francisco. We call ourselves the Comfort Women Coalition. For the memorial, japan. The Japanese Military was solely responsible a comfort woman system. Mayor moto, subject our condemnation by the board of supervisors in 2013 set, comfort women was necessary to maintain discipline in the military. This justification and state of mind defiance and unrepentance and further war crimes committed by the military predominates over the japanese government mindset and its the engine for the policy of denial. By denying it, current japanese government continues to revictimize the women and girls, infuriating the girls. Theyre the most representative and the Largest Group of victims of Sexual Exploitation of women in modern history. The comfort women victimization is the modern day of sexual slavery. They need to be remembered not by word of mouth, but memorial to remember the evils that happened to girls grandma lee who came to give us for all comfort women, victims, deserve to know San Francisco is building a memorial for her and all other comfort women victim. This coalition is on the record of posing any amendments to the current resolution that will change the character and intent of the resolution. Thank you. Thank you, judge tang. [applause] speaker colleagues, i would like to open this up for Public Comment because we know theres so many people, we have to limit comments within two minutes. If theres translation, well do our best to be flexible, the first speaker is ms. Yung sue lee, grandma lee as we respectfully refer to her. Interpreter hello, everyone. My name is young sue lee. Im the living evidence of history. Thank you, everyone in San Francisco. Im not going to go into the details of my story because supervisor eric mar already talked to you about it. One thing i want to tell you clearly is we hate the crimes, but not the people. For the sake of our next generation and children and grand children, i think we need to teach them accurate history. I want to tell you the truth will come out no matter what. I want to tell the leaders of japan to change your mind. We, our generation, we are nearly the end of our lives. We are old people, actually in korea, there are only 47 survivors. And we dont have many people. They are dying off everyday. But i want to tell you, the japanese government, if you want if you are waiting for us to pass away, all of them, please change your mind. If you have your parents, think about it. These grandmothers are so sick. They cannot get up. They cannot talk clearly. But so before they all pass away, i want to urge you to resolve this, clearly as soon as possible in a peaceful manner. What youre doing is being seen by the whole world. Its being heard by the whole world. Please continue. Interpreter human being must be truthful. Interpreter i believe most of japans people are very conscious people, so i urge the japanese government to do the right thing, which is to teach the next generation the correct history and give the right education because i wish the children of korea and japan became friends because were neighboring countries. As an activist for human rights and womens rights, who is working for the human rights of all women i want to give this hope. As you can see me, i am here standing as the witness of the history. Why did i have to go through the electric torture, why did i have to go through the near death so many times because i refuse to go into the soldiers room. I almost died many times, but i survived. The government is the one who is lying. All im saying is the truth. I have never received any official apology, so i urge the japanese government to issue an official apology and reparation. I know that japanese government is spending a lot of money im not going to going into the details of it because you know about it, and all everybody in the world already knows about it. So i expect you to be able to resolve it, and i urge you to erect a memorial in San Francisco. Im so grateful for you because of the energy you gave me thats how i can stand here and talk to you. Thank you so much. [applause] colleagues, do you have any questions for grandma lee. [applause] thank you, lee, thank you grandmaly. Im going to call we have a huge list of speakers. Im going to do my best to get through this as quickly as i can. The first speaker is the founder of the inner face council. Next speaker is sandy morrie. Also Peter Yamamoto and judy, and ying lee kelly. Ill call names as they come up. If people can line up on the right side of the room. It doesnt have to be the order, but if your name is called, please come forward. Ms. Semal. Thank you supervisor mar, supervisor christianson and campos. I support the memorial to the comfort memorial for several reasons. Its important to remember so that we do not make the same mistake again. Or even more important, we make sure of that, by taking action to prevent reoccurrence. The traffic of women and children is a reality today, in india, the middle east and our country and our city. Im concerned what might happen when later this year, when thousands of those will come to San Francisco for the super bowl. There will be some who will take advantage of innocent women and girls. What are we doing to prevent that. This is more than symbolic, its evidence of our resolve to do all we can to prevent a reoccurrence of such activity. The commission on the status of women has recently done major work in this area. I hope it will continue that. It is up it is up to the rest of us to work with the commission and with you, members of the board of supervisors to make our city a shining example for the rest of the United States. And indeed for the world. Thank you very much. Thank you ms. Semal. Next speaker. Yeah, christianson told me its better if those can show appreciation by jazz hands or whatever theyre called so we can move through the meeting as quick as possible. My name is sandy morgan. I would like to read from the words of janice. She could not be here today. But she wanted me to deliver this message to all of you at this community meeting. This is janice speaking. I am and have been in support of the comfort Womens Movement for over two decades. A memorial sitting of its history as an atrocity of war by the Japanese Imperialist army. Who would not be supportive of this must moral. We cannot deny the reality of this atrocity, but i question a memorial being placed on public land in the subject of policy for San Francisco politicians. I also believe we cannot forget the holocaust history or the genocide of 6 million jews by the nazi party. Nor forget the us opening an era of nuclear warfare. Nor forget the atrocity of unlawful incarceration of 120,000 american citizens of japanese ancestry. Nor deny the racial, religious profiling, persecution and hatred against six muslims, eastern people, and middle asians of so basically shes asking why as a city of San Francisco named after saint francis, why are we not visionaries for a greater measure for peace, and for unconditional acceptance, diversity and racial unity. Shes asking you to consider amendments to the resolution that supervisor mar has created. Thank you. Thank you. As i said, please use jazz hands if you can. I wanted to thank the other cosponers of the resolution, supervisors campos and yee, and john avalos and kim and supervisor mark farrell for being the 8 supervisors supporting this resolution out of our 11 supervisors. Next speaker, mr. Yahamoto. My name is peter and im a 4th generation japaneseamerican born in San Francisco. I live in district 3. Im a voting citizen. Sometimes for no reason at all, but for a sense of love and justice, a man has got to do what he has to do. My opinion is my opinion alone. 200,000 women have been including japan, were coerced into being sex slaved until 1945 and were oppressed. I support the memorial as opposed by supervisor mar. I think apologies so the women wronged condolences from bondage and rape. I think it is a place of justice minded people everywhere to make comments on this issue of world war human sex trafficking and done a memorial on City Property is appropriate as sex trafficking is a problem in San Francisco as we speak. Freedom and justice of the americans can distinguish between the war crimes of Imperial Japan and