To City Councilman Frank Quintero, and the members of the City Council of Glendale:

 

 

Dear Mr. Frank Quintero and To whom it may concern

I've heard that you have a plan of building a monument of comfort women. If you are aware of photogaraphic or documented evidence of forced comfort women, please have it forwarded to me so that I may examine it. Please read the top entry of my blog: http://kumo.typepad.jp/ and http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2013/06/comfort-women-in-korea.html

Sincerely

(My name) M.D. Ph.D
General Surgeon
http://kumo.typepad.jp/

Staff Response: The City of Glendale received your message regarding the “Korean Comfort Women” issue. First, we would like to thank you for expressing your views on the topic. Second, we would like to give further clarification on the topic as it relates to our City and our 193,000 diverse residents.

We here in the City of Glendale are proud of our broad ethnic and cultural base, and seek to find cohesiveness for all those who choose to live here. For many years, the City of Glendale has maintained a strong relationship with other cities outside of the United States through our Sister City Program. Glendale currently has seven Sister Cities around the world (two in Mexico, one in Armenia, two in South Korea, and one in Japan).

In conjunction with the Sister City Program, the City of Glendale has been approached by representatives of the local Korean community seeking the approval for a memorial at a location designated for displays and monuments dedicated to our Sister Cities. To be clear, this is not a dedicated area of land exclusively for a Korean Comfort Women monument, but rather, this plot will be open and available for all of our sister cities to erect monuments of their own.

I hope this helps answers some of your questions and concerns. Thank you again for your correspondence.

(Vocabulary from comments)
as to sth
1 ＜…＞に関して, について
He kept everyone guessing as to his real intentions.  彼の本当の意図についてみんなあれこれ考えさせられた．
2 (話題を切りだして) ＜…＞に関しては, については
As to my plans for the future, I don't have any.  将来の計画といっても何もありません．
succinct [形](ほめて) 簡明な, 簡潔な
a succinct answer 簡明な答え
--------------------------------------------
enchanting  魅惑的な
The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.
いろいろ調べた結果、"天網恢々（てんもうかいかい）粗（そ）にして漏らさず" としている辞書を見つけたが、？。原文を読むだけで意味は自明ですね。

Comments

[KUMO]

Dear Magrat
Thank you for your reply and concern. Keep an eye on development of this issue, please.

[Magrat]

So. You ask them if they have any documented evidence of forced comfort women, and instead of saying that they do not have any they answer that their sister cities can erect whatever monuments they want. How perfectly enchanting!
Well, it will be a very neat solution to have their Japanese sister city erect their monument next to the Korean one, dedicated to the Korean prostitutes who did not stop working during the war and went on carrying out their professional duties at best they could. This would be a nice one!
But seriously, I think this is a matter to be left to the government. I think the best thing to do would be to inform the corresponding department of the fact and of the answer received from Glendale authorities and see if they can take any measures. Mind you, I doubt that something could be done at the moment, the time is not right yet, but I strongly believe that it will add up to the bill that will eventually have to be paid. One of my favourite proverbs is "The mills of God grind slowly,yet they grind exceeding small" (I do not know what is the Japanese equivalent for this).

[KUMO]

Thank you for your comment and I apologize my laziness of posting my reply. Judging from your IP address, you live in Spain. If you feel something about my entries, don't hesitate to post comments from now, and thank you again!!

[Magrat]

Well, as to the contents, I fully support it. But what would you? The world has gone mad, I just cannot see what one can do as an individual. It seems that considering lying just a sin does not work, it might be a solution to start considering it a crime. In this case of the comfort women, something can be done on the government level, so I suppose if the Japanese government does not want to put a stop to this double-standard craziness, it is because they have their reasons. Maybe the time has not come yet....
As to the form of the message,I think it would have been better to make it more succinct, especially if it is supposed to be directed to Westerners as well, with their memory span problem.
Thank you very much for posting these materials on the recent Japanese history, it is nice to know that there are people who have not been influenced by the post-war brainwashing.