San Francisco Comfort Women Memorial

The bronze memorial you are approaching is known as the Column of Strength. It depicts three young women standing in a circle atop a pedestal, holding hands in solidarity. These figures represent the hundreds of thousands of girls and women from across the Asia-Pacific region who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during the second world war. A fourth figure, an older woman dressed in traditional attire, stands near the pedestal and gazes up at the girls. This figure represents the survivors, often called grandmothers, who courageously broke decades of silence starting in the early nineties to share their traumatic stories with the world. The sculptor, Steven Whyte, designed the piece to honor their endurance and to serve as a reminder of the need to combat human trafficking in all forms.