STATUE OF PEACE IN NAGOYA

As Seoul-Tokyo relations continue to deteriorate, a Statue of Peace has been installed at a public art museum for the first time in Japan. A smaller version of this statue of a girl representing the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery was shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum a few years ago, but removed after four days due to protests. It remains to be seen whether this statue can remain standing until the end of the exhibit, and communicate the pains of wartime victims to the Japanese people.
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This small Statue of Peace, barely the size of a grown-up's hand, was displayed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in 2012 but was removed just after four days due to protests. It took seven years for the original Statue of Peace to be exhibited in that country again. Local visitors see and touch the statue to get a sense of Korea's painful history.
[Soundbite] KIM SEO-KYUNG(SCULPTOR OF THE STATUE OF PEACE) : "I hope people can relate to it. I think people in Japan do, too."
Photos of Japan's wartime sex crime victims were also on display. All of the 20 pieces in the room have to do with women forced into wartime sex slavery, forced labor conscription, Okinawa and other subjects deemed taboo in Japan and were once attacked or censored because of the subject matter. This is the first time in Japan that artworks related to comfort women were shown side by side.
[Soundbite] OKAMOTO(EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER, AICHI TRIENNALE) : "I hope this serves as a channel that connects citizens of both nations at a time when bilateral ties are so bad."
This two-month-long exhibit titled "Freedom of Expression?," also known as "Lack of freedom of expression and thereafter," is part of Japan's largest international arts show. Conscientious Japanese citizens are scheduled to stand guard at the exhibit to keep the country's right-wing extremists from disrupting the event.