Stop "Comfort Women Statues" and Protect Japanese children and youth in Australia from Racial Discrimination, Bullying and Harassment!
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
AJCN started the following fundraising activities. Please cooperate to protect Japanese children living in Australia.
Donation site: https://www.gofundme.com/t2nvb
Payment with credit card is accepted on this site. If you would like to transfer directly to an account please transfer to the account below.
Japan: ゆうちょ銀行（Japan Post Bank) Store Number: 019
Deposit Type: Current Account Account Number:0324225 Account Name: AJCN
Australia: Commonwealth Bank BSB: 062-246 Account Number:10302121
Account Name: AUSTRALIA-JAPAN COMMUNITY NETWORK INCORPORATED
AJCN (Australia-Japan Community Network) has been acting on behalf of Japanese mothers who are concerned about the safety of their children since April 2014 , when we heard about the proposal of the Comfort Women statue in Strathfield. On August 11, 2015, the Strathfield City Council and local residents unanimously rejected the proposal. This decision effectively made it impossible to erect the statue on public land in Australia. Since then, we had to respond to the second campaign to erect the statue led by a South Korean political group that has close connections with North Korea. Despite our effort this time, however, the statue was unveiled in August last year and currently placed at the Uniting Church in Ashfield.
Although it is placed on private property of the Uniting Church, it is open to the general public. So on December 14 last year, we lodged our official complaint with the Human Rights Commission based on the Racial Discrimination Law against the national organization of the church and the responsible minister of the local church in Ashfield.
There have been cases of Japanese children being bullied and harassed since the erections of such statues in the United States. We also have more and more Japanese people experiencing racial discrimination and harassment in Sydney. The Japanese government took this situation seriously and submitted a letter to the Human Rights Commission via AJCN to express their opinion and concerns regarding this issue.
AJCN is just a group of mothers and fathers who are wishing to protect peace and harmony of our community. Since all of our activities have been carried out by group member's wallets, this time we cannot bear the full cost of attorneys' fees.
To prevent the division of multicultural community in Australia and secure the safe and peaceful life of children and grandchildren, I wish to ask for your support in this fundraising activity .
All the donations will be received and managed by AJCN, then it will be released and appropriated for AJCN's activities/operations as required.
For the activities of AJCN, please visit the following blog site.
April 2017
Sumiyo Egawa
Secretary-General of AJCN
The Japanese government stated the concerns about this issue to the Premiers of NSW twice and requested to take measures.
