"I wanted to inform Japanese citizens about the girl statue of peace and its meaning." Yamamoto Mihagi (female, 64), who is leading the campaign to spread the Little Peace Girl Award in Japan, explained why the campaign was held in an interview with Yonhap News Agency today.

"In November, I met the story of the comfort women's peace girl statue when I met Kim Woon-sung and Kim Seo-kyung, the creator of the Peace Girl Award in Nagoya." "I thought about how to tell Japanese people what it means, and then I came up with a campaign."

This campaign, carried out by activists of the civil society `` 100-year Tokai Action '' (hereinafter referred to as Tokai Action), a civic group such as Mr. Yamamoto, is a miniature statue of peace (13 cm wide and 13 cm long) in front of the Japanese Embassy in Korea. ) Since the beginning of the year, the girl image and the photographs taken are shared on social networking service (SNS).
Yamamoto and others have taken pictures of the Little Girl from more than 120 participants and introduced them through Facebook and blogs.

They also send girls awards to participants all over the country.

Yamamoto, a company employee, has worked as a civil activist after participating in the lifesaving campaign for Japanese Koreans arrested for espionage in Korea in the 1970s.

"Fortunately, there are no threats from the right wing, but there are concerns about disturbing activities," he said about the campaign. "As a result, we can send photos and stories under the pseudonym instead of the real name."

"There are some participants who took photos with their girls on a private trip, and some of them bought them and distributed them to people in their area." "After the exhibition at the Aichi Triennale earlier this month, "The situation is increasing."

Nagoya, where Yamamoto lives, is unfortunately the host area of ​​the Aichi Triennale, where the girl statue was exhibited but the exhibition was discontinued.

He said, "When I met with the artists on the first day of the exhibition, I said that I hope it will be properly displayed as scheduled by October." "I didn't even dream that the exhibition would be finished in three days."

(Photo: provided by Yamamoto Mihagi, Campaign Blog Capture, Yonhap News)