S.F. supervisors call for memorial to WWII ‘comfort women’

Yong Soo Lee (center), who was enslaved by the Japanese army during the war, receives a hug at a San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting at City Hall in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. Yong Soo Lee (center), who was enslaved by the Japanese army during the war, receives a hug at a San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting at City Hall in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close S.F. supervisors call for memorial to WWII ‘comfort women’ 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed legislation Tuesday urging the city to build a memorial honoring an estimated 200,000 women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during World War II — but did so only following a flurry of last-minute tweaking.

“Breaking silence over generations and over decades is what we are talking about here today,” said Supervisor Eric Mar, author of the legislation.

The measure calls on the city to find a way to build a memorial, but allocates no money for the project.

In the hours before the vote, the supervisors wrangled over amendments to appease an outspoken contingent of opponents who said the measure was anti-Japanese. The final product was the same — a measure calling for a memorial to honor the women — but the wording generated intense backroom negotiations.

In the end, Supervisors Scott Wiener and Norman Yee introduced a sentence noting that “Japan is not the only country that has victimized women.”

Mar also added language to highlight the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in internment camps in the U.S. during the war, as well as a sentence instructing city departments to explore other opportunities to educate residents about “current-day human trafficking.”

Supporters of the memorial turned out in force for Tuesday’s meeting, wearing shirts emblazed with a yellow butterfly, the symbol of the women forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese army. They were known as “comfort women.”

Proponents of the memorial expressed unhappiness with the last-minute tweaks.

“I’m happy we are going to establish a memorial, but the wording, they just watered it down to depict it’s being done by everyone,” said Rudy Asercion, a member of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations.

Emily Green is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: egreen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @emilytgreen