San Francisco Comfort Women Memorial

The Women's Column of Strength stands in the southeast corner of Saint Mary's Square. This bronze memorial features three young women holding hands, while an older figure gazes up at them from the base of the pedestal. Designed by Carmel-based artist Steven Whyte and unveiled in September two thousand seventeen, the sculpture commemorates the hundreds of thousands of girls and women from countries including Korea, China, and the Philippines who were coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two.