Former and current government officials, each holding a portrait of a late "comfort women" survivor, pay tribute at the "comfort women" memorial at a rally on Saturday in San Francisco. We want the victim community to shake hands with the invading country and together we work for peace and preserve history," said Lilian Sing, co-chair of San Franciscobased Comfort Women Justice Coalition (CWJC), during a celebration of the first anniversary of the installment of a "comfort women" memorial in the city on Saturday. The rape victims were euphemistically called "comfort women". "We also want to celebrate the courage and strength of the 'comfort women' victims who survived to tell their stories to the world." Kazuko Yamahara, a representative of Forum for Improvement of Osaka, told the rally that many Japanese citizens learned about the "comfort women" issue for the first time from San Francisco's "comfort women" memorial, because the Japanese government whitewashed the history.