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Community speakers urge care and contest inclusion of 'comfort women' history after SFUSD withdrawal
Summary
Superintendent Carranza withdrew a resolution to add the history of "comfort women" to state curriculum; many members of the public then delivered extended, often conflicting testimony urging the board either to investigate the history further or to refrain from including contested material in textbooks.
Superintendent Carranza opened the meeting by announcing that the board’s resolution supporting inclusion of the history of “comfort women” in statewide curriculum was withdrawn from tonight’s agenda and will be considered at a future meeting. In the absence of formal consideration, dozens of public commenters used the public-comment period to press the board on whether and how the topic should be taught.
Speakers from multiple community groups and individuals urged caution and called for balanced, fact-based classroom materials. Several commenters cited the interagency working group (IWG) report and academic work by scholars they named (including a transcript reference to a book by Sarah Soh and work by Park Yoo) to argue that documentary evidence and recent scholarship do not support characterizing all comfort women as forcibly abducted by the Japanese military. One speaker noted U.S. government reports and said those reports found no evidence of forced comfort women in Korea except in Indonesia; others described primary-source documents they had brought for board review.
Other commenters, including survivors and community members, described the historical experience as real and urged that students learn about wartime sexual exploitation. Testimony included personal recollections, academic citations, and claims that political actors have used the narrative for geopolitical purposes; some speakers accused outside governments and activists of distorting facts. Several speakers said textbooks should present multiple perspectives and asked the board to investigate primary sources before adopting any required curriculum.
Superintendent Carranza and board members listened and acknowledged the testimony; the superintendent confirmed the item was withdrawn and would return for future consideration. No board action was taken on the curriculum content at this meeting.
The board did not vote on curriculum content tonight; the superintendent’s withdrawal means the proposal will be scheduled for future review, and the public record contains multiple competing claims that the board may need to reconcile with staff analysis and primary documents before a formal decision.
