Visiting the "Comfort Women" of Korea

I read about them in college, the hundreds of thousands of women kept as military sexual slaves during WWII, and today I visited their home in Gwangju, Korea. If you've ever seen the Vagina Monologues, you've probably heard one of their stories. They're horrific stories of young teen girls that were kidnapped or sold to be used by soldiers of the Japanese army.


An estimated 200,000 women fell victim to this, around 170,000 from Korea, and they were taken to military stations all over Asia, many in China, some as far away as Thailand and Indonesia. These would be forgotten memories, forever denied by the Japanese government, except for the few remaining women, brave women, that have stepped forward to have their stories heard.


Remembering the Past
In the 1930s in Asia, Japan was aggressively attempting to take over parts of Asia. They attempted to conquer cities and villages in a dozen or so countries, and they set up military posts along the way. Local hotels and buildings were converted into brothels with a Japanese guard outside and "comfort house" rules posted for the soldiers. The "comfort women" spent years of their lives in inhumane conditions and were treated as military supplies.

They are called "comfort women," although as they tell you upon visiting, there was nothing comfortable about their lives. Most of the women, now in their 80s or 90s, were young girls, 13-16 years old when they were taken. Some were tricked and told they would be going to work in factories in China to send wages back to their families and thought they'd return one day. Other women were just kidnapped off the streets, perhaps in broad daylight and thrown into trucks. Their fate was the same, they were held for years as military sexual slaves.

You can imagine the gruesomeness and pain they endured.


We were told stories about what the surviving women experienced and saw. The women were given the names of flowers in Japanese and stripped of their old identities. To break them down physically, they were often taken to do harsh physical labor without being fed for weeks at a time and beaten into submission. Slowly they'd be given small amounts of food and told that they were indebted to the people that controlled them, a tactic still used in human sex trafficing today. When taken to the brothels, they lived and were abused in small wooden rooms with little more than small cots or concrete for a bed.


The women were raped up to 40-50 times/day and kept in these conditions for years, some as long as 6 or 7 years. They were forced to endure any treatment soldiers, officers, and doctors brought upon them, punished especially if they contracted an STI (sexually transmitted infection) or became pregnant. The women were commonly given injections of Mercury 606 to rid them of STIs, and it often forced hysterectomies or worse upon their bodies. Many women did not survive the harsh treatment. Many attempted or wished for suicide, but most were prevented such reprieve. Those that have survived carry scars and incurable injuries, especially psychological.

Piecing Things Together
Back in Korea, people were noticing the thousands of women disappearing and never sending money back, but they had little recourse against the occupying Japanese. Families hid their daughters under floorboards to save them from being taken, although disobeying Japanese law would ruin your family or worse. Most of the thousands of "comfort women" that survived didn't return back to their "normal lives." Many stayed in the country they were taken to because they had no money to return and knew that if they went back they would never be accepted as unchaste women. 

The "Comfort Women" Today
In 1991, the first Korean "comfort women" came forward to speak out against the Japanese government, who does little to acknowledge their claims. Today, there are 86 living "comfort women" registered with the Korean government, others in various countries, and there are likely many more that chose not to be known.


Coming forward about their mistreatment make them something of outcasts in Korean culture where it's unpopular to speak out against authority. They have been accused of being prostitutes and only wanting the money a small pension provides. But those that listen to their stories can hear that they are brave women fighting to be heard and have justice be done.

Some of the Korean "comfort women" or halmonis (Korean word for grandmother) live together at the House of Sharing where people can visit them for a tour and to see the museum about them. It holds the world's first museum on human sex trafficking. In their 80s-90s, they still live the lives of activists. One of the halmonis I met had just returned from Japan where she gave her testimony, despite her weak health condition, and she joked about a woman her age getting held up in security lines.

These women regularly welcome visitors from Japan and around the world, often urging visitors to sing with them and tell them stories, the way any grandmother might. They've grown tired of sharing their testimonies to all their visitors, but their spirits are lively and they seem hopeful younger generations will help share their histories.
 


Protests to the Japanese Government
The Japanese government denies that it had any involvement in military sexual slavery in WWII. They refuse to grant any apologies to the women or pay restitution to these women. The Japanese government protests with claims that these women chose to become prostitutes and traveled on their own accord. Both claims are extremely unlikely given the control the Japanese government had over any movement in most of Asia during WWII and the fact that the women would not have had the financial means for long distance travel. Despite the physical evidence and the former Japanese soldiers that have visited and apologized for their abuses to "comfort women," the Japanese government refuses their involvement.

However these Korean halmonis are determined not to be ignored by the Japanese government. They protest every Wednesday at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and just recently had their 900th protest. Each time, they come with 7 demands:

1. Admit the drafting of the Japanese military "comfort women"
2. Apologize officially
3. Reveal the truth about the crime
4. Erect memorial tablets for the victims
5. Pay restitution to the victims or their families
6. Teach the truth about this so you do not repeat the same crimes
7. Punish the war criminals

On the part of the Korean Government
The Korean government allows Korean women to register as "comfort women" and receive a government pension. Apart from this little is done to defend or support these women, most likely to maintain positive relations with Japan. They seem determined to keep the history in the past, despite the suffering of these women.



More about House of Sharing
Visit the House of Sharing's website or Facebook page to learn more about the "comfort women." They have regular visits to the museum/ house, online petitions, and the women protest weekly at the Japanese Embassy. If you'll be in Seoul on April 11th, they are showing a documentary about the women at the Jogyesa Temple in Insadong.