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We are working to establish a memorial museum in honor of the Japanese military "sex slaves" so that, as Kang Duk-kyong states, the whole world can learn about the history of these so-called "comfort women." On November 16, 1990, the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (heretofore Korean Council) was organized in order to take action and resolve the issue of the Japanese military "sex slaves." For the past 13 years, Korean Council has searched for and provided aid to survivors, sought formal apologies and compensation for the "sex slaves" through the aid of the UN and the ILO, and worked to realize Asian solidarity as well as North and South Korean solidarity. In 2000, we continued our efforts for an international war crimes tribunal, with the hope that we could restore honor and seek justice for our grandmothers who were sacrificed to the Japanese army when they were forced to become their sex slaves.

Now we have taken a fresh step forward in order to establish a memorial museum that would honor and continue to seek human rights reparations for the Japanese military "sex slaves." The sacrifice of our grandmothers should not be buried in history. We have worked to re-create the history of the "sex slaves" in order to ensure that this cannot happen again to future generations of women, and to educate and increase the number of peace-loving people who deeply value human rights. Our work still has not ended - wars are continually fought in many parts of the world, and the human rights of women in those places are being trampled upon. By bringing this matter to light, we can join in solidarity with these women around the world. With this in mind, we would first like to give a round of applause to the women who have donated to this cause. These are the same women who suffered such great injury at the hands of the Japanese army, the former "sex slaves.


The surviving "sex slaves" contributed money from their government aid stipends each month to be put towards the erection of a public memorial. We would like to emphasize the happiness that showed on their faces when they contributed, and of course, we were also truly happy to receive their support. So it seems now is the time when we have to work more fervently and gather our strength.

. During this time we have continued to strive for the resolution of the Japanese military sex slavery question, and we have only come this far through the interest and backing of many people at home and abroad. Their support and cooperation, more than anything, has been our most valuable asset.

We would also like to sincerely pray for those whose interest and effort during the past few years was a great help in our undertaking to establish the memorial museum, and thank them for once again uniting for this cause.

I have often thought that it would be nice if I could participate in the effort to preserve and commemorate our history. So even though it's not much, every month for the past four years I set aside 100,000 won when I got my living stipend from the government.

And when they announced how much money had been raised for the project at the inauguration ceremony last December (2003), I can't even say how happy I was¡¦

When I saw how hard these young people were working to resolve this issue for us over the past few years, I started to feel ashamed because we were passively receiving aid, but now I also feel like I've repaid some of that kindness. Since the museum is being built while we're still alive, I hope that we can finally confirm that we did not live in vain.


We had to suffer through that kind of ordeal because we were born during such an extremely difficult period.

I've survived this long and I can't even leave any children behind because of what they did to me. My life has been miserable, but if I keep living like this and die without being able to leave anything behind, I can't help but feel completely empty. To that extent, nothing makes me happier than Korean Council's intention to build a museum for us. The fact that even though I will die, the victimization I suffered won't be forgotten - even in the midst of my suffering, it makes me feel so fortunate that I've survived for this long.

I hope that our descendants will be able to see and learn as much as possible about our history at the museum so they won't be deceived the way we were, they won't have to suffer through the same ordeals, and so they don't ever have to live through such bleak, dangerous times.