View Installation
at The Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, Korea, 2009

View Public Art installation
New York City, 2008

Blog about research trip, 2008
to Korea, Taiwan, and Japan

Blog about research trip, 2009
to China and Indonesia

Audio, Mixed Media Installation
at The Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, Incheon, Korea, 2009
Advertisement-like Billboards, Audio, Phone Headsets

On March 8, 2007, I began to pay attention to the "Comfort Women" issue because of a front page article in the New York Times. Growing up in Korea, I had heard a little about the Korean "Comfort Women," and I thought it was something that only happened to Korean women. Many "Comfort Women" were Koreans, and the movement for awareness was initiated by Korean feminists in the early 1990's. As I started the research I discovered this systematic sex slavery actually affected women from many Asian countries, and even included European women.

I realized this was more than simply a Korean/Japanese problem but rather, an important global human rights issue that never got acknowledged. It is also the largest case of human trafficking in the 20th century. This system reveals how women are exploited during wartime, yet it is taboo to talk about it because it is still considered as "shame" in many places.

On July, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Resolution 121, proposed by Mike Honda, Japanese-American Congressman, with 168 bipartisan cosponsors, calling for Japan's acknowledgment of the sexual enslavement of "Comfort Women," and acceptance of historical responsibility. In spite of this, the "Comfort Women" issue has never gotten much attention in the West.

The artwork is based on the research in Asia (Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Japan), supported by the Asian Cultural Council and the Asian Women Giving Circle, meeting with "Comfort Women" survivors, and a former Japanese soldier, and also visiting former military comfort stations. I met so many courageous women including Young Soo Lee in Korea, and Wan Aihua, the first Chinese "Comfort Woman" to come forward in China. To understand this very complex issue, I also met with many activists, sociologists, historians, and scholars in these countries including Korean Professor named Jung Oak Yun, who began the movement in Asia.

COMFORT WOMEN WANTED brings to light the memory of 200,000 young women, referred to as "comfort women," who were systematically exploited as sex slaves in Asia during World War II, and increases awareness of sexual violence against women during wartime.

The gathering of women to serve the Imperial Japanese Army was organized on an industrial scale not seen before in modern history. This project promotes awareness of these women, some of whom are still alive today, and brings to light a history which has been largely forgotten and denied.

The title, COMFORT WOMEN WANTED, is a reference to the actual text of advertisements which appeared in newspapers during the war. When advertising failed, young women from Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Netherlands were kidnapped or deceived and forced into sexual slavery. Most were teenagers, some as young as 12 years old, and were raped by as many as fifty soldiers a day at military rape camps, known as "comfort stations." Women suffered serial and gang rape, forced abortions, humiliation, and torture, sometimes resulting in mutilation, and even death. By some estimates only 30% survived the ordeal.

Whenever there's a war we hear about the suffering of soldiers, yet we hear almost nothing about the plight of women who are kidnaped and raped, or killed. Often it is the poorest and most marginalized elements of society who suffer most. Through out history women like this are too often invisible, forgotten and left with no place to turn.

The "Comfort Women System" is considered the largest case of human trafficking in the 20th century. Much in the same way that acknowledgment and awareness of the Holocaust helps to insure it will not happen again, by acknowledging this issue we can prevent another generation of enslaved "comfort women" from happening anywhere ever again.

In the 21st century, human trafficking has surpassed drug trafficking to become the second largest business in the world after arms dealing. The "comfort women" issue illustrates the victimization which women suffer in terms of gender, ethnicity, politics, and class oppression, and how women are still perceived as a disposable commodity. This project promotes empowerment of these and all women, and seeks to establish a path toward a future where oppression is no longer tolerated.

COMFORT WOMEN WANTED, is an audio, mixed media installation which includes a series of advertisement-like prints and audio recordings with actual comfort women and a Japanese soldier still living today.

Ad-like Prints:
The text "COMFORT WOMEN WANTED" is in black atop a red background. There are two black & white portraits of former comfort women when they were young. These comfort women are surrounded by gold leaf, suggesting the halo of a saint from Renaissance painting. These portraits of young comfort women are juxtaposed with silhouettes of aged former comfort women in their current homes. Of those who survived, many of the women never went back, or they were ostracized from their families and communities because what was perceived as their "shameful past" in a conservative society cherishing women's chastity as ideal. They suffered from the physical and emotional consequences of their enslavement including disease, debilitating injuries, sterility, and psychological trauma. For most of these women, the sense of "home" was forever destroyed. To highlight this fact the central image of the posters, rather than being a portrait, contains the empty silhouette.

Audio:
Historian Suzanne O'Brien has written that "the privileging of written documents works to exclude from history...the voices of the kind of people comfort women represent - the female, the impoverished, the colonized, the illiterate, and the racially and ethnically oppressed. These people have left few written records of their experiences, and therefore are denied a place in history."

There is audio of the women that I recorded in Asia. When people pick up a phone handset, they can hear the voices of "Comfort Women" survivors. The emphasis will be on the everyday hopes and dreams of these women and who they are as people. Also, these women sing their favorite traditional folk songs in Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, Hakanese, Aboriginal Taiwanese and Japanese. This will present the women as individuals rather than as victims and highlight the experiences we all share, in order to put these monumental events in context. These are the stories and voices of the women.

The voices of the former "Comfort Women" contrast with the voice of a Japanese soldier on the opposite side phone handset, which also comes from an interview I did with him. The former soldier talks about his everyday life, hopes and dreams, and also what he witnessed at comfort stations.

Despite growing awareness of the issue of trafficking of women and of sexual slavery as a crime against humanity, this particular recent historical event has gone largely unacknowledged. COMFORT WOMEN WANTED attempts to bring to light this instance of organized violence against women, and to create a constructive dialogue for the future by acknowledging their place in history.

Special thanks to:

Ong-lyeon Park halmuni, Oak-seon Yi halmuni. Gun-ja Kim halmuni, Oak-seon Park halmuni, Soon-ok Kim halmuni, Il-Chul Kang halmuni, Young-Soo Lee halmuni, Soon-Duk Lee halmuni, and Chun-hee Bae halmuni in Korea.

Shyou Fung Ho ahma, Hsiu-mei Wu ahma, Yang Chen ahma, Man-mei Lu ahma, Yin-Chiao Su ahma, and Hwa Chen ahma in Taiwan.

Professor Jung Oak Yun, Professor Hyo Chae Lee, Hwa Jong Lee, Professor Keum Hye Park, Professor Tae Guk Jun, Won Soon Park Social Designer, Eunju Park, Shin Kweon Ahn, and Mee Hyang Yoon in Korea.

Graceia Lai, Shu-Hue Kang, Huiling Wu, Li-Fang Yang, Margaret Tan, Ann Yao, Rita Chang, Melissa Chan, Betsy Lan, Chi-Hsi Chao and Emily Chao in Taiwan.

Mina Watanabe, Alison Scott, Eriko Ikeda, Murayama Ippei, Mr. Kaneko, Georg Kochi, Misuzu Yamamoto, Hiroko Murata and Tatsuhiko Murata in Japan.

Professor Zhiliang Su, Wan Aihua dayang, Ye Chen, and Sophia Yao in China.

Eka Hindrati, Emah Kastimah, and Marjiyah in Indonesia; and Nelia Sancho in The Philippines.

Margaret Cogswell, Erin Donnelly, Teri Chan, Paul Clay, Soon Hee Lee, Dai-Sil Kim, Ok Cha Soh, Ph. D., Annabel Park, Jokotri Taro, Amy Goldrich, Rima Yamazaki, Aiko Miyatake, Grace Qh Zhao, Phillia Kim Downs, and many others who have supported this project.

This project is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Asian Cultural Council, and the Asian Women Giving Circle.