Surviving comfort women of World War II Photo: keithpr/Flickr

The term comfort women calls to mind an image opposite to what these south pacific women actually endured during the Second World War. Alternatively and more respectfully, halmoni (grandmother in Korean) is the name used at the Sharing House, a living museum in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea where eight courageous women share their stories. In an interview, Halmoni Gil Won-ok tells the story of how she became a sex slave in a Japanese military brothel as a young girl. Like the stories of over two hundred thousand women and girls, she left the poor living conditions of home to find work in a military factory but, soon discovered that her job would be of a different nature, she would provide sex for 25-35 military men a day. Though she initially fought against this fate, she was aware that on many accounts women who did not comply were murdered, and so this horror continued through the war. She was never paid, but survived uncountable rapings, beatings and torture. Although condom use is said to have been promoted in the camps, sexual disease and forced abortions were rampant and many of the women suffered life long ailments and infertility.

During the war many impoverished women responded to employment advertisements to work as nurses or factory workers; the majority of the women were Korean due to Korea’s status as a Japanese colony at the time. The facilitation of the comfort stations was seen by the Japanese as a logical solution to prevent rape crimes, venereal disease and to control hostility in the camps, but what it resulted in was the institutionalization of sex slavery, and the torture and discontent they aimed to avoid was redirected towards abducted women. In official documents discovered in 2007, a lieutenant is quoted as confessing to having organized a brothel and having used it himself. Another source refers to Navy members having arrested women on the streets, and after enforced medical examinations, putting them in brothels.

In South Korea, survivors are called unblossomed flowers as due to stigmatization, migration and disease, many were unable to marry or have children, a crucial aspect of Korean culture. Gil Won-ok lived her entire life without telling a soul what happened to her. But, the Sharing House has provided a place for her to face the demons of her past and turn to a brighter future. Together the halmoni have bonded with activists to fight against the Japanese government and to educate the Korean community about the atrocities forced upon them. At the Sharing House, paintings done as therapeutic exercise, display the emotional impact of the abuse that continues today. Gil Won-ok explains that the Sharing House has helped her to heal some of the bitterness in her heart. After a life of silence she was finally able to share her story with her adopted son and her community.

But, what stands out more than the psychological damage, is the halmoni’s unfailing resolve to gain formal recognition from the Japanese government. Every Wednesday since 1992 the halmoni and their supporters have hosted demonstrations outside the Japanese Embassy in Jongno, Seoul. After 900 protests their determination for an official apology has only grown stronger. They shout “We will fight until the day we receive an official apology. We won’t die until then”. However, 66 years have passed since the end of WWII and many of the halmoni are now over 80 years old. Great sadness was left in the hearts of the surviving halmoni when beloved Doo Soon-Lee passed away last year. The fact that she will never witness the Japanese government admit their role in the abduction and enslavement of so many women only gives greater urgency to their cause. When asked by a Sharing House visitor, “What is your dream for the future?”, one halmoni responded passionately, “An apology from the government”. It appears that a formal apology and government compensation is an essential part of the healing process, but it is one that continues to go unanswered.

In 1993, Yohei Kono, the Chief Cabinet Secretary commented on “the government of Japan’s remorse to all those irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable psychological wounds” and expressed the governments “firm determination never to repeat the same mistake”. Though this is considered a formal apology in the eyes of the Japanese government, this statement acknowledges an unspecified role in the military brothels and rejects legal responsibility. Japan continues to contend that the brothels were not a “system”, not a war crime, nor a crime against humanity.

The halmoni reject this apology and state stalwartly that the previous apologies by the Japanese government are not enough. In response to the Japanese government’s development of an Asia Women’s Fund which accepted donations from the Japanese public, the halmoni stated that they did not want compensation from Japanese citizens, but only from the government and the fund was eventually dissolved. The Japanese government continues to contend that this is no evidence that they instituted a brutal sex slave industry and that “individual comfort women don’t deserve compensation”.

Despite the horrendous human rights violations endured at the hands of the Japanese military, the halmoni assert themselves not as unblossomed flowers but as courageous women deserving of respect as women’s rights activists. Visitors leave the Sharing House feeling compassion for the halmoni, but also inspired by the halmoni’s stand against injustice. Halmoni Hak Soon Kim declares “we must record these things that were forced upon us” and she calls for all of humanity to share the stories that no government or people should leave unrecognized.

JULIA BOYLE