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The First

The first former comfort woman to ever testify about her experiences was a 67 year-old woman living in Korea. Her name was Kim Hak Soon. She was born in old Manchuria, but grew up in Pyongyang.  After her father passed away, she was adopted. When Hak Soon was 14 years old, her stepfather enrolled her at The Gisaeng School (an all-girls performing arts school ). It was here that she was sold to a Japanese platoon in Northern China. Hak Soon finally decided to speak out about her past when she had no more living relatives that would be ashamed of it.

She kept her past a secret for many years, but her decision to break that silence had a butterfly effect, giving other survivors the courage and strength to come forward with their stories. She was an inspiration for women Like Lola Rosa Hensen of the Philippines, who spoke on television and radio in 1992.  Hak Soon urged survivors not to feel ashamed. One by one, more women started testifying about their horrific experiences as former comfort women. Their stories united them in a single voice, and they became the pillars of justice for all victims of Japanese military sexual slavery.

Kim Hak Soon died on December 16, 1997.

Click here for an Interview with Kim Hak Soon.

The Grandmas

Even though only a handful of women testified as ex-comfort women two decades ago, wartime data suggests that there could have been as many as 58,000 survivors during that time. But today, that number is dwindling. May of the ex-comfort women are well into their mid-eighties and early nineties. They are grandmothers who have suffered in silence for way too long, and are still waiting for justice. Time is running out for them. Remember these faces before they’re gone: (Insert stories of Grandmas).

As of 2001-DEC, the Japanese Government has not given a full apology to these women, nor has it offered compensation to the victims. They have taken one minor step: they arranged with a private charitable organization to pay limited amounts of money to the survivors. The fund expires at the end of 2007-MAR.11. In 2000-OCT, the Democratic Party, the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party of Japan jointly sponsored a bill in the Japanese Diet to support the comfort women. It died in 2000-DEC.

The policy of the Japanese government appears to be to refuse to recognize their responsibility for these crimes, and to stonewall all requests for justice. As of 2002, most of the comfort women are now in their 70′s or early 80′s. We suspect that the Japanese government hopes that when their victims die, memories of the atrocity will dissipate.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/sla_japa.htm

Other interesting websites:
http://comfortwomen.wordpress.com
http://www.houseofsharing.org

The Social Movement

From the late 1980’s, women’s groups in Korea and Japan have united to push the comfort women issue onto the political agenda. It took more than half a century for the first ex-comfort woman to speak out about her traumatic past as part of legal action against the Japanese government. In doing so, Kim Hak Soon encouraged other women to step forward and join her in a class action suit in December 1991. The women are demanding compensation, and want the Japanese government to acknowledge and admit that they were forced into sexual servitude. Together, these women, now grandmothers, have paved the road for the comfort women issue to become an international human rights issue. Movements have emerged throughout all of Asia, and certain governments have shown various levels of support for the former comfort women and their cause. But because so many countries now have political and economic ties with Japan, the amount of support and effort by certain governments are far from 100 per cent. Click here is a brief synopsis of milestone events.

1990 – In South Korea, increasing public and media attention on comfort women leads to the formation of the significant citizens organizations applying pressure on the Japanese government to officially acknowledge its responsibility.

1991 – Hak-soon Kim, 67 years old at the time, is the first woman in Korea to testify as a former comfort woman.

January 8, 1992 – The first Weekly Wednesday Demonstration in front of the Japanese Embassy is held when Japanese Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa visits South Korea.  As of July 2007, these demonstrations are held weekly, regardless of weather conditions. On Jan 13 2010, the 900th demonstration is held in Seoul.

1992 – The House of Sharing, a communal home for former comfort women, is established in Sokyo-dong. A permanent home is later built in Kwangju, Kyunggi-do Province.

1994 – The Japanese government announces the creation of the Peace and Friendship Exchange Plan.  The plan established the Private Comfort Fund (now known as the Asian Women’s Fund), a private funding source compensating former comfort women. Many comfort women strongly opposed the fund as the Japanese government’s attempt to conceal the past and avoid responsibility of legal compensation.

1996 – The United Nations Human Rights Commission releases Special Commissioner Coomaraswamy’s “Report on Violence Against Women” which officially acknowledges the crimes of the Japanese government.

1997 – Duk-Kyung Kang, a former comfort woman and unofficial leader of the art therapy group operated by the House of Sharing, passes away. As the most celebrated artist in the group, Kang’s paintings illustrated her traumatic experiences and quest for justice. She collapsed during a Wednesday Demonstration and died of lung cancer a year later.

- Hak-Soon Kim passes away at the age of 73. As of May 13, 1999, 153 out of 193 women who testified as former comfort women are still alive. Nami Hun, a former comfort woman travels home to Korea for the first time in nearly half a century. Hun’s case exposed the need for more resources and attention paid to locating former comfort women unable of return home.

1999 – California State Congress accepts the “Honda resolution”, urging the Japanese government to issue a formal apology and pay reparations to survivors of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery System and the Nanking Massacre.

2000 – 15 survivors from Korea, China, the Philippines and Taiwan sue the Japanese government, seeking unspecified but substantial damages for years of rape, beating, starvation and other forms of mistreatment. This is the first suit filed in U.S. courts against the Japanese government for war crimes.

2005 – Documents are released from the South Korean government disclosing negotiations between Japan and South Korea over reparations for Korean victims before the standardization of two-sided ties in 1965. In contrast to the Japanese government’s argument, the treaty only covers reparations on Japan’s financial responsibilities, not the war crimes against humanity. The Japanese government is responsible for reparations to the former comfort women.

http://www.janelleparklee.com/women-war/wednesday-demonstration.html

http://www.ykuusa.org/english/comfortwomen/factsheet.html

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/398862.html

The Film

Within Every Woman is a documentary that gives a face and a voice to the countless number of former “comfort women” alive today. Canadian born Chinese filmmaker Tiffany Hsiung will travel across Asia to speak with grandmothers that were victims of sexual slavery during World War II. Silenced for over 70 years, these grandmothers are entering the last few years of their lives. For many of them, this film will be their last chance to tell their stories to the world.  In the summer of 2009 in Rohas city, Philipines, Hsiung made a promise to the grandmothers and herself that she would return and make a documentary about their lives. She hopes that Within Every Woman will connect with younger generations of women currently suffering in silence as victims of sexual abuse. Perhaps in watching it, the women of our generation might have the courage to break their own silence. If they can see how long these grandmothers waited to speak out, it might help them realize that the process of healing only begins when their own silence is broken.