Taipei, Dec. 9 (CNA) Korean-born American artist Chang-Jin Lee has created a "comfort station" in Taipei, part of an exhibition meant to draw attention to the issue of sexual slavery perpetrated by Japanese soldiers in World War II.
Called "Comfort Women Wanted," Lee's series of works recreates the experiences that hundreds of thousands of young women across Asia were forced to undergo during Japanese rule.
"Now it's our time to find a way to keep this very important history alive," Lee said Monday, noting that the number of former comfort women alive today continues to decrease.
The exhibition, which runs through Feb. 16 at Taipei's Bopiliao historic area, is made unique by its room made up to look like a comfort station based on historical references. On display are a kimono, which would be worn by a comfort woman, a tatami mat, a wash bowl and plaques with the Japanese name given to the comfort woman kept there.
During a media tour, Lee pointed out footage of comfort stations in China and Indonesia. Posters depict former comfort women from Taiwan, South Korea and the Netherlands.
Exhibition organizer Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation said the exhibit also features a former Japanese soldier sharing his eye-witness account at a former comfort station in China, as well as the testimonies of comfort women.
One women featured in the video is Chen Lien-hua, who at age 19, was forced into a comfort station when she agreed to a false promise of a nursing job in the Philippines to support her impoverished family.
Now 90, Chen said at Monday's press conference that she is happy that the exhibition will allow people today to see history. Asked about Japan's lack of formal apology for wartime atrocities, she said simply, "Japan should apologize."
"I don't know how long we will be alive," she added, noting that many of the former comfort women have passed away in the nearly 70 years since the end of World War II and Japan's surrender.
Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation has dedicated itself for more than two decades to helping Taiwanese comfort women cope with their mental anguish and seek justice and compensation from Japan.
More than 2,000 Taiwanese women were forced into sexual slavery during the war, according to the foundation, but only five Taiwanese women who have spoken openly of their suffering at the hands of Japanese forces are still alive.
This exhibition is Lee's first time bringing her comfort women project to Taiwan. The New York-based artist has held similar exhibitions in South Korea, Hong Kong and the United States.
She has traveled across Asia to learn more about the comfort women system and interview the women themselves.
"It was truly inspiring and great honor for me to meet them," she said, calling them amazing people who were "so strong, resilient and courageous survivors; at the same time, loving and caring grandmas."
"I hope we remember them as a source of inspiration and empowerment," Lee said.
(By Elaine Hou)
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