"Comfort Women"

This past week our group has been learning about a tragedy from Korean history. During World War II, Japanese kidnapped young Korean women (aged 13~) and forced them into sexual slavery for the Japanese soldiers, as a means of "motivating" the Japanese soldiers to continue fighting. This happened on a large scale, and over the course of the war, many women were taken and abused. After the war, some of the girls were able to come back to Korea. However, they were not received with open arms; because they had been raped, society disapproved of them and shunned them, forcing them to come together to live. In today's world however, the halmoni's (the women who had suffered) are seen as very courageous and receive the support of the Korean community. Every Wednesday from noon until 1 PM, the halmoni's protest by sitting in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, still waiting for an official apology.

We went to the protest this past Wednesday, and it was very interesting to observe it. There were many people there - adults, students (perhaps on school field trips?), and other groups. The halmoni's sat on chairs, not speaking aloud, while different people performed songs in front of the group or spoke to the audience. The atmosphere felt strong in support of the halmoni's.

This individual level of action enacted by the halmoni's is the stepping stone to creating international change. The Japanese government no doubt hears of the halmoni protests, and tries to downplay the entire comfort women situation (the US put up a statue about comfort women, and the Japanese asked the US to take it down). By individuals taking action, we can see the amount of pressure they put on a large group such as the Japanese government and the difference they can make.

Overall, the justice the women seek is: an official apology issued by the Japanese government and a more peaceful future. Every week they protest, rain or shine, waiting for the Japanese to recognize the halmoni's suffering and apologize. Government's seek the same sort of justice for the halmoni's, maybe with an additional goal of the halmoni's receiving money compensation. The Japanese government still refuses to provide this justice to the halmoni's, perhaps waiting until the last of the halmoni's age out.