ASIA / PACIFIC
February 17, 2014
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Time running out on former sex slaves’ quest
HOUSE OF SHARING. A visitor looks at por-
traits of late former comfort women who were forced
to serve as sexual slaves for Japanese troops during
World War II, at the House of Sharing, a nursing home
and museum for 10 former sex slaves, in Toechon,
South Korea. There are only 55 women left who regis-
tered with the South Korean government as former
sex slaves from the war — down from a peak of more
than 230. Their average age is 88. (AP Photo/Ahn
Young-joon)
By Foster Klug
The Associated Press
OECHON, South Korea — A single
picture captures the regret, shame,
and rage that Kim Gun-ja has
harbored through most of her 89 years.
Dressed in a long white wedding gown, she
carries a bouquet of red flowers and stares
at the camera, her deep wrinkles obscured
by makeup and a diaphanous veil.
A local company arranged wedding-style
photo shoots as gifts for Kim and other
elderly women at the House of Sharing, a
museum and nursing home for South
Koreans forced into brothels by Japan
during World War II. Kim and many of the
other women never married, giving the
pictures a measure of bitterness.
“That could have been my life: Meet a
man, get married, have children, have
grandchildren,” Kim said in her small, tidy
room at the nursing home south of Seoul.
“But it never happened. It could never be.”
Japanese soldiers stole her youth, she
says, and now, “The Japanese are waiting
for us to die.”
There are only 55 women left who regis-
tered with the South Korean government
as former sex slaves from the war — down
from a peak of more than 230. Their
average age is 88.
As their numbers dwindle and a rising
Japanese nationalism provokes anger
from war victims in South Korea and
China, the 10 women who live at the House
of Sharing know they’re running out of
time to pressure Tokyo to make amends.
“Once the victims are gone,” Kim said,
“who will step in and fight for us?”
At first glance, the women might seem
an obstacle to soothing the decades-old
war tensions between Seoul and Tokyo.
“I want the Japanese (emperor) to come
here, kneel before us, state everything that
they did wrong to each one of us, and
apologize,” said Yi Ok-seon, 88, showing
what she said were sword wounds from
Japanese soldiers on her arms and feet.
But the women may also be the last
chance for America’s two most important
Asian allies to settle a dispute that has
boiled over in recent years, as more of the
so-called “comfort women” die and Tokyo
and Seoul trade increasingly bitter
comments about their bloody history.
“It will be much harder to solve, or more
realistically mitigate, the issue after these
women pass away,” Robert Dujarric, an
Asia specialist at Temple University’s
Tokyo campus, said in an e-mail. “Now,
there are people — the former sex slaves —
to apologize to. Afterward, there will be no
one left to receive the apology.”
Some historians say that as many as
200,000 Asian women, mostly Korean but
also Chinese and others, were forced into
Japan’s military brothel system during the
T
war.
Japan has apologized many times over
the years, including a landmark 1993
statement by then-chief cabinet secretary
Yohei Kono that acknowledges Japan’s
responsibility over military brothels and
says wartime documents, statements, and
other records were enough to assume
many women were deceived or forced into
them. Some past premiers have also
written letters of apology to the women.
But many South Koreans see the repeat-
ed apologies and past efforts at private
compensation as insufficient. One big rea-
son is because they’ve been consistently
undermined by the incendiary comments
of many Japanese politicians, officials, and
right-wing activists.
The new head of Japanese public broad-
caster NHK, for example, recently down-
played the issue by saying the use of wom-
en as military prostitutes was common
worldwide during the war. Despite testi-
mony from many of the women, Japanese
nationalists have said there’s no clear
evidence proving the military or govern-
ment systematically used coercion to
recruit them.
Many average Japanese are sympa-
thetic to the women, but some also see a
steady politicization of the issue by South
Korean lawmakers and activists stoking
anti-Japanese anger.
“In Japan, the ‘comfort women’ issue is
now seen as a larger part of a Korean
moral-philosophical assault on Japan”
that includes a territorial dispute over
islets in the sea between the countries and
other issues that both sides have increas-
ingly taken to international audiences,
said Robert Kelly, a political scientist at
Pusan National University in South
Korea.
The political leaders are also at
loggerheads. Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe has previously questioned past
apologies and expressed hope for revision,
although he later promised to stick with
them, following criticism. He also recently
visited a shrine that honors Japan’s war
dead, including convicted criminals. South
Korean President Park Geun-hye, the
daughter of a late dictator widely seen as
pro-Japanese, has vowed a tough line until
Abe does more to acknowledge his coun-
try’s wartime past.
Anger in Seoul is met by frustration in
Tokyo.
“The Japanese seem to be of the view
that whatever they do will not be enough to
satisfy the Koreans, so why bother?” said
Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific
Forum CSIS think tank in Hawaii.
At the House of Sharing, the women
spend their days watching TV, exercising,
meditating, and talking with volunteers,
including regular Japanese visitors and
the occasional U.S. politician and media
crew. Many are sick, but several are active,
making plans to give public testimony in
Japan and the United States, and to take
part in protests. A weekly demonstration
in their honor has been held in Seoul for
more than 20 years.
Some of the women suffer from mental
disorders and sexually transmitted
diseases from the war, according to Ahn
Shin-kwon, manager of the home.
There’s also shame and bitterness.
“My life has been ruined. Even though I
managed to survive and return home, I feel
like my fellow Koreans will point their
fingers at me if they discover my past, even
though what happened to me was against
my will,” said an 87-year-old who would
only give her surname, Kim, because of
embarrassment. “I don’t even want to go
outside.”
At a museum near the women’s living
quarters, a large map of Asia is marked
with dozens of “comfort stations,” from
northern China to Indonesia in the south,
identified through official documents and
testimony from former sex slaves and
soldiers.
Nearby is a cramped rough-wood-
panelled room intended to re-create the
women’s working conditions. It’s lit by one
dim electric bulb. A wooden bed with a thin
mattress is the only furniture. Small
wooden placards carved with the Japanese
Continued on page 7
DISCOVERY MUSEUM
February 7
You are invited to
through
6WDWHRIWKH&RXQW\
May 4
w w w. wo r l d fo re s t r y. o rg
Presented by the
Board of Clark County Commissioners
© 2013 Peanuts Worldwide LLC
A light-hearted look at
Charles
Ch
Schulz’s exploration
exp
natural world
of the natura
through Peanuts
Peanu comic strips
stations.
and interactive
intera
Tom Mielke, Chair
2 p.m., Thursday, March 6
Clark County Square Dance Center
10713 NE 117th Ave. (SR 503)
Need help to attend? Contact the Clark County ADA Office. Voice (360) 397-2322;
Relay 711 or (800) 833-6388; E-mail ADA@clark.wa.gov.