The Halmonis' Wednesdays: The Development of the Wednesday Demonstration, a Weekly Demonstration by Former "Comfort Women," as an Expansive Tool of Transitional Justice

(1)

Universiteit van Amsterdam

The Halmonis’ Wednesdays

The Development of the Wednesday Demonstration, a Weekly Demonstration by Former “Comfort Women,” as an Expansive Tool of Transitional Justice

Yangsun Kim 12260754 22,765 words

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS IN

History – Holocaust and Genocide Studies University of Amsterdam

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nanci Adler Second Reader: Dr. Eveline Bucchheim

(2)

The thesis explores the development of the Wednesday Demonstration, a weekly demonstration held by Halmonis (former “comfort women”) and activists in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul every Wednesday since 1992. It examines how the Japanese military institutionalized the sexual slavery systems where tens of thousands of girls and women, mainly from Korea, were forced to become “comfort women” before and during World War II, and how survivors in South Korea broke the 50 years of silence in 1991. Then, the thesis explains how this weekly gathering has created a platform for victims, perpetrators, and other ordinary people to remember the past, to redefine it through interactions, and to become “embodied reckonings.” By explaining what the Wednesday Demonstration has transformed into, and by introducing how it has re-defined identities of the victims, this study offers a victim-centric approach to the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery.

(4)

Introduction

Personal Motivation/ Significance

I have always wondered why numbers that can accurately and quickly inform people about what is happening in the world cannot capture the diversity of each individual’s personal stories. Thus, I explored diverse narratives and stories behind statistics that describe mass violence against humanity during my undergraduate studies at Denison University, and carried this interest forward by pursuing a Master’s degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Since my undergraduate studies at Denison University, I have become deeply interested in a unique case of “comfort women,” in which women who were forced to become Japanese military sexual slaves before and during World War II established a collective trauma based on testimonies of individual survivors. This led me to ask the following question: “Can former ‘comfort women’ speak for themselves in the aftermath of Japanese massive violation of human rights?” So, during my senior research, I analyzed how former “comfort women” expressed their collective trauma and how their narratives about the remembrance have been integrated into the dominant public narrative in South Korea. After four months of intensive empirical and

theoretical research, I volunteered for two years at the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, an affiliated organization of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for the Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, in order to continue my pursuit of transitional justice by helping the survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery fight for justice. Then, since taking several courses, particularly “transitional justice” course at the University of Amsterdam, I have questioned the limitation of legal approach to transitional justice for the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery and considered the development of its grassroots initiative.

Thus, in the thesis, I aim to examine the development of an action referred to as the Wednesday Demonstration, a weekly demonstration by former “comfort women,” the Korean Council, and other activists, calling for a Japanese public apology, in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul since 1992. Through studying the role of the grassroots movement as a mechanism for transitional justice, this study will allow us to explore a victim-centric approach to transitional justice.

(5)

Figure I. The Picture of Hwang Geum-ju, former “comfort woman” at the 651st Wednesday Demonstration

By [responding] like this, what are you [Japan] going to leave in history? What are you going to do when we [victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery] die? It would be still unsatisfactory even if you apologize to death. However, by responding like this, how could we live when we still

feel anger, unfairness, and sadness? I will come here [to the Wednesday Demonstration] on every Wednesday until I die. Even though it is difficult, I will come until [the issue of the

Japanese military sexual slavery] will be resolved.

Hwang Geum-ju, former “Comfort woman”1

1_{Original sentences in:}

이렇게 해 가지고 역사에 뭘 남길 거야? 우리들 다 죽고 나면 그 땐 어떻게 할 거냐구? 죽도록 사죄해도 시원찮은 판에 이러고 있으니 우리가 억울하고 서러워서 어떻게 살아. 내가 죽기 전에는 매일 매일 나올 거야. 힘들어도 해결될 때 까지…..

Hwang Geum-ju,황금주 (1927 - 2013) On April 6, 2005 (651st Wednesday Demonstration) Hankyoreh, 한겨례신문사 Sunshil Kim, Suyoil 12 si 수요일 12시 [Wednesday, 12 PM], (Seoul: War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. 2017), 16-17.

(6)

Introduction to the Wednesday Demonstration

Every Wednesday, uniformed high school students, university students, foreign tourists, Japanese activists, and journalists gather in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.2_{As noon}

approaches, a van, named “the hope van,” stops on the other side of the embassy, and gray-haired Halmonis (a term meaning “grandmothers” in Korean) get out of the van.3_{Meanwhile, a}

group of Korean riot police appears, and a police line is made on the road in front of the embassy to prepare for the demonstration.4 Then, beginning with a brief introduction by a staff of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, referred to as the Korean Council, and with singing a song “Like a Rock” (which will also be discussed later in this chapter), another demonstration starts.5

While some of the participants hold colorful placards with slogans, demanding “legal reparations,” others standing on the sidewalk behind the seated victims shout “the Japanese government should officially apologize for the issue of the Japanese military ‘comfort women’” in a single voice.6 After the chanting of the slogans, the demonstration lasts one hour, including speeches by participants, cultural performances, a reading of the weekly statements of current news or activities by the Korean Council, introduction of the victims, and a final rallying call.7 This weekly gathering, held every week since 1992, is referred to as the Wednesday Demonstration.

This weekly gathering raises several critical questions. Who are exactly the Halmonis? Why do they gather in front of the Japanese Embassy every Wednesday? What is the truth behind the Japanese military “comfort women?” Why do the Halmonis and activists call for an official apology and legal reparations? These questions are not only about understanding the Japanese military sexual slavery and identification of victims and perpetrators. They are also about how the weekly gathering has created a platform for victims, perpetrators, and other

2_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum (Seoul:War and Women’s} Human Rights Museum, 2017), 47; Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings: "Comfort Women", Performance, and Transpacific Redress (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018), chap. I, Kindle.

3_{Mi-Hyang Yoon}_윤미향_{, 25nyeonganui Suyoil 25}년간의수요일_{[Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday], (Seoul: Sai} Haengson, 2016), 31.

4_{Most of them were in their early twenties who were serving their two-year compulsory national service in the} Korean National Police force instead of in the military; As part of the Korean National Police force, the riot police force guards government buildings and embassies.

Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, chap 1. Kindle; Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 31. 5_{Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, chap 1. Kindle.}

6_{Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 31.} 7_{Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, chap 1. Kindle.}

(7)

ordinary people to remember the past, to redefine it through interactions, and to become “embodied reckonings.”8_{Thus, this study poses the main research questions of what the}

Wednesday Demonstration has transformed into and how it has re-defined identities of former “comfort women.”

Historical Background

I went to Japan as one of the first members of the Women’s Voluntary Service Corps when I was 16. That was around June 1944. It was night. I lifted up barbed wires and ran way in a different direction, unlike the previous

attempts. I wandered near a factory and got caught by a soldier. I was taken to a military base by truck. I took 10 soldiers a day.

Kang Duk-kyung, former “comfort woman”9

Born in a small city, called Jinju, South Korea in 1929, a sixteen-year-old girl, named Kang Duk-kyung, was drafted into the first Women’s Voluntary Service Corps and placed in a Fujikoshi factory in Toyama, Japan.10 Around June 1944, she was caught by a Japanese soldier when she was escaping hunger and servitude at the airplane factory.11 Then, she was taken to a “comfort station.”12_{At the “comfort station” in Japan, she was raped every day, and witnessed}

many other girls from the station attempting to commit suicide. One year later, the war ended and she returned to Busan, South Korea where she worked as a waitress and a maid.13 However, even though she was not a “comfort woman” any longer, she remained silent about the traumatic memory for 50 years.

Although it is difficult to know the exact number of women who were forced into sexual slavery, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 women from the Korean peninsula, China, Malaysia and the Philippines were trafficked, as “comfort women.”14_{The “Comfort}

women” system was first authorized by the Japanese government in 1930s to provide “comfort” to Japanese soldiers in order to prevent frequent incidents of uncontrollable sexual violence

8_{It is the title of a book by Historian Elizabeth Son; Elizabeth Son claims that understanding the work of survivors} and activists to reckon with the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery requires attending to their embodied acts.

Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Introduction, Kindle.

9_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum}_{, 12.} 10_Idem.

11_{Ibid., 34.} 12_Idem. 13_Idem.

14_{Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy: Not Over Yet," East Asia 33, no. 4} (2016): 255.

(8)

perpetrated by Japanese soldiers against civilian women.15 The majority of existing

documentation of the “comfort women,” including the names of the girls and young women who were taken, was largely destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Army.16 Thus, most of the

information heavily relies on the testimonies of the survivors.17 As Kang recalls in her testimony, many girls committed suicide during and after their time at the “comfort stations.”18_{Even after}

they were released from “comfort stations,” most of the survivors remained silent, because there was no support from society to heal their overwhelming sufferings, and it continued for almost five decades.19

Then, on August 14, 1991, a former “comfort woman,” named Kim Hak-Sun, went public for the first time through a news conference in Seoul, and described her memories of being a “comfort woman.”20_{Inspired by her courage, during the first decade since Kim’s first}

testimony in 1991, 237 other “comfort women” survivors also broke the silence and talked about their traumatic memories.21_{In 1992, Kang also registered herself as a former “comfort}

woman.”22

Beginning on January 8, 1992, a group of South Koreans, including the “comfort women” survivors and Kang, has gathered together every single Wednesday in front of the Japanese

Embassy in Seoul, and demanded that the Japanese government apologize publicly and sincerely about its history of forcing more than 200,000 women from Korea, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines into the sexual slavery during World War II.23 Kang participated in various activist events and always attended the Wednesday Demonstration until she died of lung cancer in February, 1997.24

15_{Jee Hoon Park and et al, "Korean Survivors of the Japanese ‘Comfort Women’ System: Understanding the} Lifelong Consequences of Early Life Trauma," Journal of Gerontological Social Work 59, no. 4 (2016): 333. 16_Idem.

17_{Ibid., 334.} 18_Idem. 19_Idem.

20_{Y.-M Park, "Compensation to Fit the Crime: Conceptualizing a Just Paradigm of Reparation for Korean "Comfort} Women," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 30, no. 2 (2010): 206.

21_Idem.

22_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12.} 23_{Ibid., 33.}

(9)

Victims’ Identities: “Comfort Women?” Or Sexual Slaves?

Before discussing methodology and research question, it is important to raise the vital consideration of a proper term to describe Kang Duk-kyung and her fellow survivors, as well as those who lost their lives. Many scholars, including sociologist Sarah C. Soh, refer to victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery as “military comfort women” and “comfort women,” by putting quotation marks surrounding these terms in order to highlight the historically unique and hidden nature of the sexual slavery in the Japanese euphemism.25 However, the use of the term “comfort women” could be still problematic. On November 29, 2018, the Japan Times

announced that, from this time forth, it would use a redefined term “comfort women,” who were forced to work as sex slaves before and during World War II.26 The paper replaced the term “forced labor” with “wartime labors” to describe them.27_{It announced that:}

‘Comfort women’ have been referred to as ‘women who were forced to provide sex for Japanese troops before and during World War II.’ Because the experiences of ‘comfort women’ in different areas throughout the course of the war varied widely, from today, we will refer to ‘comfort women’ as ‘women who worked in wartime brothels, including those who did so against their will, to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.’28

The shift of the meaning has triggered widespread criticism of the newspaper, by leaving questions of what would be an appropriate term to describe these victims.29

Since the term “comfort women” system was not publicly known during the Japanese occupation in Korea, many other terms and euphemisms were used to refer to it, such as “the Women’s Voluntary Service Corps.”30_{In other words, before and during World War II, this}

publicly non-existent organization concealed where women and girls were truly being taken.31

25_{Chunghee Sarah Soh, “The Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Movement forRedress,” Asian Survey 36, no. 12} (December 1, 1996), 1227.

26_{Justin McCurry, “‘Comfort women’: anger as Japan paper alters description of WWII terms,”The Guardian,} November 30, 2018, Accessed May 1, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/30/japanese-paper-sparks-anger-as-it-ditches-ww2-forced-labour-term?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other; “South Korea’s top court orders Mitsubishi Heavy to pay compensation for wartime labor,” The Japan Times, November 29, 2018, Accessed May 1, 2019.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/29/national/crime-legal/south-koreas-top-court-orders-mitsubishi-heavy-pay-compensation-wartime-labor/#.XRf76sqxXmo 27_Idem.

28_{“South Korea’s top court orders Mitsubishi Heavy to pay compensation for wartime labor.”}

29_{The shift has triggered widespread criticism, because many viewed it as an adoption of Prime Minister Shinzo} Abe’s conservative political agenda (attempt to reshape Japan’s wartime history).

Justin McCurry, “‘Comfort women’: anger as Japan paper alters description of WWII terms.” 30_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 34.} 31_Idem.

(10)

Then, in the aftermath, even though the term “comfort women” itself is problematic, the term “comfort women” is still used, because it involves significant historical connotations.32

The dilemma of the term that reflects the perspective of the Japanese government and perpetrators raises questions of a victim identity: what would be an appropriate term to capture the victims’ involvement in remembering the Japanese military’s forced sexual slavery? Would it still be appropriate to keep using the term “comfort women” when approximately 240 women broke their long silence in 1991? Or, is there any other term that can re-define their identities? Considering these perspectives, this thesis will use the terms “comfort women” and “survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery,” to refer to the victims, and then, introduce a new term to re-define their identities in later chapters.

Limitations

As noted above, the majority of existing documents regarding the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery were destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Army, and most of the

information heavily relies on the testimonies of the survivors.33 While 239 survivors registered themselves as former “comfort women,” only 21 of those women are still alive.34_{Thus, rather}

than interviewing survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery, the access to the study would be limited mainly to their written testimonies. In addition to the limited access to information, the thesis will rely heavily on written documents and written interviews, rather than oral interviews, due to the geographical distance between the author and the survivors.

32_{The term “comfort women” solely describes women from the perspective of the perpetrators: the Japanese} military soldiers.

Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 34. 33_{Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy,” 334.} 34_{Until June 10, 2019, there are only 21 Halmonis alive in South Korea.}

“Another “Comfort Women” Halmoni died… only 21 survivors left, ” “위안부 피해 할머니 또 별세… 생존자 21 명,” Yonhap News, 연합뉴스, April 2, 2019, accessed June 10, 2019, https://n.news.naver.com/article/422/0000368413

(11)

Methodology

Since the mid-1990s, many books and articles related to the Japanese military sexual slavery based on the testimonies of many former “comfort women” have appeared. The current scholarly debate surrounding the issue focuses mainly on physical and mental sufferings of women during captivity and the political ramifications.35

Additionally, many scholars, including sociologist Sarah C. Soh, have criticized the present day South Korean society’s recognition of the suffering of the “comfort women” by inscribing it “within” the male discourse of national trauma.36_{However, while it is important to}

examine problems derived from the “homogenizing” narrative, understanding of victims’ participations in remembering the issue, such as their involvement at the Wednesday Demonstration, has been relatively neglected.37_{Additionally, critical examinations on the}

dilemma of using the term “comfort women” and evolving identities of the victims, from the suppressed to empowered agents, have been overlooked.

In order to examine the development of the Wednesday Demonstration and its meaning, I will introduce five considerations: Japanese military institutionalization of the sexual slavery system, 50 years of silence that survivors endured in South Korea, the development of the Wednesday Demonstration, the construction of the Peace Monument on the 1000th_Wednesday

Demonstration, and the construction of the War and Women’s Human Rights museum. This thesis focuses on digital and print archives at the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual slavery by Japan, including the testimonies of South Korean survivors as main primary sources. As a native Korean speaker, the author will translate primary sources, such as testimonies of survivors and interviews given by activists and artists, from Korean to English.

The first two chapters will explain how victims had been forced to become Japanese “comfort women,” and how they had remained silent even after they returned to South Korea for fifty years. These explanations will be based on survivor testimonies, and the Women’s

International War Crimes Tribunal Judgement on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery. Then, the later chapters focus on interviews given by activists, including Yoon Mi-hyang, the current president

35_{Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy,” 334.}

36_{Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan, (Chicago:} University of Chicago Press, 2008), 3.

(12)

of the Korean Council, Kim Dong-hee, the director of the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, and designers of the Peace Monument and architects of the museum. Particularly, these chapters demonstrate how survivors, activists, and their supporters have employed performative strategies to re-construct the understanding of the Wednesday Demonstrations, by linking these findings to the relevant studies that have been carried out by performance studies scholars as well as historians, including James E. Young and Elizabeth Son.

Merging performance theories, cultural studies, and feminist studies with a transitional justice analysis, this thesis offers ways of reconceptualizing understandings of collective remembrance that tend to concentrate on institutionalized forms of reconciliation by shifting its focus toward victim-centered grassroots movements. Thus, it refocuses attentions on

participation of ordinary people, particularly victims, artists, and students, as empowered agents. Historian James E. Young’s explanation about acts of commemoration, including both

spontaneous and permanent structures of memorials, would allow the Wednesday Demonstration to be understood as a social space, developed from a spontaneous space for the “comfort

women” survivors to demand a Japanese official apology to a permanent space where younger generation and the public can engage with their fight for justice.38

The Role of the Wednesday Demonstration

So, what has the Wednesday Demonstration transformed into? How has it re-defined identities of former “comfort women”? How exactly has the Wednesday Demonstration created a space for victims, perpetrators, and public to remember the past? By raising these several

questions, I will examine its progress through three parts: its emergence, its evolution, and its impact. Before studying its development, Chapter I “Before ‘Broken Silence’” aims to

understand the Japanese military sexual slavery as an instrument of mass violence. Rather than understanding it as an inevitable consequence of war, it explains the “comfort women” system as an integral part of Japanese military aggression. In order to examine it, Chapter I explains

development and operation of the “Comfort Women” system based on testimonies of several Korean survivors. Additionally, it briefly examines why survivors remained silent for almost five decades even after they were liberated.

38_{James Edward Young, The Stages of Memory: Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces between,} (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2018), chap. I, Kindle.

(13)

The first time this issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery was addressed publicly was when the first executive director of the Korean Council raised the issue at the International Conference on Women and Tourism in Jeju island, South Korea in 1988.39_{Three years later, in}

1991 the first survivor broke the silence by telling her story at a news conference in Seoul.40 In order to examine what motivated Kim Hak-sun, the first survivor, to speak out about her traumatic memory after fifty years of silence, Chapter II examines 50 years of silence in depth, and how survivors broke their silence. In this chapter, it will explain how a platform emerged where there is an audience willing to listen and actors willing to speak. By comparing the situation of how Kim Hak-sun broke the long silence to that of Bae Bong-gi, the first woman who identified herself as a former “comfort woman” in Okinawa, Japan in 1975, it examines the critical meaning of the victims’ willingness to speak for themselves.41

After explaining why survivors remained silent for almost five decades and how they broke their silence in 1990s, Chapter III and Chapter IV aim to explore the development of the Wednesday Demonstration. Particularly, they examine how the movements as performances have enabled survivors to embody their historical claims in a public arena. In order to do so, I divide the Wednesday Demonstration into three distinct periods: the first phase (1992 - 2000) that focused mainly on raising awareness of the issue, the second phase (2000 -2011) that broadened their domestic and international support, and the last phase (2011- present) that has encouraged more interactions between the victims and the audience through culturally embodied forms, including the erection of the Peace Monument. By examining the development of the Wednesday Demonstration through the presence of the victims during the first two phases, Chapter III

introduces a new re-defined identity of the victims that have been emphasized throughout the movement: Halmonis (meaning “Grandmothers” in Korean) as the living witnesses and as the individual empowered agents.

To understand the evolution of the Wednesday Demonstration in more depth, Chapter IV explores a critical mechanism, the Peace Monument, for shifting dynamics of the Wednesday 39_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42.}

40_{Ibid., 12.}

41_{Gil, Yoon-hyung Gil}_길윤형_{, “Wooriga e-jeobeorin choichoui wiyanbu jeongeunja….gu e-rum Bae Bong-gi”}

우리가 잊어버린 최초의 위안부 증언자…그 이름 배봉기 [Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans], Hankyoreh 한겨례. Published August 8, 2015, Accessed May 5, 2019,

(14)

Demonstrations, particularly on audience participation. On December 14, 2011, “Pyeonghwabi” (“The Peace Monument” in Korean) was erected to commemorate the pain of “Comfort women” at the 1,000th Wednesday Demonstration.42 Chapter IV introduces the transformative value of the Wednesday Demonstration, as it has changed audience’s views, and reflects on aesthetic

reinterpretations of survivors’ experiences by the two artists. Then, the chapter examines how multiple audiences have interpreted the meaning of the materialized remembrance, and explains how the monument invites performances.

The final chapter, “An ‘Ordinary’ House as a ‘Place of Memory,” will explore the very notion of what constitutes the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum to examine its role as an increasingly crucial element in the evolving collective remembrance of the survivors’ stories. The chapter introduces critical challenges that survivors, activists, and supporters faced in the construction of the museum, and explains how it re-directed its interpretive approach to a “place of history.” Then, it reveals how the survivors’ pasts are re-mediated and re-memorialized through understanding museum-audience interactions. This examination of the interactions will shed light on the museum as a constantly changing space re-produced by the diverse

participation of visitors.

(15)

Chapter I. Before “Broken Silence”

Sexual Violence as an Inevitable Consequence or as an Instrument of Mass Violence?

Sexual violence has often been understood as an inevitable consequence of war and mass violence. However, is it? Is it merely a byproduct of episodes of mass violence? In contrast to the approach to sexual violence as an inevitable consequence, understanding it as an instrument of mass violence introduces a new perspective: sexual violence as an integral and deliberate part of a war. Yun Jeong-ok, the first Executive Director of Korean Council, argues that the Japanese military sexual slavery in the 1930s and 1940s in the Asia-Pacific region was an integral part of Japanese military aggression.43_{The proceedings of the Women’s International War Crimes}

Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery also demonstrate that the Japanese institutionalization of sexual slavery of girls and women was an integral part of Japanese military aggression.44 It is significant to understand the Japanese military sexual slavery as a deliberate and systematic policy, because it has guided how survivors and human rights activists have fought against it.

By adopting this new understanding of sexual violence as a weapon of the Japanese military aggression, this chapter aims to explain the development and operation of the so-called “Comfort Women” system, and to examine the South Korean modern history that has affected the victims’ lives. In particular, based on a military document produced during the war by the Japanese government and the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal judgement, the chapter briefly examines the history of the Japanese military aggression in the Asia-Pacific region in order to introduce the origins of the Japanese military sexual slavery system. Then, through several testimonies of the survivors, the chapter traces the institutionalization of the sexual slavery system, specifically in the sexual enslavement of Korean girls and women. By

43_{In the introduction in the first book of testimonies of survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery, Yun Jeong-ok} argued that “victims became Japanese military sexual slaves, because they were merely Korean women……. This Japanese military sexual slavery policy can be seen as an integral part of the Japanese military aggression….” Original Sentence:

“종군 위안부가 된 분들은 단순히 조선 여성이기 때문에 당한 것이다. 군 위안부 정책은 일본의 조선침략정책의

집약이라고 볼 수 있기 때문에….”

The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean

“Jeongsindae” Research Center 한국정신대문제대책협의회 그리고 정신대 연구소, Ganjaero Ggulryugan Joseonin Gunwiyabudeul I 강제로끌려간조선인군위안부들 I [The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I], (Gyeong-gido Paju: Hanwool, 1996), 6.

44_{Prosecutors and Peoples of the Asia-Pacific Region v. Hiroto et al. Judgement, Women’s International War} Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery, Case No. PT-2000-1-T, December 4, 2001, para. 10. [hereinafter The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000].

(16)

understanding the origins of the military sexual slavery system and its institutionalization, the chapter analyzes Yun’s claim about the sexual slavery as an integral part of the Japanese military aggression.

Even after the war ended, survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery remained silent for almost five decades.45 The first time this issue was publicly addressed was in 1988 by a woman advocating for survivors, and it was not until 1991 that the first survivor spoke out.46 Then, on August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-sun, then 67, broke the 50 years of silence, as she described her memories of being a “comfort woman” in front of “a crowd of reporters and a flood of flashlights” at a historic news conference in Seoul.47_{Inspired by her courage, 238 other survivors}

also shared their traumatic memories.48 Why did these women stay silent for so long, and why did they decide to break it nearly fifty years later? After the brief explanation of the origins of the Japanese military sexual slavery system and its institutionalization, the chapter attempts to answer this question by examining South Korean modern history that has affected the victims’ lives.

1.1 Origins of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery System

“Sexual violence is not an outcome of war, but….women’s bodies are an important site of war, which makes sexual violence an integral part of wartime strategy”.49

Historian Regina Muhlhauser explains that, despite prominent usages of the term in public discussions and media coverage, there has been no clear definition of “sexual violence as a weapon of war.”50_{What does sexual violence during mass violence mean? In other words,}

what kind of acts have been committed, against whom, and specifically in which situation? Even though there has been no clear definition of “sexual violence as a weapon of war,”51_{it is}

important to understand the definition of sexual violence itself in order to understand it in certain situations. Thus, sexual violence is defined as, “any act of a sexual nature which is committed on

45_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 1.}

46_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42.} 47_{Ibid., 12.}

48_{Ibid., 33; Hyon-hee Shin, “‘Comfort women’: Living, harrowing mark on history,” The Korea Herald, August 17,} 2014.

49_{In 2009 report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women reported.}

Yakin Erturk, 15 Years of The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences (1994-2009) – A Critical Review (New York: UN Human Rights Council, 2009), vol. 13456. 50_{Regina Muhlhauser, "Refraining Sexual Violence as a Weapon and Strategy of War: The Case}

of the German Wehrmacht during the War and Genocide in the Soviet Union, 1941-1944," Journal of the History of Sexuality 26, no. 3 (2017): 368.

(17)

a person under circumstances which are coercive […….] And is not limited to physical invasion of human body and may include acts which do not involve penetration or even physical

contact.”52_{This can include forced public nudity, coercing victims to perform sexual acts with}

others, and other gruesome acts which target the sexual autonomy and integrity of an individual. American scholar Elissa Bemporad explains that episodes of mass violence cannot be separated from “the notion of the body and power structures in society”; the biological nature of female bodies has increased possibilities of women to be targets of sexual violence during war and mass violence.53_{Based on the definition of sexual violence as “any act of a sexual nature}

which is committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive,” political scientist Lisa Sharlach introduces a term, ‘genocidal sexual violence.’ 54_{She defines genocidal sexual violence}

as sexual violence committed as an act of genocide, which fulfills the requirements of genocidal intent.55_{Despite the fact that it cannot be categorized as a ‘genocidal sexual violence’ in a legal}

framework, the development of the Japanese military sexual slavery as an institution illustrates Sharlach’s introduction.

With its aim to dominate the Asia-Pacific region, the Japanese government and military consistently perpetrated various forms of mass violence in each of the territories they invaded.56 Among these various forms of violence, one of the brutal atrocities perpetrated by them, known as the “Rape of Nanking,” paradoxically and significantly motivated the Japanese government and military to institutionalize its sexual slavery system.57 In 1937, when Japan invaded China, Japanese troops in Nanking committed massacres, murders, and particularly, “[during this period] of six or seven weeks thousands of women were raped……many cases of abnormal and sadistic behavior in connection with these rapes occurred.”58_{During the first month of the Japanese}

occupation in the region, approximately 20,000 cases of sexual violence occurred.59 Then, by the

52_{UNICTR, Prosecutor v. Jean Paul Akayesu Judgement, paras. 598 & 688.}

53_{Elissa Bemporad and Joyce W. Warren, Women and Genocide Survivors, Victims, Perpetrators, (Bloomington:} Indiana University Press, 2018) 2.

54_{UNICTR, Prosecutor v. Jean Paul Akayesu Judgement, paras. 598 & 688.}

55_{Lisa Sharlach, “Rape as Genocide: Bangladesh, the Former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda,” New Political Science 22} no. 1 (2000): 89-102.

‘Genocidal sexual violence’ is a dominant explanatory framework for understanding sexual violence during mass violence. Genocidal intent is the mens rea of the crime of genocide outline in Article 2 of the

Genocide Convention.

56_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 141.} 57_{Ibid., 148.}

58_{IMTFE Judgement paras. 453-454.} 59_{Ibid., 389.}

(18)

summer of 1939, the Japanese military and government faced overwhelming outrage in the international community.60

Then, in order to alleviate the anti-Japanese sentiment driven by uncontrollable sexual violence committed by Japanese soldiers against civilian women, the Japanese government and military institutionalized “comfort stations,” which were set up for the first time in China in 1932, ordered by Yasuji Okamura.61 Also, the Japanese military deliberately created this controllable system in order to prevent its troops from contracting sexually transmitted diseases and to offer “comfort” to them.62_{Additionally, it developed the sexual slavery systems in order to prevent}

possible spies within the military.63

The Japanese institutionalization of the sexual slavery system illustrates human rights lawyer Catherine MacKinnon’s distinction between rape in peace and rape in war. She explains that, while rape in peace is “out of control,” genocidal rape is “rape under control.”64_{Then, she}

adds her explanation by describing the “ethnic rape as an official policy of war in a genocidal campaign for political control,” and she describes it as “rape to drive a wedge through a community, to shatter a society, [and] to destroy a people.”65_{Even though human rights lawyer}

Rhonda Copelon opposes the term, ‘genocidal sexual violence,’ MacKinnon argues that it is unique because of its nature as part of a deliberate policy to destroy a group of people.66 To analyze, while various forms of sexual violence committed by the Japanese soldiers could be understood as “rape in peace”(rather, by applying this concept, it would be “rape in general” in this situation), the Rape of Nanking critically changed the dynamics of sexual violence perpetrated by the Japanese military. In other words, its attempt to resolve the problems, including the problem of its reputation, shifted its violence as “rape in peace” to “rape in war.”

60_{IMTFE Judgement para. 164; Takashi Yoshida, The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in} Japan, China, and the United States, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 37.

61_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, paras. 142, 157.} 62_Idem.

63_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 34.}

64_{Catherine MacKinnon, “Rape, Genocide, and Women’s Human Rights,” Harvard Women’s Law Journal 17, no. 5} (1994): 12.

65_Idem.

66_{Copelon strongly opposed the term, ‘genocidal sexual violence,’ because it could obscure suffering of other} victims raped in war.

Catherine MacKinnon, “Rape, Genocide, and Women’s Human Rights,”12, and Rhonda Copelon, “Gendered War Crimes: Reconceptualizing Rape in Time of War,” in Women’s Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives, edited by Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper (New York: Routledge, 1995), 199.

(19)

Furthermore, this institutionalization became an integral part of its deliberate policy to dominate the Asia-Pacific region.

Thus, the Japanese military and government deliberately operated and institutionalized its military sexual slavery system.67 Even though the Japanese military and government deliberately destroyed most of documents related to World War II, the “recruitment memo,” entitled “Matters Concerning the Recruitment of Women,” sent on March 4, 1938 by an Adjutant General in the Japanese War Ministry to the Chiefs of Staff of the North China Area Army and the Central China Expeditionary Forces, provides substantial evidence of its responsibility. 68 _The

Recruitment memo demonstrates the coercive nature of the “comfort station” and the military’s supervision:

In the future, armies in the field will control the recruiting of women and will use scrupulous care in selecting people to carry out this task. This task will be performed in close cooperation with the military police or local police force of the area. You are hereby notified of the order to carry out this task with the utmost regard for preserving the honor of the army and for avoiding social problems.69

The statement that the military police and local police should be involved in the recruitment demonstrates the responsibility of the Japanese military in the coercive and deceptive recruitment of girls for its military sexual slavery system. Thus, the recruitment memo illustrates the system of Japanese military sexual slavery was an integral part of Japan’s aggressive war throughout the Asia-Pacific, as the highest levels of the Japanese government established policies and procedures for the operation of this system.70

1.2 Institutionalization of the Sexual Slavery System

The Sexual Enslavement of Korean Girls and Women

After the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese military demand for systematic sexual services increased.71_{Then, the Japanese military and government viewed Korea as a main source for}

recruiting women for the services.72_{Although it is difficult to estimate the exact number of}

women and girls who were deceived and forced into the sexual slavery system, it is believed that

67_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 92.} 68_Idem.

69_{Notice from the Adjutant to the Chiefs of Staff of the North China Area Army and Central China Expeditionary} Force, The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 92.

(20)

tens of thousands of Korean women were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence.73 Thus, the Japanese military procured Korean women disproportionately into their “comfort system.”

A survivor, Kim Bok-dong, testified how in 1941, when she was 15 years old, the village headman forced her mother to send her to work in the Volunteer Corps.74 She also testified that the Japanese military took her to Guangdong, China, and put her to work in a “comfort station.”75_{She confirmed that the Japanese recruited Korean women disproportionately into the}

sexual slavery systems by illustrating that, of thirty women at the station, only one woman was not Korean.76 Then, a few days later, a medical officer who examined Kim Bok-Dong on her arrival raped her. She stated that she was frightened, and she guessed that “if [she] tried to resist, [she] would be the only one to suffer, so [she] resigned herself to doing as [he] said.”77_{The next}

day, she attempted to commit suicide with two other women.78_{She described her “comfort}

station” experience:

There were thirty rooms. Each woman was assigned a room. The rooms were separated only by plywood and it was possible to hear someone breathing in the next room. The rooms were very small and contained only a bed thrown down on some wood assembled on the concrete floor. Each room was marked by a number on top and the comfort woman’s name beneath….Inside the ‘comfort station,’ it wasn’t just names that became Japanese, I had to use the whole Japanese language too………Fifteen soldiers usually came each day, but on the weekend the number often exceeded fifty.79

The testimony of Kim Bok-dong allows us to glimpse into characteristics that mark the so-called “comfort stations.” While the Recruitment Memo shows military control and regulation of the “comfort women” system, Kim’s testimony poses several considerations: against whom

73_{Thomas J. Ward and Wiliam D. Lay, “The Comfort Women Controversy: Not Over Yet,” 255.}

74_{The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae”} Research Center 한국정신대문제대책협의회 그리고 한국정신대 연구소, Ganjearo Ggulryugan Joseonin

Gunwiyabudeul II 강제로끌려간조선인군위안부들 II [The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” II], (Gyeong-gido Paju: Hanwool, 1997), 85.

75_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 197.} 76_Idem.

77_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 198; The Korean Council for Women} Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 89.

79_{Ibid., 197 & 198; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean} “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 91.

(21)

the Japanese military committed this systematic sexual violence, methods of procurement, experiences upon arrival at the “comfort stations,”and physical and mental violence.

Against whom?

Understanding sexual violence as a weapon of war requires a critical consideration: against whom this violence is targeted. In this case, who were the victims? Why were they targeted? ‘Genocidal sexual violence,’ introduced by Sharlach, is perpetrated against a target group of mass violence. For instance, differences in the number of incidents of sexual violence with the reasons for it between ethnic groups of the Rwandan genocide has led many scholars to conclude that sexual violence was employed as a weapon to destroy the Tutsi ethnic group.80 In particular, most of the perpetrators have targeted the most vulnerable people among the target group when they have committed sexual violence during mass violence. Even though victims of ‘genocidal sexual violence’ cannot completely reflect the range of individual victims, most of the victims have been women.81 Furthermore, one of the survivors of sexual violence from the Rwandan genocide testified that “the pregnant women were the most targeted,” because for the

interahamwe (Hutu paramilitary group), perpetrating a pregnant woman would achieve to claim

two victims.82

Similarly, the Japanese military targeted the most vulnerable members of society, based on age, poverty, class, family status, education, nationality, or ethnicity, for its “comfort women” system.83_{Based on the testimonies of Korean survivors, the majority of women and girls were}

taken at the ages of between 14 and 19.84_{Particularly, women from Japan’s occupied territories,}

primarily from poor and rural communities, were more susceptible to being deceived and coerced into slavery.85 Most of victims at an early age had to go to work at their early age to

80_{Anna Rhodes, “The dead dream of the resurrection of the living: coping with the legacy of sexual violence during} the Rwandan genocide,” (Master thesis in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Amsterdam: January 2018), 16.

81_Idem..

82_{It was a survivor testimony of Stephanie from Rwandan genocide; Idem.} 83_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 263.}

84_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 35.} 85_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 263.}

(22)

provide financial support to their families.86 Additionally, they did not receive a high level of education.87

Methods of Procurement

Many survivors, from Philippines, Malaysia, and East Timor, and some from Korea, China Taiwan and Indonesia, testified that they were enslaved by forcible abduction.88

Meanwhile, the most common method of procuring women and girls for the “comfort stations” in Korea was deception.89_{The Japanese military took advantage of women’s poverty and their}

desire for a better life.90_{Through false promises of employment in factories, hospitals, or other}

types of similar work, many women and girls “volunteered” and followed the recruiters.91

Sufferings at the “Comfort Stations”

It was widespread that victims suffered from the rapes on their first day in the “comfort station” or soon after their arrival, as many survivors testified.92_{For instance, in her testimony,}

Kim Bok-dong remembered that the doctor who examined her was the first perpetrator who raped her.93_{Their experiences upon arrival at the “comfort stations” were not the only incidences}

of sexual violence that they experienced, but merely the beginning of it. At the “comfort stations,” women and girls had to endure rape during most of their waking hours.94 When Kim Bok-dong was in Guangdong, she recalled that on weekdays she had to take 15 soldiers a day, and on weekends, it was more than 50 soldiers.95 As a result of enduring dozens of rapes each day, many survivors, including Kim Bok-dong, testified that their genitals were swollen and they could not urinate without pain.96 In addition to the relentless rape, many survivors were tortured and abused. Park Young-sim, another Korean survivor, testified that when she did not respond to a

86_{The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae”} Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” I, 17. 87_Idem.

90_Idem.

91_{Idem.; Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 35.} 92_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 299.}

93_{Ibid., 198; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean} “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 89.

95_{Peyvand Khorsandi, "Kim Bok-dong: South Korean Survivor of Japan's 'comfort Women' Camps." The}

Independent. February 06, 2019. Accessed April 08, 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kim-bok-dong-dead-south-korean-survivor-japan-comfort-women-human-rights-wwii-a8764541.html.

(23)

soldier’s demand, he cut her neck with a long knife and “raped her while blood was soaking her body.”97

Dehumanization and Objectification of the Women

As the testimonies of the survivors, including Park Young-sim, indicate, the Japanese military dehumanized and objectified the victims. They regarded the women as military supplies and “transported them along with weapons.”98_{For instance, at the Women’s International War}

Crimes Tribunal held in Tokyo where the former Emperor of Japan and several military officials were trialed, a Japanese officer testified that the dehumanization and objectification of the women allowed the Japanese soldiers to regard them as commodities “no different than human toilets.”99_{That Japanese officer made the following statement during trial:}

During the battle, which lasted about fifty days, I did not see any women at all. I knew that as a result of (being without access to women), men’s mental condition ends up declining, and that’s when I realized once again the necessity of special comfort stations. The desire is the same as hunger or the need to urinate, and soldiers merely thought of comfort stations as practically the same as latrines.100

The dehumanization and objectification of the women deprived the girls and women of their basic rights, including liberty of movement and payment.101 Most of the women did not receive any kind of payment. Kim Bok-dong testified that “at the time, [she] did not even know [she] was supposed to receive money.”102_{Additionally, the majority of them were transported}

great distances from their homes to be close to the Japanese troops.103_{However, in attempt to}

escape from the sexual slavery facilities, most of the women faced lack of resources, language barrier, and unfamiliarity of their location.104

99_Idem.

100_{Yoshiaki Yoshimi, Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II, (New York:} Columbia University Press, 2002), 199; The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 357. 101_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 350.}

(24)

1.3 50 Years of Silence: The Process of Rebuilding Their Broken Lives

Abandonment after the War: Attempts to Return Home and Reintegrate into Society

The suffering of the “comfort women” did not end with the termination of the war. After the war ended, while some victims were swiftly killed by the Japanese military, others were simply ignored and left helpless at the “comfort stations.”105_{Even after the war, some women}

were kept as forced laborers; Kim Bok-dong testified that, during the immediate post-war period, she was forced to work as a nurse with 300 other women at the 10th_{Army Hospital run in}

Singapore.106_{Meanwhile, many women did not survive on their way back home from the}

“comfort stations.” Ahn Bok-soon, another survivor testified that, she was the only survivor from her “comfort station,” as a ship transferring her and other women was bombed and sank, and all of them, except her, were killed.107 Some women chose not to return to their home countries or their hometowns. According to the study done by sociologist Young-hee Shim, while some survivors, including Ha Sang-sook decided not to go back and to stay in China, others who returned to Korea rarely went back to their hometowns.108

Even if survivors managed to return with non-existent support system to provide resources, their sufferings did not end. Many survivors testified that they still experienced physical suffering even after their release from sexual enslavement. Kim Bok-dong had digestive problems caused by torture.109 In addition, many lost their reproductive abilities that interfered with their marital and family life.110 Kim Bok-dong testified that, because of her inability to bear children, her husband had frequent affairs.111 In addition to their physical sufferings, they endured “social isolation, societal stigma, economic hardship, marriage difficulties, and the

108_{“Silence and Social Aftermath of the Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Focusing on their Life after the Return” Study} done by Young-hee Shim of the Department of Sociology, Hanyang University, The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 365.

109_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 401.} 110_{Ibid., para. 412.}

(25)

failure of the state of Japan to recognize and repair its wrongs.”112_{As a result, survivors of the}

Japanese military sexual slavery remained silent for almost five decades.113

Examining the causal relations between women’s long silence and social isolation, Young-hee Shim identifies several factors (including living conditions, cultural factors, and lack of opportunity to tell their stories as they lost their previous relationships due to their hesitance to return home) as main reasons for survivors’ long silence.114_{She explains that devastation and}

burdens of daily living, caused by emancipation from Japanese rule and the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, could not provide either financial or healing support for victims.115_{Additionally,}

survivors might not have been able to find words to describe their experiences.116

After a long history of women’s silence and Korean society’s ignorance, the Japanese military “comfort women” issue began disclosing its truth in the late 1980s. The issue was first raised in South Korea in April 1987 during a seminar on “International Tourism Gisaeng”117

hosted by Korean Church Women United (Han-guk Gyohoe Yeoseong Yeonhapheo, hereafter KCWU).118_{There, English literature scholar Yun Jeong-ok presented her independent research}

about the “comfort women” issue.119_{Then, the KCWU established a Research Committee on this}

issue to support her research.120 At a seminar held in Jeju island, in 1988, right before Seoul’s 1988 Olympic Games, Yun raised the issue of the Japanese military ‘comfort women’ for the first time in public.121_{Because of the democratization of South Korea in 1987, a strong sense of}

112_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 413.} 113_{Ibid., para. 1.}

114_{“Silence and Social Aftermath of the Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Focusing on their Life after the Return” Study} done by Young-hee Shim of the Department of Sociology, Hanyang University. The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 459.

115_{“Silence and Social Aftermath of the Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Focusing on their Life after the Return” Study} done by Young-hee Shim of the Department of Sociology, Hanyang University. The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 459.

116_{Ibid., 461.}

117_{Since the 1970s, the Korean government promoted international tourism, euphemistically called “gisaeng tourism,”} focused on female sexual services targeting particularly at Japanese male tourists.

118_{Na-Young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’: Navigating between} Nationalism and Feminism.” Ed. Kim, Seung-Kyung, and Carole R. McCann. Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspective. (New York: Routledge, 2003), 579.

119_{Idem.; Dong-sun Kim}_김동선_{, “[Wianbu Bogoseo 55]17. Wianbu Silsang Chuk Gobalja, Yun Jeon-ok Jeon Ewha} Yeodae Gyosu” [위안부 보고서 55]17. 위안부 실상 첫 고발자, 윤정옥 전 이화여대 교수 [[“Comfort Women” Reports 55] 17. The First Accuser of the Issue of the “Comfort Women,’ Yun Jeong-ok, the Former Professor at the Ewha Woman’s University]. Asia Economics. 아시아경제. September 3, 2014. Accessed April 27, 2019.

http://www.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?idxno=2014090310153546706

120_{Na-Young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women,’ 579.} 121_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42.}

(26)

awakening rapidly spread among the Korean women’s movement.122_{Then, with participation of}

thirty-seven women’s organizations, the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan was established in 1990.123 Then, on August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-sun, the former "comfort woman," went public for the first time, and described her memories of being a “comfort woman.”124

By adopting the frame of reference of sexual violence as a weapon of the Japanese military aggression, this chapter explained the development and operation of the so-called “Comfort Women” system, and examined the South Korean modern history that affected the victims’ lives. By understanding the origins of the military sexual slavery system and its institutionalization, the chapter analyzed Yun’s claim about the sexual slavery as the integral part of the Japanese military aggression. However, as this chapter explained, survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery remained silent for almost five decades.125_{The chapter briefly}

mentioned how Yun and Kim Hak-sun raised the issue of the Japanese military “comfort women” for the first time by breaking the long silence. In order to examine what motivated Kim Hak-sun to speak out about traumatic memory of the Japanese military sexual slavery in 1991 after fifty years of silence, Chapter II will examine 50 years of silence and how other survivors participated in breaking the silence in more depth.

122_{Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan.} (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2009), 372-73.

123_{Na-young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women,’ 579.} 124_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12.} 125_{The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 1.}

(27)

Chapter II. A Road to “Somewhere”

Figure II. Kim Hak-sun at the Wednesday Demonstration in 1996126

I went out to a workshop about job/employment, arranged by an association, and there I met a grandmother who happened to be a victim of atomic bombing in Hiroshima. Since I had suffered

from feelings of anger towards Japan and I wanted to talk about what happened to me to somewhere, I told her the truth that I was a former Japanese military “comfort woman.” Because I was the first South Korean former “comfort woman” who publicly testified, I have

been to many places. It is very difficult to recall all the terrible memories.

Kim Hak-soon, former “comfort woman”127

126_{Kim Hak-sun, 김학순 (1924- 1997), at the Wednesday Demonstration in 1996} Sunshil Kim, Wednesday, 12 PM, 8-9.

127_{Original sentences in:}

동회에서 알선해 주는 취로사업에 나갔다가 우연히 원폭피해자인 한 할머니를 만났다. 나도 일본에게 억울한 일이 많고 내 인생이 하도 원통해서 어디 이야기라도 하고 싶었던 참이라 내가 군 “위안부”였다는 사실을 이야기했다.국내에서 처음 나온 위안부 증언자라고 여기저기 많이 불려 다녔다. 다시 그 기억들을 되새김질하는 것이 무척 힘이 들다.

Written Testimony of Kim Hak-sun, The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I, 44.

(28)

A Road to “Somewhere”

On August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-sun, the former "comfort woman," described her memories of being a “comfort woman,” in front of “a crowd of reporters and a flood of flashlights at a historical news conference,” because she “wanted to talk about what happened to [her] to somewhere.”128_{Then, Kim’s desire to speak to “somewhere” raises several critical}

questions. First, why did it take almost 50 years for Kim Hak-sun to speak out about her traumatic memory to “somewhere”? Then, despite the long period of silence, how was “somewhere” created?

By defining Kim’s “somewhere” a platform where there are audience who are willing to listen and actors who are willing to speak, Chapter II aims to examine why South Korean victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery endured 50 years of silence after they returned to South Korea and how Kim Hak-sun and others broke the silence. First, this chapter explains an absence of “somewhere” for the victims to speak in a “we” narrative in South Korean society. By introducing several main factors, including the legacy of a philosophical and cultural system unique to Korea (confucianism), the chapter explains why the historical experiences of “comfort women” were invisible in Korean public discourse. Then, this chapter introduces how several events, including Yun Jeong-ok’s presentation on the issue of the Japanese military “comfort women” for the first time, raised awareness of the issue in the society. 129_{Last, it reflects on how}

“somewhere” emerged as Kim Hak-sun broke the silence in 1991 by comparing her situation to that of Bae Bong-gi, the first woman who identified herself as a former “comfort woman” in Okinawa, Japan, in 1975.130 By posing a question of the difference between Kim’s testimony and Bae’s identification in presenting their memories, the chapter reflects on the formation of “somewhere” that required both public willingness to listen and victims’ desire to speak. Then, it examines the critical meaning of the victims’ willingness to speak for themselves.

128_{Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12; The Korean Council} for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I, 44.

At “the Seminar: Women and Tourism Culture” on April 21 to 23, 1988, right before Seoul’s 1988 Olympic Games, Yun raised the issue of the Japanese military ‘comfort women’ for the first time in public. Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42.

The Halmonis' Wednesdays: The Development of the Wednesday Demonstration, a Weekly Demonstration by Former "Comfort Women," as an Expansive Tool of Transitional Justice

The Halmonis’ Wednesdays

Table of Contents