Stories that Make History

The Experience and Memories of the Japanese Military ›Comfort Girls-Women‹

The Research Team of the War, Women's Human Rights Center, The Research Team of the War, Women’s Human Rights Center, Angella Son

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2020
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110670615
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

What would it be like if your existence was erased for half a century? This is the reality for the Korean comfort girls-women whose lives had been erased since the time of the expansion of comfort stations by the Japanese military in 1937. This book is an effort to bring these women back to life and to make their voices, experiences and memories available to future generations. The experiences of Korean comfort girls-women are a paradigmatic example of how military sexual violence can obliterate the dignity of women and shame them into nonexistence. This book examines how the turning of their innocence into inadequacy, actively by the Japanese government and passively by the Korean government and its people, and also by the world, compounded their long, miserable suffering for half a century until Kim Hak-sun broke the silence in 1991 with the support of Korean activists. The relentless and courageous efforts of Korean comfort girls-women and activists on the road to healing and justice are shared here. These efforts made it possible for us to hear their horrific stories, which are embedded with numerous and intense traumas, allowing them to unfold and be shared on the road to justice and healing.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Translator’s Preface Fifteen Years Later
• Introduction The Stories of the Survivors of the Japanese Military Comfort Girls-Women: The Making of the Memories and Meaning
• “I Never Dreamt, Not in My Wildest Dreams, That So Many Soldiers Would Come to Me Like That” Gong Jeom-yeop
• “You Japs, Without Your War, Why Would We Have Gone There?” Kim Hwa-ja (Pseudonym)
• “It Is Like a Dream That I Survived. But an Utterly Terrifying Nightmare of a Dream” Chung Seo-un
• “When I Try to Speak of What Is Buried in My Heart, It Feels Like My Heart Is Bursting” Kang Il-chul
• “How Can I Avenge Myself?” Seok Soon-hee (pseudonym), Ahn Jeom-soon (real name)
• “That History, At First, I Was Ashamed About It, So I Was Not Able to Talk Very Clearly” Lee Ok-seon
• “Never, Ever Forget” Lim Jeong-ja
• “Do Not Ask Me About My Past Life. It Pains My Heart” Roh Chung-ja
• “You Come and Give Us Compensation and Beg Us for Forgiveness” Jang Jeom-dol
• “To Whom Shall I Say This? Does Anyone in Heaven or on Earth Know What I Went Through?” Kim Bong-yi (pseudonym), Choi Seon-soon (real name)
• “There Was Not a Thing I Could Do that I Wanted” Kim Soon-ak
• “It Passed Along With the Blow of Wind and Waves of Water, Time Has” Gil Won-ok
• The Story of Failed Interviews: The Silence of Cho Yi Seon, the Secret of Kim Dduk Bbal Jungae Park