An essay on the violations of korean women During WW2: By Michael Green
Overview
So far we have learned about the daily work habits of Korean women, traditional values, and the current lives and traditions that these women hold. However, Korean women have gone through several harsh decades in gaining back their freedom of the tyranny of the Japanese government from events that occurred during World War II. During this time these women were known as "comfort women." The following essay is designed to give a brief overview of the history, women, and current issues surrounding the comfort women debate.
History
During World War II, Korea was occupied by Japan. During these war ridden times, the Japanese military commanded that Korean women would be used for the “entertainment” of the Japanese military. The women were not only forced be slaves for the men, but were also forced to perform deviant sexual acts, which commonly followed their own execution. The history surrounding and following these events has been very controversial and debated since the end World War II.
The country of Korea is located between the North Eastern part of China and the islands of Japan . Because of their unfortunate location, Korea has developed a long hard and troubled history. Being constantly attacked and colonized by several countries, Korea now stands as two separate entities of North and South.
One of the more horrific aspects of Korea history is that of the lives of Korean comfort women during the Second World War. These military comfort women were used by the Japanese military as sex slaves and for other forms of deviant entertainment. Though comfort women came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, Korean women were used more than any other ethnic culture for the Japanese military's pleasures. (1)
Beginnings
The term comfort women is described as a Japanese euphemism. Meaning that the name “comfort women” does not come close to describing the harsh and difficult conditions that these women had to endure as slaves to the Japanese military. Some articles and research have reported that these women were often “sexually” used to death. Most Korean women were reported to have been sexually assaulted dozen of times in a single day. They were even forced to have sex with their own children that followed their own inhumane executions. The monstrosities and reports of these acts are amazingly abundant and have constantly being questioned by the Japanese government.
Because of the grand scale of abuse that occurred during this time there is no official estimate on how many women were effected by this Japanese take over. Some researchers believe that the range is between 80,000 and 200,000, about 80% were believed to be Korean. (2) However according to the research of Dr. Dr. Hirofumi Hayashi , a professor at Kanto Gakuin University , this number could even have been as many as 300, 000. (2) Regardless of how small or large this number may be the acts that were committed against the comfort women speak for themselves.
Continued Debate and Struggles
Despite the numerous reports and testimonies given by comfort women, some Japanese people still deny that these women were “forced” into sexual acts or killed. This echoes other parts of history that seem to be neglected by other countries and ethnic cultures, such as the Holocaust or the Native American Indian massacres. Not only were comfort women forced into slavery, sometimes causing them to die from exhaustion, depression, or diseases; but they have also had a harsh road of gaining back their own dignity. In December of 1991 35 Korean women sued the Japanese government for damages against Korean comfort women. The Korean women hoped to collect about Y700m ($5.5 million US). (6) This event marked the first time that the Japanese government was sued by Korean war victims. Because of this historical event, the South Korean government actively pursued to document and record the names of victims of the Japanese comfort brothels.
According to a 2000 journal of Contemporary Women’s Issues, several Japanese textbooks are being used to teach young Japanese children that these acts were justified and Japan’s right for aggression and colonization of its neighbors. And that certain facts pertaining to the Japanese military sexual slavery system were erased. (8) Luckily numerous human rights groups have protested the textbooks and demanded that the facts be corrected. However even as new textbooks emerged in Asia, facts were still ignored.
As the August 27, 2001 Newsweek reports, 20 young men chopped off part of their pinkies in a protest of “fury” that new Asian textbooks were still ignoring facts. The article even goes on to report that high-school history books often contain only ONE sentence in regards to the topic of comfort women. (5) These events show the continuous efforts of the Japanese to simply ignore and forget the events that occurred during the war.
This is one of the many ongoing struggles that Korean comfort women have had to face.
Possibly one of the most recent and famous struggles was when 75 women broke their silence during a trial on Japan’s wartime record held through 7th-12th of December 2000. (7) Their gathering was to out of the home that the Japanese would take responsibility for the actions that occurred during World War II. The Korean tribunal even sent a formal invitation to the Japanese government, which the Japanese turned down, creating a even more distopia of events. (7) Even though the Japanese government chose to ignore the event, the event has opened up a channel for comfort women to find some peace with their own troubled past.
However a recent article of the New Statesmen, dated March 7, 2005, explains that younger generations of Koreans and Japanese are coming to terms with each other. This year, 2005, has been declared “Korea-Japan Friendship Year.” The article explains that a recent ban that lifted cultural exchanges has caused a popular flow of music, manga, and film to reach each side’s borders. The most staggering fact is that the two countries exchange 10,000 visitors daily, instead of 10,000 annually 40 years ago. (4)
Though there are still bitter and harsh debates that continue around this topic, it seems that the Korean and Japanese are finally starting to put the past behind them and work together to make both of their worlds a better place. But both countries should still be educated and reminded of the horrific tragedy and violations of human rights during World War II. If this is simply forgotten or left undulated, events and acts similar to the comfort women could very well happen again.
What is being done now? - Film and Boook
Recently a documentary has been made called Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women. Presented by the NAATA or National Asian American Telecommunications Association, this documentary entails personal testimonies of victims and interviews that were done with Japanese military men who deny the abuse.(3) This documentary was possible because of the work done by Kim-Gibson, who published a book with the same title. The documentary was also part of collection of films sponsored by Steven Speilberg!
According to Cara White's article(3) Dai Sil Kim-Gibson was born in Northern Korea during Japanese rule until she came to the United States in 1962. There she eventually received a PHD from Boston University and has continued to research and produce short films about Korean culture.(3) Her films have been screened in several national and international film festivals. Kim-Gibson's work is one of the many that focuses not only on the injustices of comfort women, but that of other abuses that occur because of cultural and ethnic classes. It is important for her to continue to do research in order to unravel the issues surrounding this controversial topic.
Sources:
(1) The Comfort Women Project:Chunghee Sarah Soh, Ph.D. San Francisco StateUniversity
http://online.sfsu.edu/~soh/comfortwomen.html
(2) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women
(3) Cara White, Silence Broken:Korean Comfort Women
http://www.kimsoft.com/2000.comfort.htm
(4) Victoria, James. How Korea Became Cool. New Statesman.
7th, March. 2005. New Statesman Ltd.
(5) Hajari, Nisid. At War with History. Newsweek.
27th, August. 2001. Atlantic Edition, Newsweek.
(6) Comfort without Joy. The Economist.
18th, January. 1992. The Economist Newspaper Ltd.
(7) Women Break Silence on War Crimes. Contemporary Women’s Issues
December. 2000. Gale Group INC.
(8) Women Break Silence on War Crimes. Contemporary Women’s Issues
June. 2001. Gale Group INC.
Korean WWII sex slaves fight on
William Horsley
BBC News Tuesday, 9 August 2005
Former sex slaves are still demanding official compensation
"Japan - reveal the truth! Admit the crime! Officially apologise! Punish the criminals!" South Korean protesters chant every Wednesday outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
In their midst, a small group of elderly women sit silently.
They are the survivors of the brutal, Asia-wide system of sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese Army, which the military government encouraged and helped to operate for 13 years, from 1932 until the end of World War II in 1945.
They were euphemistically called "comfort women". But experts like Korean American scholar Edward Chang of the University of California say the network of "comfort stations" were actually officially-sanctioned rape camps.
Many of the women were even killed as part of an attempt to cover up the crime.
"There should be no time limit on prosecuting these crimes against humanity," Prof Chang said.
Japan says all potential claims by individuals for sufferings inflicted in the war were closed years ago, by treaties normalising its ties with other Asian countries.
But Kang Kyung-wha, a senior official at South Korea's foreign ministry, has recently urged Japan to come to terms with its "legal responsibility" and human rights obligations towards the former comfort women.
Repeatedly abused
Kim Gunja, now aged 80, is too frail to attend the Wednesday demonstrations.
Her story is typical of the tens of thousands - some estimates say 200,000 - women from across Asia whose lives were ruined when they became military sex slaves to the Japanese.
At the age of 17, she was tricked into being abducted by a Korean middle-man who delivered large numbers of young women and girls to his country's then Japanese colonial masters.
Kim Gunja is especially angry at current Japanese leaders
Kim Gunja suspects that her foster father, a policeman, sold her for money or promotion.
She was taken by train to the so-called comfort stations for the Japanese army in Manchuria, north-east China, where she says she was raped by the soldiers many times a day for three years.
"The soldiers didn't know when they would die, and they were very cruel," she said.
She was beaten so badly that she lost her hearing in one ear. After the war she could never marry or get a good job.
She still cannot forgive. And she saves her fiercest hatred for current Japanese leaders.
She wants them to show sincere atonement for Japan's past wrongdoings and to take responsibility by paying official compensation.
Facing up to the past
Japan stands accused of a series of evasions in facing up to the military sex slave issue.
According to Mr Chang, Japan's first admission of involvement only came in 1991, after a wartime document came to light in the foreign ministry about the granting of travel permits for Asian women in areas occupied by the Japanese army.
He says that, since then, the Japanese authorities have continued to hinder the search for detailed evidence about the fate of the former comfort women.
But his own research team's trawl through America's national archives has produced a sheaf of files captured by the US army from the retreating Japanese forces.
They contain photos and other personal details of dozens of young Filipino women - evidence, he says, of the most extensive system of female trafficking the world has ever seen.
Since 1992 Japanese prime ministers have all made formal apologies for the war.
But Shin Heisoo, head of the Korean council supporting the former military sexual slaves, believes these statements are just empty words.
Only legal reparations, she says, will suffice to acknowledge what she sees as war crimes.
In Japan, a recent opinion poll showed that only 13% of the population think further apologies to Asian countries are needed.
Many in South Korea cannot just forget the past
In 1995 the Japanese government took its boldest step so far, setting up an Asian Women's Fund, which collected private donations and sent "atonement money" worth $30,000 or more to each of 364 former comfort women in Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea.
It also directly funded medical care for the recipients.
A director of the fund, Yasuaki Onuma, acknowledges the criticism of Japan's slow and limited response.
But he also holds some hard-line South Korean campaigners responsible for the impasse.
Many of the Korean victims, he says, were put under intense social pressures to refuse the Japanese donations, although they sorely needed that support.
It was recently decided that the fund will shut down within two years.
So the poison from past cruelties will be passed on to a new generation of Koreans and Japanese.
Kim Gunja now lives near Seoul in a home for former comfort women supported by the South Korean government. She says she hopes Japan will reveal the truth and offer her official compensation.
"Otherwise", she said, "I will not be able to close my eyes when I die."
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4749467.stm
Japan overturns sex slave ruling
As many as 200,000 women were forced into sexual slavery
BBC Asia Thursday, 29 March, 2001
A Japanese court has overturned the first and so far only compensation award ever made to World War II sex slaves, prompting outrage in South Korea.
All victimised countries in Asia will fight to the end until the day will come for the Japanese government to pay damages
Chongdaehyop coalition
Hiroshima's High Court reversed a 1998 district court ruling that ordered the Japanese government to pay a total of 900,000 yen ($7,260) in damages to three South Korean women.
Presiding judge Toshiaki Kawanami said abducting the women to use them as forced labourers and sex slaves was not a serious constitutional violation.
The three women were among 10 plaintiffs who had asked for a total of 564m yen ($44.3m) in compensation.
Fury
A coalition of 22 South Korean civic groups on Thursday furiously condemned the Hiroshima ruling.
The coalition, known as Chongdaehyop, said in a statement: "The ruling runs against the entire world's demand that the issue be settled as early as possible because many victims are getting closer to death".
Former 'comfort women' are demanding an official apology
"All victimised countries in Asia will fight to the end until the day will come for the Japanese government to pay damages" it added.
The three former sex slaves and seven forced labourers, including one who has since died, argued they were deceived by the Japanese government.
The former sex slaves said they were taken to brothels in Taiwan and Shanghai to provide sex to Japanese troops between 1937 and 1940.
The forced labourers came to Japan around 1943 to work at a factory in Toyama, central Japan. They never received any payment, the court heard.
Landmark decision
In the original 1998 ruling, the Yamaguchi District Court said the Japanese government has failed to enact laws to accommodate the payment of compensation to sex slaves.
For former sex slaves memories are bitter
The women and their supporters hailed the ruling as a landmark decision.
But they also appealed against the amount of compensation, saying it was too small.
The Japanese government also appealed, refusing to pay compensation.
Tokyo has acknowledged that its wartime army set up brothels and forced thousands of Koreans into military service, but it has refused to pay direct, or official compensation to individuals.
The Japanese government officially admitted the existence of the military brothels in 1992.
As many as 200,000 women, mostly Korean but also Filipinos, Chinese and Dutch, were forced into sexual slavery during World War II.
Nine court cases seeking compensation from former sex slaves from Asian women are still pending in Japan.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1249236.stm.
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