The 1000th Protest and Japanese Supporters
In August 1991, former “comfort women,”
(Korean women who were forced to serve as sex workers for the Imperial Japanese
Army) including Kim Hak-Sun, started to raise their voices. Before then, the
issue had only been discussed quietly here and there in postwar Japanese
society. Some of these testimonies came from soldiers, partly as romanticized
memories of their time spent with these women.
One such witness is Shigeru Mizuki, a well-known Japanese comic artist, who gave detailed descriptions of a “comfort station,” or brothel, in his book “Soin Gyokusai Seyo [All of You Shall Die for Honor]” (pp. 14-15.) based on his own experience. In the afterward of his book, he wrote, “I can’t help but feel irrational resentment when I write war chronicles. Maybe the spirits of the war dead make me feel like that.” There Mizuki told of a soldier who shouted, “Thirty seconds for each!” and another who said, “Hey Sis, about 70 more to go. Be patient,” when looking at the long queue in front of the station. It’s an important historical testimony, which proves how the Japanese army set up comfort stations in the very front lines at that time.
The existence of comfort women, which had been a silent issue, almost forgotten in postwar Japan, came to the foreground in 1991. That was when the surviving comfort women started to talk about their own experiences. Women who were forced into providing sexual services started making people aware that the “comfort women” system had been nothing but sexual slavery. Until then, discussion of the issue had been long considered taboo in Korea, and many victims hadn’t been able to talk about it at all, even with their families.
In January 1991, some of Korea’s former comfort women and their supporters started a protest march in the busy lunch-time street in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. They had only one demand: acknowledgment of this past crime in the form of an apology from the Japanese government to each and every one of the former comfort women still living. The apology — meant to make the Japanese public widely aware of the harm done to these women as a historical fact — includes a vow to never repeat the same mistake, and to acknowledge that the issue has not yet been settled legally.
Every week for the past 20 years, 1,000 times now since its beginning, they have continued the Wednesday protest. On December 14th, 2011, the group marked its 1000th protest. Simultaneous protests were also held in several places in Japan, and were attacked relentlessly by vocal opponents.
In Osaka, some shouted “Liars!” at the protesting women even though the Japanese government had already acknowledged the existence of “comfort places” and “comfort women” based on official wartime documents. A high school girl responded to the opponents by saying, “I wish it were a lie.” Don’t we all. More than anyone, the victims no doubt strongly wish that their gruesome experiences were just a nightmare.
On the 1000th day in Seoul, Kwon Hae-Hyo, who was acting as the M.C. of the event, put it this way: “The harumonis’ [Korean words meaning “old women”] wish is that they won’t need to hold the Wednesday protest anymore after next week.”
On that day three actresses presented the Harumoni’s feelings in a Korean translation of the following monologue by Eve Ensler.
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By courtesy of Eve Ensler and V-Day
Each year in conjunction with the V-Day Spotlight, Eve pens a new monologue. This is her monologue based on the testimonies of the 'Comfort Women.'
Say It
By Eve Ensler
Our stories only exist inside our heads
Inside our ravaged bodies
Inside a time and space of war
And emptiness
There is no paper trail
Nothing official on the books
Only conscience
Only this.
What we were promised:
That I would save my father if I went with them
That I would find a job
That it was better there
That I would serve the country
What we found:
No mountains
No trees
No water
Yellow sand
A desert
A warehouse full of tears
Thousands of worried girls
My braid cut against my will
No time to wear panties
What we were forced to do:
Change our names
Wear one piece dresses with
A button that opened easily
50 Japanese soldiers a day
Sometimes there would be a ship of them
Strange barbaric things
Do it even when we bleed
There were so many
Some wouldn't take off their clothes
Just took out their penis
So many men I couldn't walk
I couldn't stretch my legs
I couldn't bend
I couldn't.
What they did to us over and over:
Cursed
Spanked
Tore bloody inside out
Sterilized
Drugged
Slapped
Punched
Raped.
What we saw:
A girl drinking chemicals in the bathroom
A girl killed by a bomb
A girl beaten with a rifle over and over
A girl's malnourished body dumped in the river
To drown.
What we weren't allowed to do:
Wash ourselves
Go to the doctor
Use a condom
Run away
Keep my baby
Ask him to stop.
What we caught:
Malaria
Syphilis
Gonorrhea
Stillbirths
Tuberculosis
Heart disease
Nervous breakdowns
Hypochondria
What we were fed:
Rice
Miso soup
Turnip pickle
Rice
Miso Soup
Turnip Pickle
Rice Rice Rice
What we became:
Ruined
Tools
Infertile
Holes
Bloody
Meat
Exiled
Silenced
Alone
What we were left with:
Nothing
A shocked father who never recovered
And died.
No wages
Hatred of Men
No children
No house
A space where a uterus once was
Booze
Smoking
Guilt
Shame
What we got called:
Ianfu--Comfort Women
Shugyofu--Women Of Indecent Occupation
What we felt:
My chest still trembles
What got taken:
The springtime
My life
What we are:
68
79
84
93
Blind
Slow
Ready
Outside the Japanese Embassy every Tuesday
No longer afraid
What we want:
Now soon
Before we're gone
And our stories leave this world,
Leave our heads
Japanese government
Say it
Please.
We are sorry, Comfort Women
Say it to me
We are sorry to me
We are sorry to me
To me
To me
To me
Say it.
Say sorry
Say we are sorry
Say Me
See Me
Say it
Sorry.
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Translated by A. Tawara, N. Tajima and O. Schaefer
★You can also see a video report (in Japanese) on this topic here.
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