The House of Sharing: Lost Hope, Harsh Reality

Of the 238 (among arguably 200,000) Korean euphemistically-called "comfort women" who revealed their pasts, only 42 remain alive, still wanting apologies from Japan. Like the earth that was plundered for its fruit, the women's bodies were owned, possessed, raped and stripped of their resources. Since 1992 every Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy they have demanded an apology. 1231 times they have demanded apologies. Wednesday they will demand again ... Two more grandmothers passed away last week, waiting.

This statue of a young innocent girl "The Unblossomed Flower" adapted from a drawing made by Kim Soon-deok is the iconic symbol of the House of Sharing. The girl is based on one of the paintings of Kim Soon-deok (1921-2004), one of the grandmothers who painted to express herself. A complimentary and very sad poem "A Place of Requiem" has been written to pair with the statue.

In the back garden hidden between buildings is a statue of the harsh reality of the former 'comfort women'. The statue "Woman of Earth" is very symbolic of the reality of the women who served Japanese soldiers during World War II. According to yin-yang cosmology, men are yang and women are yin, and among the multiple dualities of yin and yang, men are sky and women are earth. As earth women represent fertility, nurturing, bearing of fruit, and so in this representative statue a woman is situated in earth.

Though this is the depiction of the harsh reality of the women who were plundered like the earth in colonialism, the statue also conveys that women are strong and they do still rise up. The grandmothers are trying to rise ... they are fighting back. 

However, this is a statue of harsh reality, a statue of what became but what should not have been. Under colonialism, when times were also patriarchal and women were less valued than men and could be sold much like possessions, animals and the land which they worked, the Japanese not only exploited the lands of the colonial society but the bodies of colonial women. Much like the land, young fertile, usually nubile virgins of the poorest socioeconomic peasants and therefore those less empowered to financially, intellectually or physically fight back were forcibly taken or tricked into working as sex machines for the Japanese soldiers. Both the land and the girls were plundered of their natural resources, their fertility was possessed, their nurturing futures were ravished.

Seen behind the "Woman of Earth" is a round rock balanced on another rock, and the duo symbolize the continuity of life in Buddhism. Buddhist monks donated this land to the grandmothers so they could move away from the city, and be surrounded by nature and a less censorious atmosphere. When the small grounds were built, just as in Buddhist temple grounds, a small strip of land is dedicated to the stupas of the great monks of the temple so that they can be forever remembered and venerated. The same applies here, the stupas of the former "comfort women" are lined up. While many do not have children or family to venerate them, other people will come to venerate them ... and by their stupas they will be remembered. Currently there are eight stupas and no more room for more. The patch of land is too small and a more spacious consecrated ground will soon be located in front of the greeting hall.

The story of the former 'comfort woman' Pak Ok-nyeon /Park Ok-ryeon (1919-2011) who lived her final years at the House of Sharing is a representative story of the large numbers of girls taken into the Japanese Military brothel system, exploited and who then 'disappeared' undocumented. Pak Ok-nyeon capsules her story in basic events. The pain of estrangement from her family and loss of friends and then the lost connection with her last friend and fellow survivor of shared experiences is felt in her abbreviated sentences. The girls lives were smashed before they had hardly begun.

Pak Ok-nyeon was taken to Japan first and fathered with about 35 other girls. All of them were taken on a ship heading for Papua New Guinea. According to Pak, after crossing the ocean, only half of them survived the journey (so about 17). She spent 3 to 4 years on Papua New Guinea in the city of Labaul working as a "comfort woman." Only half of these girls survived; some killed themselves and some died due to harsh working conditions (about 8 or 9 of them). Before the end of the war, Pak was put on a ship heading back to Japan with the 8 or 9 girls who had survived, but only 2 girls survived the trip. Pak spent her later years searching for this other girl, the only other one to have survived, but she never found her before she, Pak Ok-nyeon, passed away.

[Click to enlarge] Places where comfort stations were located. Don't be deceived by the map, however, as a single red dot doesn't mean there was only one military brothel but could in fact be several brothels densely packed.
Legend:
red circles - 'comfort station' locations confirmed by 'comfort women' themselves
blue circles - areas confirmed by testimony of Japanese soldiers via diaries or verbally
yellow squares - areas confirmed by official documents and military materials
green triangles - areas confirmed by witnesses, local people, etc (3rd party sources)

The House of Sharing Grandmothers Who Have Passed Away

Currently 10 grandmothers live at the House of Sharing and one was on trial to see if she could adapt; it was her first day and she was wandering like a lost spirit, not really understanding why the foreign crowd was there on "tour" and not really knowing why two grandmothers spoke and briefly sang songs of memory. Another grandmother was to arrive the next day. The grandmothers average age is 90, and one of the reasons they now come to the House of Sharing is because they can get physical and medical assistance there. Their bodies are old and badly damaged from what they suffered, and they need care. Of the 10 grandmothers, only two are mobile; the others are bedridden. Yi Ok-seon (born 1927) is one of the mobile ones and had just come back from speaking in the United States for three weeks (NY, Texas, and three other states). She was still very tired, but was quite the talker ... and proved to be quite the singer as well.

Five grandmothers amidst the "Unblossomed Flower" statue:
Back left to right: moon, Pil-gi; Park, Doo-ri
Front left to right: Kim Seon-deok; Kang Deok-kyung; Kim Hak-soon

All of the grandmothers who lived and died at the House of Sharing are commemorated also in a bust. Kim Hak-soon also has a bust commemorated to her although she never lived at the House of Sharing, but the House would not be in existence if Kim Hak-soon had not been the first former comfort woman to go public.

Yi Yong-Nyeo (1926-2013)

Born in Yeoju, Gyeonggi-do. Forced to work as a sexual slave by the Japanese military in Taiwan, Singapore and Burma. After the end of WWII, she came back to Busan in 1946 through POW camp in Rangoon. She gave testimony at The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo, 2000.

Park, Ok-ryeon (1919-2011)

Born in Muju, Jeonbuk-do and taken to Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. She was especially serious about participating in the Wednesday Demonstration and was almost never absent from it after coming forward to the public as a former Japanese Military sexual slave.

Ji, Dol-ee (1923-2008)

Born in Kyoungju, Kyeongbuk-do and taken to "Seokmoonja comfort station" in the Jilin province of China. She never stopped missing her husband who had been forcibly conscripted into the Japanese military leaving word that she should wait for him as he would come back alive.

Kim Hwa-sun (1926-2012)

Born in Pyeongyang, North Pyeongan-do. She suffered from poverty and so, by the prospect of having tasty food, she was lured to work at a 'comfort station' in Singapore where she was cruelly raped by Japanese soldiers. After Singapore, she was taken to a 'comfort station' near Mudanjan, China. In 1947 she finally returned to Korea by a Korean ship. After living in Incheon or Seoul, she tried to make her way to Pyeongyang in the north but wasn't able to. During the Korean War, she moved around the country. She settled down in Jochiwon, Chungnam and helped poor students study. She also donated all of her property to bore wells in Cambodia and to help the building of the International Peace and Human Rights Center. She acted very passionately to solve the problems afflicting Japanese military 'comfort women' victims. Before moving to the House of Sharing in November 2008, she had been living along in Chungcheongnam-do.

Moon, Myoung-geum (1919-2000)

Born in Busan and taken to the Heilongjiang province in China. She donated her whole fortune, 43million won to the Truth Commission on the Slaughter of Civilians during the Vietnam War, saying, "I've heard there are many people who suffer war wounds in Vietnam."

Kim Hak-soon (1924-1997)

Born in Gilim-song, China. Victimized as a 'Sexual Slavery for the Japanese Military' in Beijing, China. Kim Hak-soon halmoni, who was the first to testify as a 'Sexual Slave for the Japanese Military' in 1991 said that, "We must record these things that were forced upon us."

Kang, Deok-Kyung (1929-1997)

Born in Jinju, Gyeongnam-do. Degraded from a member of the group of 'Japanese Female Labor Corps' into a 'Sexual Slave for the Japanese Military'. Well-known for her paintings drawn during her stay at the House of Sharing, such as "The Stolen Chastity", "Punish the Responsible" and others.

Some of these paintings were Kang Deok-kyung's.

Kim, Soon-deok (1921-2004)

Born in Ueeryung, Gyeongnam-do. Victimized as a 'Sexual Slave for the Japanese Military' in Shanghai, China. Drew the 'Unblossomed Flower', which now becomes symbolic of the 'Sexual Slavery for the Japanese Military'.

Moon, Pil-gi (1925-2008)

Born in Jinyang, Gyeongnam-do. Victimized as a 'Sexual Slave for the Japanese Military' in Jangchun, China. Received a Civil Rights Award from the International Covenants on Human Rights in 2000.

Park, Doo-ri (1924-2006)

Born in Milyang, Gyeongnam-do. Victimized as a 'Sexual Slave for the Japanese Military' in Taiwan. Requesting an official apology and reparation from the Japanese Government, Park Doo-ri halmoni was one of the plaintiffs in the court at the Shimonoseki courthouse, Yamaguchi, in 2000.

The Living (maybe) Grandmothers at the House of Sharon

Bae, Chun-hui (1923 - present)

Born in Seongju, Gyeongsanbuk-do. One day when she was 19, she went to her friend's house and heard of recruitment for the Women's Voluntary Labor Corps. Not knowing that it was really for 'comfort women' she volunteered with her friend because she was told she could earn money. She was taken to Manchuria and forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military. After liberation, she was unable to return directly to Korea and drifted from one area to another in China. She crossed to Japan in 1951 and finally returned to Korea around 1981. In 1997 she came to the House of Sharing. She sings like a professional, and the House of Sharing she is considered like an artist. She does not open her heart easily to others, but she falls quickly and deeply for animals and children.

Yi, Ok-seon (1927 - present)

Born in Busan to a poor family, she was unable to go to school. In 1940 someone offered her "an opportunity to gather money and go to school", and so she began working in an inn in Ulsan. In 1942 a Korean and a Japanese forcibly took her to Yanji, currently in the Jilin province of northwest China, where she was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military for three years. After liberation, she married a Korean man and settled in Baodaozhen, China. However, they were separated because her husband enlisted in the military when war broke out in China. She remarried and live in Yanji with her son and daughter-in-law. Finally in 2000 she returned to Korea and moved to the House of Sharing. Her regret is that she didn't get a chance to go to school as a child and so she reads with great ardor anything she can get her hands on--particularly books and declarations from weekly Wednesday demonstrations in front of the Japanese embassy. She has become a fervent and fiery human rights activist. 

 

Yi, Yongnyeo (1926 - present)

Born in Yeoju, Gyeonggi-do, she had been working as a maid since the age of eight when in 1942 she was lured into a job offer by an owner of a tavern at the age of 16. From there she was forced into sexual slavery to the Japanese military in Taiwan, Singapore and Burma. When WWII was over, she returned to Busan in 1946 from a refugee camp in Yangon. In 1995 she moved to the House of Sharing but twice left to live with her sons. In 2010 she returned and says she will remain in the House until she dies. She is very energetic and bright and has a great relationship with the villagers. 

Pak, Ok-seon (1924 - present)

Born in Miryang, Gyeongsangnam-do, when she was 18 in 1941 a friend told her there was money to be made in factory work in China and proposed they go together to work at a textile manufacturing plant. Knowing her family wouldn't allow her to go, she sneaked out of the house at night and caught a train with her friend. She was taken with 20 other girls of her age to a 'comfort station' in the Muling area of Heilongjang, Manchuria and forced into sexual slavery to the Japanese military for four years. Her base was bombed and she was wandering in the mountains when the war ended. She married an ethnic Korean and settled in Heilongjang, and in 2001 finally returned to Korea. She currently lives at the House of Sharing. She is typically shy and quiet, except when it comes time to sing. Then she grabs a microphone and lets loose her pure, smooth voice while dancing and swaying to the music. [She now suffers from dementia but she came and sat with her foreign visitors, and after a little encouragement sang ... and quite well too.] 

Kim, Soon-ok (1922 - present)

Born in Pyeongyang, Pyeongannam-do, her family was very poor and so she worked as a maid from the age of seven as she had to earn money to support her hungry younger siblings. From these harsh conditions, she was forced into the Shimenzi 'comfort station' in Heilongjiang, China, for forced to work as a sexual slave to the Japanese military for five years. After liberation, she could not think about going back to her hometown, so she stayed in the area where the 'comfort station' had been. Kim Soon-ok returned to Korea in 2005 and is currently living at the House of Sharing. She is a very optimistic person, enjoys people and smiles a lot. 

Kim, Gun-ja (1926 - present)

Born in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do, she was the first-born of three daughters. Her father died when she was nine and her mother left the world as well four years later. She and her little sisters were scattered among relatives. She lived as the foster daughter of a policeman. In 1942 at the age of 17, thinking she was running an errand for the policeman, she actually went to a 'comfort station' in Hunchun, Manchuria. There she was forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military until liberation, whereupon she returned to Korea and did hard work such as selling clothes and working as a domestic servant. She has lived in the House of Sharing since 1998. Because she is in constant pain because of pain in her leg and from other operations, she is still determined to take a walk for exercise everyday. 

Kang, Il-chul (1928 - present)

Born in Sangju, Gyeongsangnam-do, in 1943 when she was 16 a military police officer came to her house and abducted her, saying that she was being conscripted for the National Guard. She was taken to Manchuria, and after stopping in Shenyang, forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military at Changchun 'comfort station', and later at one in Mudanjiang. At the end of the war, she was stricken with severe typhoid fever. Thinking that she would die, military personnel transferred her outside of the military base to be cremated alive with corpses. However, she was rescued by the Korean army for national independence. After the Korean War she served as a military nurse to Korean communist liberation forces, and upon her discharge she moved to Jilin City, also in Northwestern China, and served as a nurse there. She married a Chinese man in Jilin and remained there. She finally returned to Korea in 2000 and is currently living at the House of Sharing. She is the youngest among the House of Sharing grandmothers and is always overflowing with energy. She works feverishly, whether it comes to farming, to the Wednesday demonstrations, or to giving testimony.

The places around South Korea where monuments and memorials have been built
to commemorate the former 'comfort women'.

Symbols of Failed Hopes and Harsh Reality

Two metalwork symbols face each other from opposite walls as the visitors come into the amphitheater, into the House of Sharing compound. The one on the left, by the exit to the museum, which I am sure symbolizes the hopes that have exited, is the metalwork of youthful hopes. The background is circular, a Buddhist symbol for completeness. The woman within the circle wears a wedding crown, the hope of getting married. The bridegroom riding on a horse is the approach of a husband who would come in formality to take his bride through tradition and ceremony to his home. Over the woman's left shoulder is a picture of a family, the hope of procreation and fulfilling one's ancestral duties as well as wifely duties, that of giving offspring and being a complete woman. Her womb is full of laughing water, gurgling with fullness, exploding with life. Her hands are opened and outstretched showing the welcome of life, and hope, and the fulfillment of her dreams.

On the opposite wall is the metalwork of harsh reality. The background is triangular, the bottom of the triangle radiates from the Japanese sun, which radiates aggression, bayonets on guns penetrating the hanbok and the girl, and their penetration is phallic-like, unwanted. The phallic aggression raises the perpetual tear which can never fall. Her right hand drops the national flower, the Rose of Sharon, which symbolizes the hope of her nation or being repatriated to her nation. Her left hand no longer cradles the dove. The dove, the symbol of national and even personal peace, has died and her hope cannot fly.

The 'time capsule' with its seven demands.

However, between these two images in the floor the grandmothers buried a 'time capsule', a statement with seven demands. And when these seven demands have been met, the women will exhume the time capsule an give it proper burial. The grandmothers see hope in getting an apology foremost. They want to be recognized for who they were before they were raped of their hopes, dreams, and lives. For more on issues and a clear look at the seven demands of the grandmothers, visit The War and Women's Human Rights Museum.

Final Words

The House of Sharing started 'tours' in 2009 to raise awareness of the issue since neither the current government nor the Japanese government are proactively trying to resolve the demands. In fact, both governments give little (South Korea) to no regard (Japan) to the perpetual demands of the grandmothers. The grandmothers live in the museum compound; the House of Sharon is a living museum. They allow their lives to be on display in order to activate public awareness, to cry out for justice, and to request that others cry out also so that these war atrocities are never, ever repeated again.

On average 1,000 international foreigners visit the House of Sharing each year. This number does not include Japanese who visit, and not for ethnocentric reasons. Among all the foreigners who visit Korea, it is the Japanese who seem to flock to the House. In fact, about 5,000 Japanese visit the House of Sharon each year. They do not come supported by their government but rather for personal reasons. 

Comfort Women Controversy between S. Korea and Japan Ended?

Today the Korean web began posting on the resolution for the many-decades long controversy between Korea and Japan on the topic of the Korean comfort women. There are many issues and strong points of controversy between South Korea and Japan and I'm wondering how "resolving" this issue will help resolve, or even antagonize, other issues between the two countries. Following is the first article I saw posted related to the resolution; it's also the article I see most re-posted so why not repost it yet again:

Japan and South Korea agree to settle wartime sex slaves row

Shinzo Abe offers sincere apology for use of ‘comfort women’ by Japanese soldiers, removing major barrier to better relations.

South Koreans who lost family members during the second world war demand full compensation and an apology from Japan in Seoul. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

Japan and South Korea have removed the biggest obstacle to better bilateral ties after agreeing to “finally and irreversibly” resolve Tokyo’s use of tens of thousands of Korean women as wartime sex slaves.

ANALYSIS: Korean comfort women agreement is a triumph for US and Japan

In a breakthrough that barely seemed possible a few months ago, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, offered his “most sincere apologies” to the women in a statement issued in Seoul by his foreign minister, Fumio Kishida .

It was not immediately clear if Abe would send a letter of apology to each surviving “comfort woman”.

Later Monday, Abe called the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye , who has described the sex slave row as “the biggest obstacle” to improved ties with Tokyo, and reiterated his apology. He told reporters that the agreement was based on his commitment to stop future generations from having to repeatedly apologise. “Japan and South Korea are now entering a new era. We should not drag this problem into the next generation.”

Park issued a separate statement saying the deal was the result of her government’s best efforts to resolve the sex slave issue. “I hope the mental pains of the elderly comfort women will be eased,” she said.

Japan also offered to set up a new 1bn yen (£5.6m) fund, with the money, paid directly by the government, divided among the 46 former comfort women still alive, most of whom are in their late 80s and early 90s.

COMMENT: Japanese PM Shinzo Abe stops short of a new apology 

in war anniversary speech

Speaking after make-or-break talks with his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se, Kishida heralded a new era of better relations between the two countries, whose strong trade ties and military alliances with the US have been overshadowed by the controversy.

“This marks the beginning of a new era of Japan-South Korea ties,” he told reporters. “I think the agreement we reached is historic and is a groundbreaking achievement.

“[Abe] expresses anew his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.”

The Japanese government also conceded that its military authorities played a role in the sexual enslavement of the women. While avoiding any admission of legal responsibility, Kishida’s statement said: “The issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honour and dignity of large numbers of women, and the government of Japan is painfully aware of responsibilities from this perspective.”

Abe and other conservative politicians in Japan had previously questioned whether the Japanese government and military played any role in coercing the women, arguing that they had been procured by private brokers.

Both countries said the agreement would resolve the issue “finally and irreversibly”, adding that they would refrain from making critical remarks on the subject at the United Nations and in other international forums.

Yun said Seoul would cooperate, as long as Japan followed through on its promises. He also suggested that South Korea was willing to negotiate the removal of a statue of a girl symbolising the comfort women that stands outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. Although the statue belongs to privately run campaign groups, Yun said the South Korean government would “strive to solve this issue in an appropriate manner through taking measures such as consulting with related organisations”.

There is disagreement on the exact number of women forced into prostitution by Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. Campaigners say as many as 200,000 women – mostly Koreans, but also Chinese, south-east Asians and a small number of Japanese and Europeans – were forced or tricked into working in military brothels between 1932 and Japan’s defeat in 1945.

Most women took their secret to the grave. South Korean Kim Hak-soon became the first to testify about her experiences in public in 1991. “We must record these sins that were forced upon us,” she said.

South Korea has long called on Japan to issue an official apology, pay compensation to the surviving women and recognise its legal responsibility. Japan stopped short of admitting legal responsibility and stressed that the new fund was a humanitarian gesture.

The Japanese government initially denied the existence of wartime brothels. But in 1993, the then chief cabinet secretary, Yohei Kono, acknowledged and apologised for the first time for Japan’s use of sex slaves.

Over the years, Japan has refused to directly compensate the women, saying all claims were settled in a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties and included more than $800m in grants and loans to South Korea.

In 1995, it set up the privately run Asian women’s fund, which drew on private donations. But many women refused money unless it came directly from the Japanese state. Only about 260 former sex slaves received cash – worth about 2m yen each – and the fund was disbanded in 2007.

The agreement reached on Monday will be welcomed by the US, which has urged its two east Asian allies to settle their differences over second world war history and show a united front in the face of an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.

In Beijing, the foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: “We hope to see an improvement of the bilateral relationship between the Japanese and South Korean side.”

Hiroka Shoji , an east Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said: “Today’s agreement must not mark the end of the road in securing justice for the hundreds of thousands [of] women who suffered due to Japan’s military sexual slavery system.

“The women were missing from the negotiation table and they must not be sold short in a deal that is more about political expediency than justice. Until the women get the full and unreserved apology from the Japanese government for the crimes committed against them, the fight for justice goes on.”

The spread of frontline brothels coincided with Japan’s military campaigns in large parts of China and south-east Asia. As colonial ruler of the Korean peninsula, Japan was able to target poor and uneducated victims, typically aged between 13 and 19.

Speculation that a comfort women agreement was in the offing had risen following a bilateral meeting between Abe and Park in early November, their first for three-and-a-half years, and the decision by a South Korean court to acquit a Japanese journalist accused of defaming Park.

The South Korean president had voiced hope that a deal would be reached by the end of this year, 50 years after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

The Korean web is alive with comments and Facebook is filled with postings of the controversy finally being resolved, but there are questions about just what are the ethics employed in "resolving" this? What politics are driving sudden humanitarian apologies? Here's one of the earliest responses, published today also no less!

Apology Isn't Justice for Korea's 'Comfort Women'

By Noah Feldman

At long last, Korea's “comfort women” are getting a real apology from Japan's government for being forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during World War II. But the moment is bittersweet, and not just because it’s taken 70 years. The apology comes not out of a change in Japanese sentiment, but from a change in geopolitics -- namely, the rise of China and the increasing need for Japan and South Korea to cooperate on mutual defense. And it comes at the price of a promise by the South Korean government not to criticize Japan over the issue again -- a trade of moral claims for compensation and finality.

The saga of the Japanese non-apology has had many twists and turns, demonstrating that in the contemporary political cultures of both Japan and Korea, apologies aren’t mere formalities but are laden with symbolic significance. A muted 1993 apology was accompanied by compensation from private donors and marked a refusal by Japan’s government to acknowledge its role in the sexual enslavement. Koreans got the point, and some women refused to take money from the fund.

The question of state responsibility has remained a sore point. A South Korean historian who has written about the role of private entrepreneurs in enslaving women during the war has been condemned by survivors who say she is minimizing the Japanese government’s guilt.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a strong nationalist, isn’t naturally inclined to apologize for Japan’s wartime atrocities. In the past, he’s angered Chinese and Koreans by visiting the controversial Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals.

What motivates Abe is the quest to improve Japan’s national security. China’s military expansionism is the main cause. Almost equally important is an accompanying perception that the U.S. may not be the strong protector it has traditionally been. Would the U.S. go to war to defend Taiwan from China? If the answer is no, then why would the U.S. go to war to protect Japan or South Korea? If there’s doubt about the U.S. commitment, Japan and Korea need each other.

The Pacific security arrangement is often described as a “hub and spokes” model, with the U.S. at the center. Abe is setting out to strengthen the ties between the spokes -- because he recognizes that the hub is not as willing a gravitational force as it once was.

In this increasingly uncertain Cool War environment, the perception of Japanese-Korean solidarity is an important aspect of Abe’s program. It’s why he was willing to pay the political price at home of an apology to the comfort women that accompanies an $8.3 million fund -- this time paid by his government. And as a nationalist, he can afford to draw on his store of right-wing credibility to buy political advantage.

But the apology and the money came with a price attached: South Korea’s promise that the issue of the comfort women would be settled once and for all, and that its government wouldn’t complain about it further. And Abe can tell his constituents that he has bought the Koreans’ silence, removing an argument that always came up when Japan was accused of being aggressive or nationalist.

That’s almost always how reparations, whether legally formal or (as in this case) informal, work in the real world: The wronged party gets compensation and an apology; the party that did the wrong gets a de facto promise that it won’t have to be reminded of what it did. Without this trade, countries wouldn’t voluntarily pay up, so it may seem naive to criticize the exchange, provided you think compensation is a good thing.

All tort settlements, even those between private parties, have something of this character. Compensation functions as corrective justice, and the injured party is expected to be satisfied by the deal.

But morally speaking, crimes against humanity aren’t the same as car accidents. Those who enslaved women during World War II weren’t being negligent; they raped and dehumanized these women in particular, and the status and fundamental rights of women everywhere.

Promising a form of silence about such crimes in exchange for an apology and compensation seems inadequate to the scope and meaning of the wrongdoing. During negotiations, Japan also sought the removal of a memorial statue in front of its embassy in Seoul. South Korea’s government promised to take up the issue with the survivors – implying a good-faith effort to make the memorial disappear.

Crimes against humanity are the world’s business. They shouldn’t be forgotten, and discussing as well as memorializing them shouldn’t be suppressed or discouraged.

The interest in keeping the memory of such crimes alive also extends to the victims themselves. Of course they’re entitled to compensation. But it feels wrong if they can only get it because their government has agreed to drop their case and, to a degree, is encouraging them to drop their efforts to shame the perpetrators.

The realities of international practice are inevitable and harsh. Individuals need states to prosecute claims against other states on their behalf. And once states are in the game, they’ll behave as states usually do: trading values and ideals and honor for advancement of their interests. But that doesn’t mean we always have to like it. The memory of terrible wrongs should be preserved, as a goad to stop them from happening again.

Our horror about the treatment of the comfort women should steel us to act on behalf of women kidnapped into sexual slavery by Islamic State and Boko Haram. No amount of reconciliation with the past should make us reconcile with those crimes of the present.

Chestnut Street Seller

Going through my collection of pictures, I found this priceless one. It's not very often that we see street sellers with barrel "ovens" anymore. The street stalls have become more modernized and the government has regulated the carts to be uniform in size and appearance. Somehow this old man has slipped through the works.

This picture was taken two years ago but this winter I passed him several times still selling roasted chestnuts, sweet potatoes and corn ears with his barrel "oven". He even still sells in the same place, and while he remains pretty much the same, the street environment he sells in has changed. For one, the phone booths have long since disappeared. What's their use if everyone (97% of Koreans) has a cell phone?

A comment about this man's language. He greets everyone, old and young, male and female, business-suited and otherwise alike. That is, everyone pretty much gets called out to in the very informal "반대말 (sp?)" verb. His greeting to the masses is, "안영", kind of like saying "hey" as a greeting. I asked some embarrassed students about this and they said that people of his age and from the working class never learned to use 'polite' language. I actually wonder if it's that simple, or if it's his way of not being looked down upon based on his uneducated perhaps farmer 'class. Some old people had a very tough life and now that they're old in this muted Confucian society, they don't want to be sneered at because of the old age that used to get unconditional respect but no longer does. I'm thinking there are many reasons why he doesn't use the polite verb forms, but even I, foreigner that I am, feel slightly offended by him when he uses 반대말 to me.

1000 Demonstrations!

In 1991 the first former "comfort woman" Kim Hak Sun spoke out about her sexual abuse by the organized Japanese government in their brothels to maintain the "comfort" of the Japanese troops and keep them fighting. The following year on January 8, 1992 some of the former "comfort women" and other Korean citizens waged a protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. Since that protest on a Wednesday, the former "comfort women" have faithfully protested every Wednesday. And today, December 14, the 1000th protest was enacted. This is the longest recorded protest in history! [Some halmoni demonstrating pictured below.]


Not many of the halmoni (only 5), the preferred term used for referencing the women now, are healthy enough to attend the demonstration but the crowds of other demonstrators made a strong presence and a loud voice in making the on-going demands on the Japanese government. And because this was the symbolic 1000th demonstration held in front of the embassy, the women brought along a statue of a young girl to place in front of the Japanese embassy [read the news report here]. The young girl, symbolizing the young virtuous girls forcefully taken in rape, is dressed in a hanbok, evoking traditional Korean clothing, thoughts and traditions. The Japanese government requested the Seoul/Korean government to deny the statue's placement in front of its embassy but the Korean government has denied the petition.

The demonstrating halmoni want to release their on-going shame, which will never happen if the Japanese government does not admit their fault. The halmoni want an apology, amongst other points. The demands made by the halmoni are seven-fold:

(1) That the Japanese government admit the compulsory drafting of Korean women as Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.
(2) That an official apology be made.
(3) That all the atrocities be fully disclosed.
(4) That a memorial be built for the victims (not just the one that volunteers of the halmonis commissioned to be made for this on-going protest).
(5) That the survivors or their bereaved families be compensated.
(6) That the facts and truth about Military Sexual Slavery by Japan be taught in Japanese history classes so that such inhumanities (crimes against humanity) are not repeated.
(7) Punish the war criminals (who incidentally are lauded as war heroes at Tokyo Shinto shrines).

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Time is running out for the halmoni. Just two nights ago, the 12th of December, 박서운 할머니 (Park Seo Woon), the oldest living recorded survivor of the comfort station system passed way. The next morning (yesterday), 김요지 할머니 (Kim Yo Ji), a resident at 우리 집 (Our Place) in Seoul passed away. The moral indecency of raping hundreds of thousands of young girls, denying such an action, lauding the perpetrators and not acknowledging shame in the act but transferring that shame to the victims is exciting more of the public to demand apologies and recognition of war crimes .... but will it happen before the halmoni all die? And does the Japanese government hope that with the last dying voices of the remaining halmoni, the issue will forever be lost?

Comfort Woman Documentary "63 Years On"

In 2008 the documentary "63 Years On" was made with interviews of five women who had been used by the Japanese forces as 위안부 or "comfort women". One questions the male-centered term "comfort woman" as the term can connote no comfort whatsoever to the women who were repeatedly raped for months or years as they were brutalized in Japanese operated brothels aimed at keeping the men from 'raping and pillaging' in the areas they occupied and also in an attempt to control venereal diseases that the men would be exposed to if raping all across the countrysides.


The documentary centers around the interviews of 5 women who were forced into sex slavery: 1 Korean from Cheju-do, 2 Filipinas, 1 Chinese, and 1 Dutch. These five women are representative voices of women from 13 countries who were used in the more than 1000 comfort Japanese operated comfort stations spread out in Japanese occupied territories.

Not one of the thousands upon thousands of "comfort women" spoke out about her sex slavery experience in public unti l991 for societies were male dominated in many countries, women's virginity was to be maintained at all times and to lose one's virginity was to incur blame, especially among the Confucian countries like Korea and Taiwan from which the majority of "comfort women" had been taken as these countries were colonized by Japan at the time.

Figures suggest that 200,000 women from 13 countries were victims of the comfort stations. That number can never be corroborated as many women died of starvation, of rape, of venereal diseases, at the emotions of the men who came to rape them, and of suicide.

After the war, Japan was tried for war crimes with focus on compensation to the Allied Nations. The comfort woman issue was intentionally avoided during the trials, and as was pointed out in the documentary, only men were in the court system and only men had a voice and so women were denied compensation or even a voice in the trials of the men who had damaged them for life. The "comfort women" were forced to live on as prisoners, bound by their wounds, and unable to integrate back into society because of loss of home, family or social acceptance due to being "experienced" women. Confucianism, as a patriarchal system touting strict rules on women's bodies, denied their reintegration back into society, so if the "comfort women's" family knew of their past and were still accepting, the women could never speak to anyone regarding their shameful past; it must remain forever hidden for public or extended family shame would result.

In 1991 Kim Hak Sun became the first former "comfort woman" to speak out. Until that time due to shame no woman had made a public complaint in the 50 years since being taken as a sex slave. After the Korean woman spoke out, Jan H. (the Dutch woman interviewed in the documentary) became the first European woman to speak out on the issue. She spoke out because as she said, "That woman needed support and she needed support from the international community." Jan correctly felt that without westerners acknowledging that the comfort woman issue also involved westerners and was not limited to victims in the Far East, the international communities would more or less ignore the seriousness of the historical period of systematic rape. By going public on a topic that she too had suppressed since the war, Jan H. was able to support Kim Hak Sun and to rally the Western interest on the issue.

Japan denies any claim concerning the comfort stations that thrived throughout occupied Japanese territories and states there are no proven records. [There are but Japan makes excuses or remains silent when asked about them.] Their attitude is to 'blame the victim'. In 1998 the McDonald Report by the UN was filed, and alas, world recognition was achieved. On July 30, 2007 the US urged the Japanese to apologize. The result was denial.

However, Shizo Abe, former politician apologized to President George W. Bush in a formal meeting with Pres. Bush sitting on the platform with him. Pres. Bush nodded his acceptance. [The audience exploded in laughter at the idiocy of (1) why would a politican apologize to an American on a Japanese military problem concerning 13 countries, loudest of which has been S. Korea and which the US was not involved in, and (2) why would a president calmly accept the apology as if indeed it were his right to accept and not the 200,000 women who lost their lives during the brutalities or have lived with emotional war wounds since?!?!] Such an apology is steeped in political rewards and reeks of insincerity. A sincere apology would be to the women prinicipally of the Far East and not a male head of state from the US. A sincere apology would be mentioned in history books and students' textbooks and would involve compensation, and not be focused on political ingratiations and the possible reaping of further political and economic accolades.

Former "Comfort Women" final comments

Of the approximate 200,000 women taken as "comfort women" [I don't know the approximations of S. Korean numbers], within S. Korea 243 have registered since 1991 with the government. At present, statistics state there are approximately 65 living ... that number is rapidy changing as the average age of the halmonis, the popular preferred term now, is 86; and with failing health and old age, their numbers are sadly declining ... and without that cathartic apology they so badly crave.

The numbers of registered living former "comfort women" are:

ages 77 - 79 ............ 4
ages 80 - 84 ............ 23
ages 85 - 89 ............ 30
ages 90+ ................ 9

The purpose of this documentary is to further get the word out about un-tried and un-repented for war crimes perpetrated by the Japanese. It is only by the raising of many voices will an apology be forced from the Japanese. The women are old, sickly and carry their burdens of shame even now, and so they demand a public apology and compensation. [See 1000 Demonstrations on Wednesday, December 14, for the full demands made by the former sex slaves.]

Without a true apology concerning the war that finished 63 years ago [from 2008 when the documentary was made], the war will just continue for these victims.

Multimedia Exhibition: "Liberating Herstories"

"한풀이 Liberating Herstories" is a multimedia exhibition organized by the House of Sharing International Outreach Team (all volunteers - 3 pictured below) to raise awareness of the need for the former Japanese "comfort women" to get acknowledgement and apologies for their years of war crimes against them. The Japanese government maintains absolute silence on the matter or states that the comfort houses (brothels) were operated by private entrepreneurs. This series of events by the Sharing House Int'l Outreach Team intentionally created this week of awareness to coincide with the 1000th demonstration of former comfort women in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. (More on this topic on December 14, the day of the 1000th protest.)


Liberating Herstories awareness-raising schedule:

2/10 Sat 8-10:30pm ..... Acoustic Performance
Opening Night Fundraising Event

2/11 Sun 2:30-5pm ..... Film Screening
나의 마음은 지지않았다 "My Heart Is Not Yet Broken"

2/12 Mon 7-9pm ..... Film Screening
"Women, War & Peace" (indirectly related to the Korean comfort woman issue)

2/13 Tues 7-9pm ..... Film Screening
끝나지 않은 전쟁 "63 Years On"

2/14 Wed 11:45am - 1pm
일본군 "위안부" 생존자들의 1000번째 정기 수요시위 / 1000th Wednesday Protest

12/14 Wed 7-9pm ..... Workshop
한국 성산업의 현재 "Sex Industry in Korea Today"
by 다시함께센터 대표, the former director of Dasihamkke Center

12/15 Thurs 5-7pm ..... Film Screening
난징 댜학살 "The Rape of Nanking"

12/15 Thurs 7-9pm ..... Workshop
생존자 할머니와의 투쟁 / Activism with the Halmoni
by 한국정신대문제대책협의회 / Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan

12/16 Fri 6-8pm ..... Workshop
미군 기지촌의 필리핀 여성들 "Filipino Women in US Military Camptowns"
by 두레방/Duraebang

12/16 Fri 8-8:30pm ..... 입찰경매 / Silent Auction
Closing Night Fundraising Event

12/16 Fri 8:30-9:30 ..... Film Preview
"Within Every Woman" w/ Q&A by director and producer

There are no entrance fees, but donations will be accepted throughout the week. All proceeds through donations and the auction of various halmoni's artwork will be divided equally among the House of Sharing, Durebang, and the Korean Council (for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan). For more information:

House of Sharing

http://houseofsharing.org
www.nanum.org
http://houseofsharing.org/art-gallery - 할머니's artwork

Durebang (Durebang in Oijeongbu (not Pyoungtek) where the women servicing the American military are in their late 50s and 60s)

www.durebang.org

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

www.womenandwar.net

Cafe Anthrocite, the hosting facility

Cafe Anthrocite (카페 앤트라싸이트) is offering their meeting room adjacent to their Bohemian-style coffee shop free of charge as well as gallery space on their second floor. The decor inside is that of a renovated warehouse complete with patchworking on the cement walls, and holes in the gallery wall upstairs. The ambience is actually fitting for a place of dark secrets to be discussed - the room had a chill and the lighting was bare-bulbed and austere, very reminiscent of war times and basic shelter being met.


However, the wafts of home-brewed coffees and freshly made chocolates and scones warmed the soul.





To get to Cafe Anthrocite, get off at Sangsu Station (line 6), exit 4, and walk about 3 minutes to the Family Mart on your left. Turn left and walk 2 minutes or so and just before getting to 장미 아파트 located on your right, turn right. At the next small crossroads, turn left and walk 2-3 minutes. Cafe Anthrocite looks like a two-story white shed-wafehouse opposite Humanville Apts, but it's quite popular for gallery exhibitions ... and of course the coffee is spectacular!

Haenyeo of Jeju-do

Jai Ok Shim, Executive Director of Fulbright in Seoul, introduced tonight's research lecturer Grace Ha. Grace has an undergraduate background in marine biology and environmental conservation and became interested in the haenyeo in a short passage in her marine biology textbook that piqued her interest and resulted in her Fulbright project concerning the haenyeo and traditional ecological knowledge, a study which isn't based solidly on science but weaves science and a people's belief systems. The blurb summarizing her research project follows:

"On Jeju Island, fisherwomen, known widely today as haenyeo (해녀), have a long-standing tradition of free-diving into the ocean for seafood such as abalone, kelp, seaweed, sea cucumber, turban shell and octopus. Over the past year, Grace has been researching these women and the Jeju fishing villages, focusing largely on their traditional ecological knowledge and resource management techniques. Grace has been specifically investigating what implications this disappearing way-of-life may have on future marine conservation efforts."

Grace Ha collected her research through literature research and language study prior to going to Jejudo and more while on Jeju. She conducted interviews and had personal communication with the haenyeo, fishing cooperative leaders, and scholars on the topic. And she also participated in the hanyeo school, not really a school but a practice hands-on in-the-water one-day (or more) experience of being a haenyeo. She laughingly said that when she participated and took her dive, without prior training as the training is "in the water", the haenyeo in charge of her just pointed down into the depths of the water and said things like, "Hey, you didn't stay down long enough" or "You'll never collect anything if you don't go deeper" or "What are you doing? Go down again!" And that was her experience at the haenyeo school! While many haenyeo can go down as much as 20 meters and stay down up to 3 minutes, the average is 5-6 meters and underwater 1-2 minutes. There is no way that a beginner could or should attempt such, but by pushing one's self, one can supposedly expand the human limits of diving.

The Haenyeo of Jejudo

The haenyeo (해녀/海女), which means 'woman of the sea', have also been known as jamsu, literally 'entering into the water' but having the traditional meaning of 'divers/diving women'. Jamnyeo is another traditional term and is translated roughly the same. The haenyeo are not mermaids, indomitable Amazons or super-women. They were and still are divers, using no breathing equipment, only a rubber suit, mask, fins and weights. They carry a float (태왁?), a net (마앙사리), a spear (작살) and a curved pick or sickle (비창?). They had a job, low-class and underpaid in Joseon Dynasty, but one which gave them income and therefore independence in the highly regimented Joseon dynasty when women were seen as only homemakers and child breeders. The diving for sea urchins, sea abalone and other sea goods on the ocean floor was a job principally for women, ironic as it may seem. Men's jobs were related to the hazards of fishing (beltfish, squid, etc) in the turbulent waters, both far and near, around the island. Many died fighting the treachery of ocean and a large female population remained.


Whether a large portion of haenyeo are Christians, I don't know, but I do know that there are many shamanistic rituals, an annual shaman festival for the gods of the ocean which includes a gut (exoricism) to appease angry gods and pay tribute to protective ocean and natural element spirits. In Korean communities that have lower education and are living close with the elements, shamanism is still strong and the approximate 100 villages harboring haenyeo maintain rituals and beliefs for their spiritual well-being while in the ocean.

In recent years, the haenyeo have become a tourism symbol of Jejudo, the island known for its 3 Ws — wind, water, women … and of course rocks. This tourist symbol will be just that and nothing more in a few years as the haenyeo discourage their daughters from entering the trade, and a rapidly declining number of elderly haenyeo comprise the majority. Many die - the young, the old, the experienced - in their attempts to stay under the water as long as they can in order to gather the most sea products as possible. The trade is dangerous, not to mention physically demanding and now women, no longer contrained by rigid gender roles, can have other jobs and ones which are both safe and guarantee independence, so haenyeo mothers refuse to teach their secrets to their daughters, as becoming a haenyeo is a trade passed down only from mother to daughter. So, the traditional ecological knowledge is dying with the aging haenyeo.


By definition, traditional ecological knowledge is "A cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment" [Berkes, Colding and Folke, 2002, 'Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management' Ecological Applications 10:1251-1262.] What the haenyeo pass along to their daughters is a keen understanding of the tides, underwater geography and topography, weather and waves, ecology of marine life according to season, and much more. They have their own specialized folk taxonomy of the ocean and are aware of spatial changes within the ocean and to a large extent aware of the impact their local development has on the marine ecosystem. They also pass along communal cleaning and gardening techniques, that is, they 'weed out' underwater plants that invade or encrouch on the garden territory of the more desireable flora and fauna.

In 1966, there were 23,081 registered haenyeo but those numbers have dropped to 4,995 in 2010 with 43.3% of the diving women 70 years old and older. With the advent of rubber suits for the haenyeo in the 1970s, a drop in the numbers of underwater fisherwomen was appropriate but those numbers are still rapidly declining. Prior to the rubber suits, the women wore cotton smocks and could dive for only 2 hours max per day, taking breaks to warm themselves, but the rubber suits made it possible to dive for 6-7 hours straight, which really taxed the ocean's gardens around the island.


Since the 1970s, overfishing has become a ecological problem, not to mention the pollutions from fish farms that have sprung up around Jejudo. Marine ecology is further damaged by climate change, resulting in the disappearance of algae and key species extending the Korean diet. To try to control the ecological decline, current resource management in Jeju fishing villages has resulted in top-down policies like (1) no diving during breeding season [which last 2-3 months. It seems the haenyeo dive year-round but when certain species are breeding, those species are not to be including in their "catch of the day"]; (2) catch size limits on species have been imposed, and (3) diving is limited to a certain number of days per month as based on neap tides, ex. ~15 days/month; and finally (4) a guard is posted on fishing grounds to prevent poaching [there is a lot of competition between villages ... not just local competition that exists even between mother and daughter].


Grace presented an interesting twist of opinions regarding the future ecology of the ocean around Jejudo if the haenyeo cease to exist as fisherwomen. One opinion is from Youngsoon Go, Sehwa-ri fishing cooperative leader and the contrasting opinion is from Baekyeon Im, Hado-ri fishing cooperative leader. Youngsoon Go says, "Without haenyeo around to keep overfishing, Jeju's oceans will be able to recover" while Baekyeon Im says, "Without haenyeo, who will be here to ensure Jeju has healthy oceans?" Both have a point. While the haenyeo now tend to overfish having the advantage of working longer with the advantage of their rubber suits, they still garden and cultivate the ocean of unwanted flora - three examples of the valuable garden of Jejudo but which other countries see as invasive are two kinds of seaweed and a crab, all much loved by Koreans and encouraged to reproduce and grow in the gardens around Jeju.

Aging in the Rural Regions

When traveling in the southern areas of Korea, a more rustic and cheerful ambiance greets my eyes. The big city bustle with the domain of personal autonomy and individuality is left behind. There, business people, busy housewives, career women and the noisy youth surge on sidewalks and race to appointments. In contrast, the streets of towns are filled with the elderly as the vast majority of youth have migrated to Seoul for better educational opportunities (a typical view in Korea is that the big cities, especially Seoul, can actually provide better education than the outlying areas. And then once people are actually in Seoul, they vie to live in the "best" neighborhoods - "best" is defined as having schools with high reputations.) So in the towns and rural precincts the elderly predominate. I love to watch their vigor and bustle in the marketplaces, or, like the pictures below, at the staggered bus stops where they gather after doing their "town shopping" so they can take their goods back to their countryside residences.

After getting off the bus at their village marker - usually a stone with the village name - the women totter home. Don't kid yourself in thinking they are weak for quite the contrary is true. From their years and years of work washing clothes by hand, doing intensive gardening by hand, and other demanding physical labor, their hands are thick with hardened muscle and their grips are like vices! Just a decade or two ago when the Korean society was more of a collective society, huge cookware and giant tea kettles were mainstream items. At many a Korean home during those decades I witnessed the mothers and yes, many of the grandmothers, grabbing the handle of a near-full giant tea kettle with one hand and pour me a glass of hot water without quivering the kettle. My eyes bugged and they bugged even more when I tried to do it and had to steady the kettle with the other hand and a quiver could still be detected. But the aging women do totter. Years of bending over planting and working in the rice fields has made many of their backs malformed, but thankfully the dowager's back is seen less and less often nowadays because intensive rice farming is done by machinery in the present, which is better for the women's health but has the downside of not requiring the man- or woman-power at the home site. And so the youth are free to pursue education for education is the step out of the farmhouse and into "success" in society, or so the viewpoint goes.

Living in a somewhat remote village where aging people dominate is physically taxing. With no young hands to take over the work, the elderly are condemned to forever work. In the traditional days, the elderly were revered and it was the younger people who respected and obeyed the older members of families, villages and society in general. The white hairs were hairs representative of experiences and wisdom. Those days are sadly gone. Before they were expected to "enjoy" their aging years; now they just continue working. The irony here is while sons and daughters are in the cities making money and where grandsons and granddaughters are being educated, the rural home is just a vacation place, a getaway from the big polluted city, a place where the aging folks diligently and painstakingly raise "healthy" uncontaminated food which they give to their children and grandchildren as parting gifts when they return to the big cities.

Here, the little woman on the right has lost her vigor but she still helps as she can. Her task at hand, or rather "at foot", is to turn the rice so that it can dry speedily for putting into winter storage. The woman below is properly covered to block the sun's harmful rays, that is, from making her skin "black", the term for "sun tanned". Black skin was in traditional times the sign of a lower-class worker, a peasant (not pejorative like in western societies as they were free and often were land-owners; they just were not of the scholarly class who could maintain "white" skin). This woman, as do all women when working outside, cover their faces and hands to prevent the "blackening" of their skin. This includes always wearing long-sleeved clothing when going outdoors at any time, even on the hottest days. Actually, if you were to go to the ajumma (married lady) floor in a department store, even in summer the majority of clothing has long sleeves - just a culture reflection on a people-group still tied to a more conservative time period in Korea.