Text Fwd: Former "Comfort Woman" Gil Won-ok Shares Her Thoughts on "Japan's Disastrous Earthquake"

Kyunghyang Daily Newspaper
Former "Comfort Woman" Gil Won-ok Shares Her Thoughts on "Japan's Disastrous Earthquake"
Posted on : 2011-03-16 15:41

When I turned on the television, the tragedy before my eyes had me at a loss for words. It was too horrible for words to express. When I heard that the death toll stood in the tens of thousands, I thought to myself, "Those poor souls."

When I express my horror at the scale of the damages in Japan, other people seem quizzical,expecting me to be filled with loathing at the mere thought of Japan. Actually, there are few people to match me in my dislike for the country. When I was thirteen years old, I was dragged off to serve as a "comfort woman" and spent the next six years living a nightmare of an existence.

Those days were worse than death. Even when I took poison to end my life, I did not die perhaps a human life is not at the whim of willfulness. And after I returned, I merely survived from one day to the next. I opened my eyes in the morning and said, "Oh, another day's begun," and when the sun set in the evening I said, "Time to go to sleep again."

Yet the Japanese government that left us this way has not uttered a word of apology for seventy years. There were some people who said that Japan deserved to sink into the ocean for treating us this way. It seemed as though they would not bat an eyelash if Japan were destroyed.

But after seeing such a ghastly and sad spectacle on TV, I momentarily forgot what I had been put through. "Oh, no," I said. "Oh, no. It's too horrible." I may not have a single part of my body or mind that is free from impairment, but as I heard about entire villages being swept away and power plants exploding, I had no leisure to think about my own ailments.

What a frightful chaos it was. When we suffered in the past, I had thought there would never again be such a tragedy, but more frightful things do happen. I am sure any person who saw that tragedy would feel the same.

For the twenty years since1992, we have held weekly demonstrations every Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul calling for a formal apology and compensation to victims of drafting into sexual slavery.

Just for this week, we are not going to deliver our chants. It does not seem proper as human beings for us to demand something from the Japanese government right now as it is dealing with a national disaster.

Over the course of my demonstrations in Japan, I have repeatedly met Japanese people who said, "Why are you behaving like this when you're the ones who went voluntarily to earn money?" Whenever that happens, I tell them in all sincerity: Would a thirteen-year-old girl have knowingly gone into such a dangerous place on her own initiative? Don't think of Gil Won-ok as a Korean, I say, think of her as your own grandmother or mother. Some of them tell me then and there that Japan made a mistake and embrace me, while others hold my hand tight and shed tears.

People who have experienced troubles themselves tend to understand the plight of others. So we know in our hearts what suffering the Japanese people are going through right now. We hope that at least one fewer person is injured and that they recover quickly. We want to do whatever we can. Right now, we need to save at least one more person's life.

I also hope that Song Sin-do is still alive. [Song is a former comfort woman who lives in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. She has been out of contact since the earthquake.] I hope we at least learn as soon as possible whether she is still with us.

If she is alive, I will tell her to get herself to Korea one way or another.
I would like to encourage the Japanese people to stay strong as they struggle to get through this horrific disaster.

Gil Won-ok, 84, was drafted into sexual slavery for the Japanese military from her hometown of Pyongyang in 1940. She suffered in Manchuria and Beijing before returning to Korea after Liberation. Since 1992, she has taken part in the "Wednesday demonstrations" demanding an apology and reparations from the Japanese government to the comfort women. This piece has been adapted from her statements. (Gen. News. Mar 16, 2011)