Text Fwd: ‘Comfort women’ launch fundraising efforts for Japan'

After finishing a World Vision education program, “Earthquake Experience, ” children hold banks to collect money for earthquake relief with signs that say, “Friends in Japan: Stay Strong!” at a nursery in Seoul’s Songpa District. (Photo by Shin So-young)


Hankyoreh
‘Comfort women’ launch fundraising efforts for Japan
By Lee Seung-joon
March 19, 2011

The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery in Japan (Korean Council) announced Friday that it is beginning efforts to raise funds to help Japanese people who have suffered major damages with last week's earthquake in northeastern Japan.

In its announcement Friday, the association said, “The women who were victims of being drafted into sexual slavery for the Japanese military proposed raising fund for the people who suffered damages in Japan, and since it was proposed by women who, because of their past experiences, know better than anyone about human pain and suffering, we accepted the proposal and decided to begin raising funds.”

“During their Wednesday Demonstration on Mar. 16, the women, unlike their usual practice, held a silent vigil to send thoughts of condolences for the thousands and tens of thousands of victims who lost their lives,” the Korean Council explained. “We hope people will participate and contribute to carrying out their meaningful wish.”

The fundraising effort is to begin in earnest with the regular Wednesday Demonstration on Mar. 23, the 962nd, and will continue for five weeks until Apr. 26.

The Korean Council has held weekly “Wednesday Demonstrations” in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul every week for the nearly twenty years since Jan. 8, 1992, with one exception in 1995 when the Hanshin earthquake struck the city of Kobe. The 961st demonstration on Mar. 16 took the form of a silent

vigil to offer sympathy for the tragedy of the Mar. 11 earthquake.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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)

Photo Fwd: Samboilbae for justice for “comfort women”

Hankyoreh
Posted on : Jun.24,2010 12:41 KST

Members of civic organizations in support of “comfort women,” who had been coerced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II, perform samboilbae, three steps and one bow, in their journey to demand compensation at the headquarters of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries LTD. in Tokyo, Japan on June 23.

Text Fwd: 7 Korean Grandmas Fighting Japan

* Image source/ caption: Hankyoreh

'Members of a support group for South Korean women who had been forced to serve as conscripted laborers during World War II hold a press conference in front of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries auto display center in Gwangju City to urge the Japanese government to reexamine its decision to pay 99 Yen in response to their administrative lawsuit for pension compensation, Jan. 4.
Posted on : Jan.5,2010 12:16 KS'

Korea Times
01-04-2010 18:08
7 Korean Grandmas Fighting Japan
By Do Je-hae, Staff Reporter

Koreans who were forced into labor for a Japanese company during World War II (1939-1945) are demanding a re-examination of Tokyo's latest decision to provide a pittance as a welfare pension refund, according to a support group of the victims Monday.

The group said that it will assist the seven female victims to petition for a review, in cooperation with Japanese civic groups.

The announcement comes after leading newspapers in Japan reported last month that the country's Social Insurance Agency (SIA) sent 99 yen ($1.08) as part of a welfare pension refund to the seven Korean women, who were forced to work during Japan's occupation of Korea from 1910 through 1945.

The payment is a result of a lawsuit against the Japanese government in 1998 by the women to claim the money they paid to a welfare pension fund while working at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries between October 1944 and August 1945.

"After 64 years of negligence, the Japanese government has paid a worthless sum," they said during a press conference at the Mitsubishi auto display center in the southwestern city of Gwangju.

A support group based in Nagoya, Japan, will work on behalf of the seven victims to win a review of the refund plan.

The SIA has said that it sent the payment of 99 yen to bank accounts held by each of the seven plaintiffs after the local government of Aichi Prefecture, where a Mitsubishi Heavy Industry factory was located, calculated the payment. The amount of the payment was calculated according to the nation's Employees' Pension Insurance Act, according to Japanese reports.

To protest the inadequate compensation, 81-year-old plaintiff Kim Sung-joo led a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul last month with other victims and supporters from civic groups.

The protest has led to many Koreans revisiting the unresolved issue of post-colonial compensation. Korea will mark the 100th year of Japan's 1910 annexation of the country on Aug. 22.

During its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, Tokyo forced hundreds of thousands of Koreans to work in coal mines and military facilities in and around the country to support its war efforts. Some were forced to serve in brothels for Japanese soldiers during the final years of the occupation.

Since Korea won independence from Japan, citizens have continued to raise the issue of compensation for the damages inflicted by the 30-year occupation, while Japan has contended that the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty cleared all compensation claims.

Many Koreans are hoping the new Japanese government will show more sincerity toward issues regarding compensation for forced labor. There are currently 88 surviving women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II registered with the government.

Some Koreans have been discontent with the way the Lee Myung-bak administration has dealt with historical conflicts with Japan.

"Many nations, including the United States and the Netherlands, have urged Tokyo, through resolutions and rulings, to issue proper apologies and compensation. But the Lee administration has not been vocal about the issue," Rep. Park Sun-young, spokeswoman of the minor opposition Liberal Forward Party, said, referring to what some have called the President's "indifference toward the past for 'future-oriented' relations with Japan."

jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr


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