Know Their Story: The Comfort Women
Trigger warning: The following content contains graphic topics of sexual and physical abuse, rape, torture, violence against women, and human trafficking, especially the first hand accounts of victims. Please be aware and proceed with caution.
According to Webster’s dictionary, the word comfort means to “bring consolation during a time of trouble or worry.” However, is it really comfort when the people providing it are being forced to?
This is the case for the estimated 200,000+ women who were forced to provide “comfort” to soldiers in Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. While these women came from countries all over Asia, a majority of them were Korean.
Stolen “Comfort”
Beginning as early as 1932, women were “recruited” for “comfort stations” in Japanese-occupied territories. “Comfort station” is the term used for the camps set up by the Japanese military where women as young as 12 were repeatedly raped and assaulted by members of the military. The Japanese government allowed these comfort stations to exist in order to prevent a situation similar to the Rape of Nanking (1937). When women were “recruited” for these stations, per the Japanese government's instructions, they were supposed to be told upfront about their positions; however, this was never the case. Women were trafficked to these stations with promises of nursing positions and education, and in many cases, young girls were kidnapped off the street without a word.
Life in the Comfort Stations
As described in a 1996 United Nations Report on Comfort Women, the comfort stations were “one to two story buildings” that had living facilities inside. The women's rooms were “cramped cubicles” with room only for a bed. These cubicles were separated by as little as a curtain so the sounds of the women and girls being raped and abused could be heard up and down the rows. Women and girls were raped by upwards of 40 men per day. They were not allowed to refuse a request for comfort. If they did, they were subjected to violence, cigarette burns, and broken bones; knife wounds were also common among the women who resisted. While women who provided comfort were subjected to doctor visits, the medical staff often ignored the signs of abuse, opting only to examine for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, leaving women to deal with open wounds and burns on their own.
Testimonies of Survivors
The first survivor to speak out about comfort stations and her experience as a sex slave was Kim Haksoon in August of 1991. Thanks to her, many more survivors found the courage to tell their stories. Below are a few testimonies taken from the 1996 United Nations Report. The content is graphic, but the stories must be told.
From survivor Hwang Sogyun, discussing how women are trafficked through lies and deception:
"I was born on 28 November 1918 as the second daughter of a day laborer. We lived in the Taeri Workers’ District, Kangdong County, Pyongyang City. When I was 17 years old, in 1936, the head of our village came to our house and promised me to help me find a job in a factory. Because my family was so poor, I gladly accepted this offer of a well-paid job. I was taken to the railway station in a Japanese truck where 20 or so other Korean girls were already waiting. We were put on the train, then onto a truck and after a few days’ travel we reached a big house at the River Mudinjian in China. I thought it was the factory, but I realized that there was no factory. Each girl was assigned one small room with a straw bag to sleep on, with a number on each door.
After two days of waiting, without knowing what was happening to me, a Japanese soldier in an army uniform, wearing a sword, came to my room. He asked me ‘will you obey my words or not?’, then pulled my hair, put me on the floor and asked me to open my legs. He raped me. When he left, I saw there were 20 or 30 more men waiting outside. They all raped me that day. From then on, every night I was assaulted by 15 to 20 men. We had to undergo medical examinations regularly. Those who were found disease-stricken were killed and buried in unknown places. One day, a new girl was put in the compartment next to me. She tried to resist the men and bit one of them in his arm. She was then taken to the courtyard and in front of all of us, her head was cut off with a sword and her body was cut into small pieces."
Survivor Chong Oksun discusses the brutality the girls and women faced on top of repeated rape and assault:
“One day in June, at the age of 13, I had to prepare lunch for my parents who were working in the field and so I went to the village well to fetch water. A Japanese garrison soldier surprised me there and took me away, so that my parents never knew what had happened to their daughter. I was taken to the police station in a truck, where I was raped by several policemen. When I shouted, they put socks in my mouth and continued to rape me. The head of the police station hit me in my left eye because I was crying. That day I lost my eyesight in the left eye. After 10 days or so, I was taken to the Japanese army garrison barracks in Heysan City. There were around 400 other Korean young girls with me and we had to serve over 5,000 Japanese soldiers as sex slaves every day—up to 40 men per day. Each time I protested, they hit me or stuffed rags in my mouth. One held a matchstick to my private parts until I obeyed him. My private parts were oozing with blood. One Korean girl who was with us once demanded why we had to serve so many, up to 40, men per day. To punish her for her questioning, the Japanese company commander Yamamoto ordered her to be beaten with a sword. While we were watching, they took off her clothes, tied her legs and hands and rolled her over a board with nails until the nails were covered with blood and pieces of her flesh. In the end, they cut off her head. Another Japanese, Yamamoto, told us that ‘it’s easy to kill you all, easier than killing dogs.’ He also said ‘since those Korean girls are crying because they have not eaten, boil the human flesh and make them eat it.’ One Korean girl caught a venereal disease from being raped so often and, as a result, over 50 Japanese soldiers were infected. In order to stop the disease from spreading and to ‘sterilize’ the Korean girl, they stuck a hot iron bar in her private parts. Once they took 40 of us on a truck far away to a pool filled with water and snakes. The soldiers beat several of the girls, shoved them into the water, heaped earth into the pool and buried them alive. I think over half of the girls who were at the garrison barracks were killed. Twice I tried to run away, but both times we were caught after a few days. We were tortured even more and I was hit on my head so many times that all the scars still remain. They also tattooed me on the inside of my lips, my chest, my stomach and my body. I fainted. When I woke up, I was on a mountainside, presumably left for dead. Of the two girls with me, only Kuk Hae and I survived. A 50-year-old man who lived in the mountains found us, gave us clothes and something to eat. He also helped us to travel back to Korea, where I returned, scarred, barren and with difficulties in speaking, at the age of 18, after five years of serving as a sex slave for the Japanese."
The House of Sharing
The House of Sharing (나눔의집), founded in 1992, is a shelter that houses the survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery. While the colloquial term for these women is “comfort women,” the House of Sharing refers to these survivors as “halmoni,” the term for grandmother in Korean. Located in Gwangju, the House of Sharing also houses the world's first museum that details Japanese sexual slavery, provides records for the public, as well as honors those who have survived and passed. The museum features two floors and a basement that includes a replica of the comfort rooms that these women lived in, as well as art created by the survivors through art therapy provided by the House of Sharing.
Final Thoughts
While there remains an active political discourse between Korea and Japan surrounding comfort stations and the women who were held against their will, the truth is that this is a piece of history that is not shared enough outside of Asia. The atrocities these women faced should be shared so others can learn their stories. While there are only 12 Korean survivors still alive today, every survivor's story lives on.
To learn more about the history of the comfort women, visit the House of Sharing’s website here.