Loose Feet

This weekend has been quiet. Relaxingly, peacefully quiet. I needed that. Some time to process who I am and how I'm changing -- and everything that comes wrapped up in all of that. It was nice.

One thing though. On this crisp Sunday afternoon, I joined my friends Habiba, K'san and their respective boys on a trip to the Jogesya Buddhist temple near Insadong for a screening of the documentary film 63 Years On. Put on by the Sharing House of Korea, it was a powerful tribute to the women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese government from the 1930's on into World War II.

There is so much that I should, and need to recount about what I have learned today in becoming part of this community, one with those who are moving together to demand emotional compensation and peace for those who suffered at the hands of the military.

Prior to World War II, it had been found that a large percentage of members of the Japanese military were suffering from various STD's. As the nation prepared to expand and conquer land across the Asian continent, it became clear that the government would have to establish a system that would allow soldiers to engage in healthy and yet still stimulating sexual intercourse. The first 'comfort station' was opened in 1932 in China. It is said that the first women to work at the station were Japanese prostitutes. But Japanese expansionism worked faster than expected, and before long there were comfort stations all across Asia -- from the Philippines to Indonesia to Laos and Cambodia to Korea and Japan -- and there were simply not enough prostitutes to provide for the soldiers. So the government turned to the streets and kidnapped women, often bribing them with the hope for better money to support their families, only to force them into these sexual stations.

The film showed the stories of 5 different women who were victims of this tragedy. One was from Korea -- she had scars all over her body from where Japanese soldiers had tortured her when she had tried to run away. She admitted on camera that she had been pregnant, and the soldiers had tried to beat the baby out of her, blaming her for getting pregnant. In order to prevent further pregnancies, they removed her uterus. Then they seared her breasts and used a cattle iron on her back and bum. She spoke out in both fear and anger. She had been lucky enough to not only survive through that, but as well to meet a good man who married her and made a family with her. Due to the beatings, she was unable to have children, and so she adopted. It was years before she returned to Korea, however.

Another story was from a Dutch woman who had been living in Indonesia with her family. She was taken away by the Japanese military when she was a teenager. She kept going back to the first night she was brought to the comfort station. She was raped not once but at least 3 or 4 times by different soldiers. Such information was not unusual either -- many of the women who were kept at such camps were forced to have sex with as many as twenty to forty men a day.

She shared a shocking story about the doctor who came to their camp. The women were subjected at random moments to visit the doctor, so as to ensure they were STD-free. Her story began by reminding us how much trust we put in doctors -- they are healers, the ones who, in the very least, work to make it better, make the pain go away. Unfortunately, this was not true for her. The doctor examined her with the doors and windows open, inviting the Japanese soldiers to look on. Upon finishing his check-up, he then raped her. There was noone to trust.

The Dutch woman had wanted to be a nun when she was a child, but after being a sexual slave to the Japanese military, she knew she could never follow that dream. She married, but admitted that she could never enjoy sex again -- even with her husband.

There are so many more stories. They said that it is estimated 200,000 women were put into these comfort stations, and many of them did not make it out alive. Those who did were abandoned at the end of the war. Many Korean women were left in countries such as the Philippines, with no knowledge of the language or the culture and no idea where to even begin in rebuilding some semblance of a life for themselves. It was years upon years -- 1991, when the first woman, what they now call 'Grandmothers' -- Grandma Kim Hak Soon, came out and publicly talked about what she and so many others had undergone. It has been a slow and painful process, but other such victims have stood up and created a movement pushing for the Japanese government to apologize. THEY HAVE NOT. In 2007, the prime minister Shinzo Abe denied that these women had been forced into sexual enslavement. The education minister at the time had much of the information about such women erased from textbooks. The U.S and Canada both approved motions urging the Japanese government to make a formal apology. But little to nothing has been done by the Japanese government and so these grandmothers continue fighting, hoping that they will find peace before their passing.

It was pure trickery that seeped out of the WWII Japanese government. The argument behind comfort stations was that men of the military needed to have some form of pleasure in order to quell their rebellious attitudes. The government even provided condoms, labelled as 'Attack 1 condoms', and lubrication. From the outside, it all looked like another ordinary brothel system that would only help to make the Japanese army stronger and happier than all others.

It hurts for me to even write about it. These women suffered through our worst nightmares. I am so fortunate to be so far away from anything like this. There is now a home for these women here in Korea -- a place called the Sharing House. As the grandmothers grow older, it has become harder and harder for them to share their stories. Their message will live on forever though. The people, including myself -- the community who gathered today -- now have their stories engrained within their hearts and these women will never be forgotten.

A volunteer who put together the screening asked that these women not be called 'Comfort Women' anymore -- because nothing that they experienced was comfortable. These women are to be called grandmothers, or survivors. I respect that absolutely.

We live in a modern world, but this nightmare has not passed. Sexual trafficking is still a major problem. As one volunteer quoted, there are some countries where it is believed that 1 in 4 women will be subjected to sexual trafficking. There is so much to be done. Demanding for an apology for the grandmothers is just a step.

Being there today, with the men and women who both cried and raised a fist against the treatment of these women, made me realize how much work there is to be done. We must look back at the past and change the future starting now. There are resources, but we must stop teaching how to use them in a negative light and starting practicing in the positive.

I really want to save the world.

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