her  funeral picture 

On July 23, Gim Gun-Ja, one of the comfort women passed away at the age of 91. The reason of her passing was because her health condition had got worse due to high blood pressure, and chronic bronchial asthma. With her death, only 37 comfort women remain.

She suffered all sorts of hardship in 1942, when she was forced to be work in brothels. Three years later, she returned to her hometown. But she couldn’t tell anybody what she suffered in there. And, her trauma was so high that she could not live a normal life. In 2007, she finally testified to what she suffered at the hands of the Japanese military.

From the testimony of her and other victims, the fact about ‘comfort women’ has been revealed.

                                                                well-known picture of comment women

Comfort women is a term that means women and girls who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied territories before and during World War II. They had been raped by 10 or more soldiers a day. At that time, Japan had drafted many women in Korea which was occupied by them. They had ranged from their early teens to their 40's. Many poor women were fooled by the saying that they hired a restaurant worker, a nurse, etc. Also they were even forcibly taken from their homes by the Japanese Army.

 When Japan lost the war, the Japanese army even killed ‘comfort women’ to hide the presence of these women. Women who survived were usually returned individually, but sometimes they were unable to come back. Some women didn’t know how to come back, gave up, or even tried to commit suicide. 

                                                                       statue of comfort women

Japan didn’t acknowledge that they ran brothels for its troops until 1990, and said ‘comfort women’ are people who volunteered themselves. However, as the related document about brothels were found in a Japanese library, and some document that had recruited 'comfort women' were found in America, Japan partially acknowledged that they had forced women to mobilize. But they only apologized reluctantly without any reparation. Recently, Japan is even asking for the removal of statues of comfort women. Japan should reflect on the faults they committed in the past. We should not forget 'comfort women' who suffered irreversible pain like Gim Gun-Ja.