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It is hard to escape the common thread of shame and silence about sexual abuse, whether it is as highly organized and brutal as in the case of the "comfort women" in China; perpetrated by men of power in Hollywood, the American news media, and the White House; or secretly done by a father to his daughter in Evanston, Illinois. It needs to be talked about, exposed, and not forgotten.

In 2013, I was invited to participate in the 85 Years 85 Artists exhibit at Menlo College in Atherton, California. Menlo College was celebrating its 85th year with an art exhibition and invited 85 artists to create an artwork to respond to a year during that 85-year time period. We were given a year to make the art for the 2014 exhibition at the college. The topic and medium were the artist's choice. The year was arbitrarily given.

Jesse Pritchett, our son, had been a university lecturer at Jiujiang University in Jiujiang, China since 2007. In both 2008 and 2009 Jesse facilitated an artist residency for me to work with 20 college freshmen at the university. Each year the students and I worked together to create and perform a performance-art piece. In the fall of 2010, my husband David and I, accepted faculty positions at the university for the fall semester. David taught English language classes and I papermaking and artists books. My 20 art students and I worked in a studio we devised in the faculty housing block where we lived. I spoke little Chinese but my students who knew basic English could understand me. I had a Chinese co- teacher who helped me with the language and the navigation of the university system. My husband and I lived off of the economy, shopped in local markets and ate in the numerous restaurants lining the streets immediately off campus. We made many friends; Chinese colleagues, artists, students and locals. When Menlo College gave me the year 1940, I focused on China.

During that time, "comfort stations" (brothels) had been set up in China by the Japanese military after the Nanking Massacre in1938 and were in continual, widespread operation. The military expanded and moved these comfort stations to follow the areas of combat in other countries extending to the end of WWII.

"Comfort women" was the Japanese euphemism describing the women rounded up with violence and coercion to become sex slaves to Japanese forces. One of these bases was in Jiujiang, where we lived and taught. By war's end, there were over 2,000 comfort stations and over 200,000 women from Japan, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea and Indochina, including Dutch colonialists who had been forced to become "comfort women". Japanese military commanders were fully complicit in procuring women and developing and operating comfort stations. They kept detailed records. This is a story I wanted to tell.

Making art about horrific subjects requires distance. Being too literal would repel viewers rather than engage them. I approached the art work conceptually looking at all of the elements; the euphemistic "comfort" to describe the women and the comfort that is provided from a quilt: hand sewing and embroidery as women's work; the robes that the women wore when they were raped, a garment covering a horror; handmade paper, a craft that goes back to the Han Dynasty, 100 BC. The result was a 20"x 18" quilt on handmade paper with hand stitching, and pulp painting.

The research on the "comfort women" expanded. How were the women taken? What went on in the "comfort stations"? How long were the women there? How were they treated? What happened to them after they returned home? I read more books, saw documentaries, read newspaper accounts. Xuemei Wu PhD, professor of history at Zhon University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, was particularly helpful in discussing the conditions and culture of the Chinese during the war; her grandparents lived in the mountain hills above Wuhan at that time. I was particularly interested in the negative attitude of the Chinese local governments and citizens toward the "comfort women" once they were released. Commonly they were ostracized and, in some cases, sent to labor camps as a punishment for what the government considered to be consorting with the enemy. As I was invited to participate in other exhibitions; HMS Studios England and Art on Armitage Chicago for their exhibitions in Athens, Greece, Prairie State College in Chicago, Reflect Space in Glendale California, I made work that addressed the trail of the "comfort stations" in China, the "comfort women's" abduction, coercion, rape, and their lives once they returned home. The medium remained the same; handmade paper, pulp painting, hand sewing and embroidery.

While doing the work I became aware of similarities between statements made by "comfort women" survivors and present survivors of sexual violence. It was hard to escape the common thread of shame and silence about sexual abuse, whether it is as highly organized and brutal as in the case of the "comfort women" in China; perpetrated by men of power in Hollywood, the American news media, and the White House; or secretly done by a father to his daughter in Evanston, Illinois. It needed to be talked about, exposed, and not forgotten.

And talk about it we did. I returned to Menlo College for an artist residency in the fall of 2018. To accompany my "Comfort Women" Project exhibition at the college, a group of students and I created an interactive installation for the student body, faculty and staff to participate in the at the library. Message Board held comments about feelings about sexual violation. This might be about themselves "My heart aches with shame." "It set up a system to keep myself from seeing the truth." "I don't want anyone to know." "I wake up with nightmares." It might have been about others. "This didn't just happen to her, it killed my mother and father." "I want to hurt whoever did this to him." "My husband blames me." The notes were folded and thumb tacked inside so that they could be opened to read. This large bulletin board had accompanying boards where students posted newspaper and magazine articles about rape, sexual violence toward men women as well as the #Metoo movement. The librarians filled a large table with books about sexual abuse and violence.

Students organized an evening of conversation for the college and community. They had experts talk about the history of the "comfort women" and the trauma resulting from sexual violence. A student spoke about the #Metoo movement, a Menlo professor read her poetry, a student presented a spoken word piece. Before we started a sound piece by students reading comments from the installation was played. We ended with an open discussion.

I returned home to complete the artwork that I started during the residency. It focused on statements made by individual "comfort women" and has been added to the body of work. The "Comfort Women" Project has moved on to other venues, more art making, more discussions. Yes, there is the common thread of shame and silence about sexual abuse. Scars remain but healing is possible.

ART NOTES

The dress images were taken from sketches of robes that the "comfort women" wore when they were forced to provide sex for the military men. The map used is a copy of an original 1937 map of eastern China. The red french knots in "Comfort Women" Quilt Map and Comfort Stations in China mark the locations of the comfort stations in eastern China. The text quotes are from Chinese "comfort women". Chinese "Comfort Women", Testimonies From Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves, cited above. All works are on handmade paper with pulp painting made by Rose Camastro-Pritchett at the Center for Book & Paper Arts, Chicago.

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"Comfort Women" - Rose Camastro Pritchett

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In 2013, I was invited to participate in the 85 Years 85 Artists exhibit at Menlo College in Atherton, California. Menlo College was celebrating its 85th year with an art exhibition and invited 85 artists to create an artwork to respond to a year during that 85-year time period.

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This project is based on my interviews with survivors in 7 different countries, including Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Filipino, and Dutch "comfort women" survivors, and a former Japanese soldier from WWII.

COMFORT WOMEN WANTED brings to light the memory of 200,000 young women, referred to as "comfort women," who were systematically exploited as sex slaves in Asia during World War II, and increases awareness of sexual violence against women during wartime.

The gathering of women to serve the Imperial Japanese Army was organized on an industrial scale not seen before in modern history. This project promotes awareness of these women, some of whom are still alive today, and brings to light a history which has been largely forgotten and denied.

The title, COMFORT WOMEN WANTED, is a reference to the actual text of advertisements which appeared in newspapers during the war. When there weren't enough volunteer prostitutes through the ad campaigns, young women from Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Netherlands were kidnapped or deceived and forced into sexual slavery. Most were teenagers, some as young as 11 years old, and were raped by as many as fifty soldiers a day at military rape camps, known as "comfort stations." Women were starved, beaten, tortured, and killed. By some estimates only 30% survived the ordeal.

Whenever there's a war we hear about the suffering of soldiers, yet we hear almost nothing about the plight of women who are kidnaped and raped, or killed. Often it is the poorest and most marginalized elements of society who suffer most. Through out history women like this are too often invisible, forgotten and left with no place to turn.

The "Comfort Women System" is considered the largest case of human trafficking in the 20th century. Much in the same way that acknowledgment and awareness of the Holocaust helps to insure it will not happen again, by acknowledging this issue we can prevent another generation of enslaved "comfort women" from happening anywhere ever again.

Historian Suzanne O'Brien has written that

"the privileging of written documents works to exclude from history...the voices of the kind of people comfort women represent - the female, the impoverished, the colonized, the illiterate, and the racially and ethnically oppressed. These people have left few written records of their experiences, and therefore are denied a place in history."

In the 21st century, human trafficking has surpassed drug trafficking to become the second largest business in the world after arms dealing. The "comfort women" issue illustrates the victimization which women suffer in terms of gender, ethnicity, politics, and class oppression, and how women are still perceived as a disposable commodity. This project promotes empowerment of these and all women, and seeks to establish a path toward a future where oppression is no longer tolerated.

On July, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Resolution 121, proposed by Mike Honda, Japanese-American Congressman, with 168 bipartisan cosponsors, calling for Japan's acknowledgment of the sexual enslavement of "Comfort Women," and acceptance of historical responsibility. Similar resolutions have passed in Canada, the Netherlands, the European Union, and Great Britain.

Despite growing awareness of the issue of trafficking of women and of sexual slavery as a crime against humanity, this particular history has gone largely unacknowledged. COMFORT WOMEN WANTED attempts to bring to light this instance of organized violence against women, and to create a dialogue by acknowledging their place in history.

Artworks: Ad-like Billboards, Kiosk Street Posters, Prints, Audio, Multichannel Videos, "Re-creation of a Military Comfort Station"

1) Ad-like Ad-like Billboards, Phone Booth Posters, MRT Subway Light Box Displays, and Prints in Multiple Languages:
The text COMFORT WOMEN WANTED is in black atop a red background. In the center are images based on historical photos of the Taiwanese, Korean, Chinese, Filipino, and Dutch women survivors when they were young, around the time of the war, juxtaposed with contemporary silhouettes of the now aged comfort women, in their current homes. One iconic image is of a Taiwanese "comfort woman" taken by a Japanese soldier during her enslavement. The images of the young women are surrounded by gold leaf, suggesting the halo of a saint from Renaissance painting, and honoring their courage in speaking out. Images of the elderly comfort women, by contrast, are empty silhouettes, and are intended to evoke a sense of loss. Of those who survived, many never went back home, or they were ostracized from their families and communities because of what was perceived as their "shameful past" in a conservative society cherishing women's chastity as ideal. For most of these women, the sense of home was forever lost.

2) Audio and Multichannel Video Installation:
In the audio installation, two old fashioned telephones hang on either side of a red column referencing a phone booth. When people pick up a phone handset, they can hear the voices of "comfort women" survivors on one side which contrasts with the voice of a Japanese soldier on the opposite side. The installation creates the impression of a direct personal and intimate moment between the listener and the survivor.
3) Names and Songs:
At the entrance of the space, the actual names of women survivors are projected on a plaque on the floor, at the same time, the voices of the women singing their favorite traditional folk songs in multiple languages are heard. The projection of the names honors the women while the music creates a sense of universality.
4) "Re-creation of a Military Comfort Station":
The recreation of a comfort station is based on historical references including welcome and regulation banners, kimonos, tatami beds, washing bowls, windows, and Japanese name plaques. Videos of former comfort stations in Asia are projected on elements in the room.

Outside, welcoming and regulations banners are hung from floor to ceiling, creating fabric walls. During the war, banners at the entrances of military comfort stations welcomed and attracted soldiers. The written texts in Japanese said such things as "Homeland Military Designated Comfort Station," "Japanese Girls Dedicating Their Hearts and Bodies in Service," and "Grand Welcome to Victorious, Courageous Soldiers."

Inside, videos of former comfort stations in Asia, including Dai Salon in Shanghai, the first comfort station ever, and former Indonesian comfort stations, are projected on individual elements in the room. On the walls are hung Japanese name plaques. Girls were forced to wear kimonos and use Japanese names. The recreation explores the idea of erased ethnic identity. The artificial made-up Japanese names which the women were forced to use contrasts with their real names at the entrance to the exhibit.

In the multichannel video installation, the Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Filipino, and Dutch "comfort women" survivors, and a former Japanese soldier talk about their experiences at the military comfort stations, as well as their everyday hopes and dreams, and who they are as people. The women also sing their favorite traditional folk songs in Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipino, and Dutch. This presents the women as individuals rather than as victims and highlights the experiences we all share, in order to put these monumental events in context. These are the stories and voices of the survivors.
Special Thanks
My deepest respect and admiration for all of
the courageous "comfort women" survivors I have met.

In Korea, Yong-Soo Lee halmuni, Ong-lyeon Park halmuni, Oak-seon Yi halmuni. Gun-ja Kim halmuni, Oak-seon Park halmuni, Soon-ok Kim halmuni, Il-Chul Kang halmuni, Soon-Duk Lee halmuni, and Chun-hee Bae halmuni. Professor Jung Oak Yun, Professor Hyo Chae Lee, Professor Keum Hye Park, Professor Tae Guk Jun, Seoul Mayor Won Soon Park, Shin Kweon Ahn and The House of Sharing.

In Taiwan, Shyou Fung Ho ahma, Hsiu-mei Wu ahma, Yang Chen ahma, Man-mei Lu ahma, Yin-Chiao Su ahma, and Hwa Chen ahma, Graceia Lai, Shu-Hue Kang, Huiling Wu, Li-Fang Yang, Margaret Shiu, Betsy Lan, Chi-Hsi Chao, and The Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation.

In China, Wan Aihua dayang, Professor Zhiliang Su, and Professor Ye Chen,

In Indonesia, Emah Kastimah, Marjiyah, and Eka Hindrati.

In Australia, Jan Ruff O'Herne, Carol Ruff, Hannah Harborow, and Amnesty International Australia.

In Japan, Yasuji Kaneko, Mina Watanabe, Alison Scott, Eriko Ikeda, Murayama Ippei, Georg Kochi, Misuzu Yamamoto, Hiroko Murata, Tatsuhiko Murata, and The Women's Active Museum on War and Peace.

In The Philippines, Nelia Sancho, Lola Julia Porras, Lola Fedencia David

In the USA, Congressman Mike Honda, Livia Straus, Barbara Corti, Marc Payot, Hali Lee, Angie Wang, Aiyoung Choi, Joyce Yu, Emily Colasacco, Wendy Feuer, Agnes Hsu, Bomsinae Kim, Charles Armstrong, Margaret Cogswell, Erin Donnelly, Felicity Hogan, Dai-Sil Kim, Ok Cha Soh, Bonnie Oh, Christine Choi, Aiko Miyatake, Agnes Bing Magtoto, Vera Chen, Jokotri Taro, Grace Qh Zhao, Phyllis Kim, Washington Coalition for Comfort Women, Teri Chan, Sandra Greuel, Soon Hee Lee, Chang Soo Lee, Steve Chang Wook Lee, Jeannie Kim Lee, Robert Clay, Paul Clay, and many others who have supported this project.

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This project is based on my interviews with survivors in 7 different countries, including Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Filipino, and Dutch "comfort women" survivors, and a former Japanese soldier from WWII.

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Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition — A Long Trail for Liberation

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Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition — A Long Trail for Liberation

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The Artist, his Collaborators, their Exhibition, and three Venues

Postwar Savage Code - CHEN, I-CHUN and The Survival Strategy of the Neuromancer - LUO, HE-LIN

What a human creates - artwork in particular - is a mark, and by connecting and tracing these marks a story is born. The story of the artworks in the Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition is about censorship, and the light for freedom against it.

The After: Freedom of Expression? exhibition in the 2019 Aich Triennale was "temporarily closed" (We renamed it to Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition after it). Artists and journalists overseas criticized this as an instance of censorship, but only a few in Japan - especially in the mass media - followed their example.

The Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition was a project to display artworks that have been censored in public institutions and spaces in Japan. Its origin goes back to the case in 2012 when Nikon -a global camera maker - cancelled a photo exhibition by the Korean photographer Ahn Sehong about "comfort women". In 2015, the first Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition (there was no English title at the time) exhibition of censored artworks was organized by the Ahn's supporters, who realized the gravity of censorship in Japan. The exhibition was invited to be a part of the Aichi Triennale 2019 and re-titled After: Freedom of Expression?, but the exhibition was forced to close just three days after its opening. It was re-opened for six days after a public outcry and a court's provisional arbitration order.

There is news of censorship against artworks from all over the world. This is partly due to globalization, but at the same time the permeation of the idea of human rights and enlightenment encouraged artists to express their resistance. The censorship in Japan is largely related to the issues of war crime and colonization by Imperial Japan. The rise of historical revisionism, racial and gender discrimination in recent years is a breeding ground for such censorship. The issue of censorship is concerned with post-colonial politics not only in Japan but throughout East Asia, including Taiwan. At the same time, it is deeply related to the problems of Japan's modernization and the longtime imperial legacy.

This exhibition deals with three foci for censorship: war crimes and colonization, the Emperor system, and the Fukushima nuclear accident, all of which are closely related in Japan's history. The exhibition is structured as a "trail" along which the audience can view this history. "Trail" means a path, a series of footprints that mark the way. There is a similar concept in many cultures, for example, the term was used in the United States for the paths opened by the pioneers. Nowadays, the term is often used for interactive walks looking at the environment, history and human rights education. This "trail" will lead the audience through the censored works and ultimately towards hope for the future.

Rather than mere traces of movement, trails became cultural through-lines, connecting people and places and stories. Robert Moor "On Trails"

April 2020
Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition Executive Committee
ARAI Hiroyuki, IWASAKI SADAAKI, OKAMOTO Yuka, NAGATA Kozo

表現の不自由展：解放への長い道程

人の作ったもの、特に芸術作品は「印」のようなものだ。それを結びつけ、たどることで、道ができ、物語がつむぎ出される。
表現の不自由展の作品群がつむぐ物語は、検閲という圧制であり、それに抗する自由の灯だ。
あいちトリエンナーレ2019の「表現の不自由展・その後」は「展示中止」となった。海外のメディアや美術作家は検閲と批判したが、日本社会で検閲と批判したものは報道メディアも含め多くない。
表現の不自由展は、主に日本の公共施設や公共空間で検閲などの圧迫を受けた芸術作品を集め、展示する企画だ。発端は、2012年、写真家・安世鴻による日本軍「慰安婦」を題材とした写真展を、世界的カメラメーカーのニコンが中止した事件に遡る。その支援を経て、日本の検閲事情の深刻さを憂慮した人々によって、検閲作品を集める「表現の不自由展」が2015年に開催された。それがあいちトリエンナーレ2019からの参加要請となり、「表現の不自由展・その後」として展示された。しかし８月１日の開幕から３日で強制中止となった。力強い支援と裁判所への仮処分申請を経て、会期末の６日間、限定的な再開を果たした。
芸術への検閲のニュースは世界中から届く。グローバリゼーションのきしみがもたらすものだが、人権意識と啓蒙思想の浸透は芸術家に抵抗の表現を促しもする。日本の検閲は多くが、日本帝国の戦争と植民地支配の議論や問題提起に関わる。近年台頭著しい歴史修正主義と排外主義・性差別が温床だ。
これは日本社会だけでなく、台湾を含む東アジア全体のポストコロニアルな政治状況に関わる。同時に日本近代が抱える根本的な問題、さらに古くは大和朝廷に遠因がある。
本展では、戦争責任と植民地支配問題、天皇制、福島の原発事故の３つを切り口とする。それらは日本の歴史のなかで密接に結びついている。この歴史を、本展を見る人が散策する「trail」として構成した。
歩く道を意味する「trail」は、道なき道を切り開いた多くの足跡のつらなりからできたものだ。多くの文化圏に似た概念があるが、アメリカ（米国）では開拓移民が開いた道程にこの語が用いられた。現在では、環境、歴史や人権教育のような啓発のための体験型ウォーキングで用いられている。公や先進を意味するこの道が、検閲作品をたどって歩く人々に希望に導いてほしいと願う。

トレイルは単なる移動の跡ではなく、文化を伝える経路となり、人と場所と物語をつなぐ。　Robert Moor "On Trails"

2020年4月
表現の不自由展実行委員会
アライ＝ヒロユキ、岩崎貞明、岡本有佳、永田浩三

Born in 1959, Tokyo. Works in Chiba Prefecture.

1959年東京都生まれ。千葉県拠点。

KIM Seo kyung
Born in 1965. Born and lives in Seoul, Korea.

KIM Eun sung
Born in Chuncheon, 1964 and lives in Seoul, Korea.

キム・ソギョン(金曙炅)
1965年ソウル市（韓国）生まれ。ソウル（韓国）拠点。

キム・ウンソン(金運成)
1964年春川市（韓国）生まれ。ソウル（韓国）拠点。

Born in Gangwon-do, Korea, 1971. Lives in Seoul.

1971年江原道（韓国）生まれ。ソウル拠点

Born in 1948, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Works in Gunma Prefecture.

1948年福岡県出身。群馬県拠点。

Born in 1970. Works in Fukushima Prefecture. Professor, Department of Human Support System, Faculty of Symbiotic Systems Science, Fukushima University.

1970年生まれ。福島県拠点。福島大学 共生システム理工学類　教授。

Photojournalist, Documentary video movie maker, Member of JVJA (Japan Visual Journalist Association)

フォトジャーナリスト、ドキュメンタリー映像監督・制作。JVJA（日本ビジュアルジャーナリスト協会）会員。

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Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition: A Long Trail for Liberation

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The Artist, his Collaborators, their Exhibition, and three Venues Postwar Savage Code - CHEN, I-CHUN and The Survival Strategy of the Neuromancer - LUO, HE-LIN What a human creates - artwork in particular - is a mark, and by connecting and tracing these marks a story is born.

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Toward a future of peace and non-violence

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Inside the museum, the "Song of the Reed Corridor" installation consists of 59 metal lamps and 2,000 transparent tubes that symbolize the resilient reed plant to commemorate the 59 identified and 2,000 unknown Taiwanese comfort women.

The Ama Museum is the first museum dedicated to the Taiwanese comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by the imperial Japanese army during World War II. Housing an exhibition space and a cafe, the venue preserves stories of former Taiwanese comfort women and their overlooked history while advocating for women's rights.

Between 1932 and 1945, tens of thousands of women from Asia were sent to wartime brothels known as "comfort stations" for the Japanese military. The history, however, had gone undocumented and even denied until three telegraphs that revealed the truth were found in the library of Japan's Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency in 1992.

As the issue draw international attention, the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation started investigation work and took care of former comfort women while seeking justice and compensation from Japan. Over the past decades, the foundation has documented the stories of 59 Taiwanese survivors who bravely came forward to give testimony.

The foundation has also collected 5,042 videos and books, as well as 730 cultural relics that are related to the comfort station system, survivors, and the ongoing compensation campaign. To raise awareness of women's rights, the foundation began the preparation work of the establishment of the Ama Museum in 2004.

After twelve years of monumental effort, the museum was established following a successful crowdfunding campaign. During a three-month soft opening, the museum attracted more than 10,000 visitors, including Japanese scholars and students who came to study the historical truth.

Located in a historic Taipei district that is known for antique buildings, independent boutiques, and quirky cafes today, the museum uses its first floor to open a cafe, book rooms, and shops to provide job opportunities for women assisted by the foundation.

The second floor offers two spaces, one of which offers glimpses into the lives of former Taiwanese comfort women through cultural relics and art creations; while the other is used for holding forums and workshops to promote human rights education.

In 2017, the museum hosted the first International Comfort Women Human Rights Film Festival to present a more detailed insight into that period of history. Under the theme "Women's Power," the festival featured films that told stories of comfort women during WWII and explored issues on wartime violence.

Among the 2,000 Taiwanese women who were forced into prostitution by the imperial Japanese army, only two who have spoken publicly about their suffering are still alive today. The museum continues to fight for their justice and holds events regularly to promote women's rights.

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Inside the museum, the "Song of the Reed Corridor" installation consists of 59 metal lamps and 2,000 transparent tubes that symbolize the resilient reed plant to commemorate the 59 identified and 2,000 unknown Taiwanese comfort women. The Ama Museum is the first museum dedicated to the Taiwanese comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by the imperial Japanese army during World War II.

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HOME → Museum Information → Explore the Museum

B1

Greeting Room (The beginning of the journey)
Purchase a ticket that includes halmoni's story. After reading halmoni's story, face the interacting image of butterflies that fly through the wall, which represents violence and discrimination.

Gravel Road (Walk into history)
Visitors enter into the war and a period of pain. Victims experience this by walking on the gravel road while listening to cannon fires and soldiers' footsteps. The road is surrounded by a wall that shows halmoni's paintings and shadows of girls. It leads visitors to the dark basement.

Exhibit in the basement (Her life)
Inside the basement where photos of war zones and 'comfort stations' are exhibited, visitors can watch the footage of the halmoni whose story is printed on a ticket. Visitors have a chance to feel isolation and opression former 'comfort women' experienced by being in a small and dark space.

Exhibit in the stairways (The wall of appeal)
The wall in the stairways is exhibited with halmoni's photos and messages. As it leads visitors to the brighter space, more hopeful messages are exhibited.

2F

History Room (Japanese military's 'comfort women' - the abnormal system created and developed by the war)
Japanese military documents and other related resources are exhibited to show the truth of the Japanese military sexual slavery issue. This room shows the 'comfort women' system as the war crime the Japanese government and military committed and its true nature. It also exhibits former 'comfort women's painful experiences at 'comfort stations' and their life after the war.

Room outlining the movement (Halmoni's voice that changes 'history' to 'herstory')
Visitors can follow the movement history about Japanese military sexual slavery. Materials and footages related to legal cases and international activities are exhibited. They can also experience the Wednesday protests. They can see a replica of the peace statue that depicts a girl whose shadow is the shape of halmoni with an empty chair in front of the Japanese Embassy.

Room about the Life I
There are panels that show the date the women were taken and the areas where victims were taken, along with their belongings. More detailed information is provided with touch screens, including photos, news articles, and testimony videos.

The wall of supporters
Until the War and Women's Human Rights Museum opened, there were supporters who donated money. Their names are inscribed on the main walls on the second floor.

Room about the Life II
This room was created to celebrate seventieth anniversary of Korea's liberation. Hard lives of the Japanese military 'comfort women' after the liberation are exhibited here along with Korea's modern history. You can learn about legacy of victims' lives and hope for their true liberation here.

Memorial wall
On the brick wall halmoni's faces and the date of death are inscribed. There are empty bricks left for those who do not want to show their faces and names, even after they passed away. Every visitor can offer flowers to them. She or he also can donate money for flowers.

1F

Special Exhibit on the 1st floor (Conflict zones in the world and violence against women)
There are many cases and photos of those who suffer from modern wars. Related images are played on the wall. This space is used for seminars before and after museum operating hours.

Project Exhibit I
The hopeful journey toward the day when the War and Women's Human Rights Museum opened is exhibited in commemoration of the museum opening.

Project Exhibit II
It is a special exhibition commemorating the seventieth anniversary of Korea's liberation. Pains of Vietnamese female victims of sexual violence by Korean military are exhibited. The shameful history is looked back upon and a step towards peace is taken here.

Space for participation and promise
Visitors can write their will and promise to support the 'comfort women' issue and women who suffer from war.

Museum Shop and Information Center
There are halmoni's testimonial books, DVDs, and souvenirs for sale in the museum shop. The information center is the place where visitors can share their opinions about peace and human rights.

Archive
Visitors can look through materials related to the 'comfort women' issue and women who suffer from modern-day warfare in the world.

Museum yard (for taking a rest and chatting)
After looking around the museum, visitors can sit around and chat with people. The yard is used for small performances and cultural events.

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HOME → Museum Information → Explore the Museum B1 Greeting Room (The beginning of the journey) Purchase a ticket that includes halmoni's story. After reading halmoni's story, face the interacting image of butterflies that fly through the wall, which represents violence and discrimination.

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Only on display for one year from September 2020 - 2021

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My experience as a woman in war is one of utter degradation, humiliation and unbearable suffering.

We weren’t ‘comfort women,’ It means something warm and soft and cuddly. We were Japanese war rape victims

Ruff-O'Herne was born on January 18, 1923, to a Dutch family in Bandung, the capital city of what is now West Java province in Indonesia. In 1942, the Japanese invaded the island, and she was interned in a Japanese prison as an enemy non-combatant.

All single girls from 17 years up had to line up in the compound. The officers … paced up and down the line, eying us up and down, looking at our figures and our legs, lifting our chins. They selected ten pretty girls. I was one of the ten. We were told to come forward and pack a small bag. The first things I put in my bag was my prayer book, my rosary beads and my Bible. I thought somehow these would keep me strong. And then we were taken away.

I curled myself into a corner like a hunted animal that could not escape. I made him understand that I was not afraid to die. He could kill me. I would not give myself to him. But I pleaded with him to allow me to say some prayers, and at that moment, I felt very close to God. While I was then praying, he started to undress himself, and I realized he had no intention of killing me. I would have been no good to him dead. He then threw me on the bed and ripped off all my clothes. He ran his sword all over my naked body and played with me as a cat would with a mouse. I still tried to fight him, but he thrust himself on top of me, pinning me down under his heavy body. The tears were streaming down my face as he raped me in the most brutal way. I thought he would never stop.

When I spoke out in Tokyo, the whole world was there, wanting to know the truth. They weren’t taking that much notice before because they were ‘only Asian comfort women.’ It’s terrible to say, but that’s the truth.

It’s something that’s been bottled up for 50 years. There have been times where I’ve been wanting to scream it out to the world and yet you can’t do it because it is too terrible. Then all of a sudden, phew, that’s it: it’s out and it’s a release and that’s good.

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In her earlier testimonials, Lola Arroyo had recounted that in September 1944, Japanese soldiers had barged into the family home when her parents were in the fields. The soldiers dragged her and her brother off to their encampment at the Capiz Emmanuel Hospital. The soldiers had slaughtered the family's pig and forced her brother to carry it to the garrison, where he dropped it at the entrance. Seeing "no further use for him," Lola Arroyo said, the soldiers beat him to death in the yard.

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A Japanese soldier got his bayonet and started peeling my father's skin while saying, tell us the truth - your child is part of the guerrillas with the owners of that empty house.

I saw my mother lying down with her skirt up, and there was a Japanese soldier on top of her. I ran. My two youngest siblings took little sticks and started hitting the soldiers. The Japanese soldiers then snatched away the sticks and bayoneted both of them.

I was to be taken to the garrison where my two sisters were. Before we reached the garrison, he raped me. I thought that I was going to die because I was in so much pain.

If I could prevent the sun from setting, I would have because whenever night fell, life for us became miserable.

My husband also had two sisters who were taken by the Japanese. They said they would pay them, and they would only serve as maids to wash up and iron, but they never came home. He would always say to me, I don't think less of you. You're lucky because you came back alive. Everything the Japanese did to you throw out of your mind.

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Fifteen days after I arrived at the comfort station, I tried to run away from there. Even before getting several feet away, however, I was caught and beaten three times on my behind with a rifle and fell bleeding from my mouth.
The beaten wound on my bottom festered and I had such a high fever that I could not even lie on my back. Even with my wound, I was forced to keep receiving soldiers. The flesh on my bottom kept festering and got rotten. Only
after that, soldiers took me to hospital and cut the flesh off. I had three days off after the surgery. Three days later when the wound was not even healed and it was so painful that I could not lie down on my back, soldiers came to me. It was the hardest time. My behind was too painful to lie down, but I was forced to receive soldiers. It was so much pain. Every comfort woman in there wanted to run away, but after seeing that I was caught and beaten and suffered from the wounded, everybody just gave it up. Afterwards there was
no one who tried to escape. We did not learn of the liberation. There was a great fuss outside the comfort station, so we went outside and then was told of the liberation. I had no money to go back home. I thought I had to earn some money to go back
home. So I worked at a restaurant in front of the comfort station for a month and moved to work at another restaurant for a year. I saved money and then
came back home.
My mother died of despair over me when I was twenty seven. Mother told me that “you were just born in the wrong time, so you could not get married. I am
leaving you with a lot of burdens. I cannot say goodbye leaving you
unmarried.“ I never wanted to get married, so I have lived by myself. After living in Seoul for a while, I came to my father’s hometown, Ulsan, in 1980. My hometown is Pusan, but it just reminds me of my days of being a comfort woman, so I would not go there. My health condition is very bad now. I am
suffering from bad liver, high blood pressure, duodenal ulcer, arthritis, cyst on my right side, hypochondria, neurotic heart disease, etc.
I would like to be reborn as a woman. I would like to be reborn in such a great time as these days, stay with my parents to go to school, and get married to a
nice man to have children. Without even getting married, how miserable my life has been! Awake at night, I wonder. Who ruined my life like this? Why did we lose our country? Wondering these questions, I cannot go back to sleep. I still think of them. I never got married and have no children. So whenever I see people walking with their children on the street, my heart aches and I wonder, ‘people out there have children, but why is my life so miserable?
After ruining others lives like this, Japan still says that it cannot take any responsibility. It does not make sense. How could it not feel any guilt after ruining my life so much that I cannot get married? Until the day I die, I cannot forget what I have been through. Even after I die, I won’t be able to forget. I want to be compensated by the Japanese government for how my life has been ruined.

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I arrived in Guangdong via Taiwan. Until then I still believed I was going to a workshop. However, an army surgeon gave all of the girls an examination for venereal diseases and assigned to the comfort station where I began my
nightmarish days. The first night there? The army surgeon who examined us came to my room. I was so scared of his coming that I ran away to the backyard and hid myself into the bushes. He chased me and then hit my face badly. After being beaten for a while, I felt numb on my whole face. In this way
my life was ruined.
Each room had its own number and we were not allowed to go out. If it was necessary, we could go out only after the soldier’s examination. During weekdays I received about 15 soldiers a day, but it seemed more than 50 during weekends.
We moved from Guangdong to Hong Kong, and then to Singapore after about three months. In Singapore sometimes we went on official trips to army bases located in deep valleys. There were so many soldiers rushing in that I could not even stretch my legs at night. After staying in Singapore for several months, we were on the move constantly to Sumatra, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Java to
receive soldiers there. Suddenly, the soldiers stopped coming. The war was over. However, we didn’t learn of our liberation.
One day the Japanese soldiers took us to the 10th Army Hospital in Singapore and trained us in nursing to disguise us as nurses. After for a while, we stayed in a US POW camp and then took a ship for Korea to come back home. I left home at 15 and came back at 20; it had been five years.
Shocked when I told her that I could not get married because of being a
comfort woman, my mother died of sorrow. She died wishing for me to get married and have children and a happy life. So I followed her wish and got married, but ended up failing in marriage as I could not have a child. I opened my own small store and have had my living.
One day on TV I came to learn of an activity to resolve the “comfort woman“ issue and then made my report on January 17th, 1992. Afterward I worked hard telling of the crimes committed by the Japanese army. In June 1993 I
went with the Korean Council to the World Human Rights Conference held in Vienna to make a testimony about what I had been through and to demand acknowledgement and compensation from the Japanese government. Reflections and testimonies of my horrible experiences were just as hard and
painful as if I were repeating the same experience again right now. However, I wanted to tell of who ruined my life like this. I also wanted to speak out about
the comfort women issue that is neither over yet, nor resolved for all the victims who have survived and suffered like this.
It was probably in 1995 that the Japanese government said that it would not compensate, instead, it could give us “Asia Peace Fund for Women“. I really felt humiliated. I wondered if my testimony to the world to disclose the Japanese army’s crimes was simply regarded as a gesture for some money.
When I began to give my testimony and work for the comfort women issue, Japan first dishonored us saying that there was no coercion and we did it out of our own will to make money. Then now they attempt to solve the issue with
money while we have demanded they accept legal responsibilities. Therefore, I was opposed to the civil fund.
My body is still covered all over with wounds. I cannot even properly digest a spoonful of rice, so that I have to depend on digestive medicines to eat. I feel
sore all over my body as if I am pricked with pins. While other seniors have happy lives full of love from their children and grandchildren, I have had such a
lonely life without children. Who made my life such a miserable one?
I don’t know when I’ll die. Going to bed at night, I wonder if I can really
achieve my wish and smile as I say goodbye to this world. The Japanese government seems to be waiting for us to die. However, it is really an absurd attitude. Shouldn’t it resolve this issue and its wrong past quickly and start a new future with its Asian neighbor countries?

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It was night. We sneaked under the barbed wire, and ran in the opposite
direction from the one we had taken during our previous escape attempt. We wandered around not far from the plant but were seized by a military policeman. We had promised to stay together whatever befell us and held hands tightly, but I found myself alone when I was thrown into a truck. I was left alone with the policeman and a driver.
My captor had three stars on his red lapel. I didn’t know his name or rank at first, but later found out his name was Corporal Kobayashi Tadeo. He sat with the driver through the journey, but half-way through stopped the vehicle and told me to get off. It was very dark; nothing was visible. He raped me. I had no experience of sex. So I was too scared even to try resisting. If such a thing happened now, I would kill myself by biting my tongue off. But at that time I was scared and helpless. We got back on the truck and rode further until we arrived at an army unit. Two guards stood outside, and behind the buildings was a tent. My captor took
me there and told me to stay put. There were already five or so women there, who looked at me in a daze and said nothing. Soon, day dawned. The tent was partitioned into five or six cubicles. Mine was the size of one and a half tatami,
but had no actual mat. I slept on a simple military bed. Most of the women were older than me, and at first I was scared and not sufficiently composed to
talk with them, so I didn’t realize what we were there for.

The reason I came forward to report to the Council was to pour out my resentment. I have tried to write down my experiences several times, but because I have had to move so often, I kept losing the notes. I am telling my life story so that nobody else will ever have to go through the same things as
me. I think we must try to get what we justly deserve from Japan: a proper apology and proper compensation. There are still some who say that what we did is shameful, but they are indeed ignorant people.

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At that time, they treated us like we were animals, not human beings. From the very first day, they wouldn’t leave me alone. As soon as I got there, they threw around all kinds of curses and were doing that horrible, unspeakable thing. That…you know. How was I supposed to know anything? All those bastards who were there then are probably dead by now. Ah, actually, if
they’re around the same age as me, they might still be alive.
It was the afternoon of the first day that I arrived. An officer with two studs on his sleeve came by. Then he came over to me but he only observed and left. However, at night that officer came back with a long sword and demanded that I do a strange thing with him. But when I rejected him, he pulled out that long
sword, demanding that I do as he said and making a huge uproar about killing me if I didn’t. I was ever so scared. I was so frightened that I panicked and ran
away. The house where I hid only had a floor heater, not even a fire hole, and there was only a little hole in the wall just big enough for people to go in and out.
Even though I wondered how the people living there could live under those conditions, that was still the one and only place that I could hide after I ran away. If I had been taken by that officer, I probably would have died that night.
As I was crying the next morning, one unnie came over to me and said that I have to do as people like that officer tell me. That’s the only way to stay alive, she said. She had been there before I arrived. But still, I really didn’t want to do that act. So I resisted a lot and ran away a lot too.

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After the sterilization operation, those of us Korean girls were sent to various places in the South Pacific. Departed from the chief magistrate's daughter, I was sent to a Japanese military battalion. The "comfort station" was inside the
army, and altogether 20-30 of us were placed there. A big room was for our common usage, and a tiny room fit for one person just to lie down, was given to each of us. I was called by a Japanese name, Kukuko(菊子). On average,
about 50 Japanese soldiers came a day, and about 100 on weekends.
When I fainted, the soldier in charge poured water over me. I was also given the morphine shots. In the morning of weekends, shots were given in advance. This was done by force, whether we liked it or not. My upper left arm still has the burn-like scar, and inside is felt something hard, like a stone. The soldiers used condoms. I was not infected by STDs, but addicted to the
drug. We did not receive any money. Instead, military tickets were given, which were never exchanged into money.
When I came back home, I found my father sick in bed. After I had left, he was released form the police cell, but was shocked by the fact that I was taken as a
"comfort girl". After 9 years in bed, he died. I was desperate to cut my drug addiction, and I succeeded.
I married a widower, but I couldn't bear any child, of course. I raised two stepsons, both of whom are married. I am independent now, with a separate family register. I earn my living as a middleman in the oriental medicine.

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Of all the women, I had the hardest time at “World View“ I was so young I had not even begun to menstruate yet. The first time I was forced to service a soldier, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I couldn’t stop crying, and I ran out. The first man to come in my room was an officer named Takahashi,
and when he saw me run away crying, he didn’t do anything and left. That officer reported it, and someone from the office exploded with anger at me. In the ‘comfort station' office, I got very frightened. Since I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t speak the language, I had no money and no idea how to take
the train, and the area was surrounded with soldiers, escape was impossible. Even so, when the soldiers came into my room, horrifying and terrifying me, I
cried and tried to run away. The manager slapped my cheek until my nose bled, withheld my food and shut me up in a narrow room. However, complete escape was impossible, and while crying, I became a tool for the sexual
appetites of the soldiers.
At the ‘comfort station' I was called by the name “Kaneko“. I was forced to service dozens soldiers every day. Rest was not permitted during
menstruation. Especially on Sundays, there were a lot of soldiers, and some of them demanded dominant and barbaric sexual acts. It was truly an unbearable life.
If the ‘comfort women' were too exhausted and tried to refuse the soldiers' demands, they were threatened with knives, beaten, and subjected to all sorts of violence. The scars still remain on my body. I can’t hear out of my right ear.
The wounds of my time as a comfort woman are left behind on my body. Amid the growingly desperate soldiers, who wanted to die here as if dying at the
hands of an enemy, there were those who demanded that I join them in seppuku. To me, who wanted to live under any circumstances, the orders for
seppuku were terrifying.

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The ‘comfort station' had two stories, and was the third house in Jokgyong village. There were about twenty rooms, all with tatami floors. First, three Japanese soldiers came in, and after that, it was only soldiers. Usually, ten to
fifteen soldiers came each day. If the soldiers gave money to me, I gave it to the owners in exchange for condoms and tissue. The amount was about one or
two Chinese yuan, and the managers kept record of it in an account book.
On Sundays the soldiers waited in lines outside. Each soldier was allotted about one hour. When I refused to allow a soldier to go twice, I was sometimes
beaten. Some soldiers showed up drunk and threatened to kill me. I fought with those who refused to wear a condom. If a soldier was dissatisfied with any
of the women, he complained directly to the proprietor who then beat and kicked that woman. Of the military units of the time, I remember the "Sakura unit". There was a bathhouse. After servicing a soldier, I went to the bathhouse
and washed with medicated water. Every Monday I went to a hospital in Jokgyong village and was checked for sexually transmitted diseases. On the day before the examination, the groups of women examined each other with a
device that resembled a duck’s bill (a speculum). The owner hated it if anyone had contracted a disease so they covered cotton wool with dust and swabbed themselves. This way, even if there was an infection, it was possible to pass the examination. Women who contracted syphilis were hospitalized and treated
with an injection. They usually recovered within fifteen days.
There were no rest days, and the women couldn’t leave the brothel. Once a month, we went to a bathhouse outside the Jokgyong village’s iron gate. We were fed by Chinese people twice a day. The proprietors of the ‘comfort station'
bought us clothes and makeup but gave us no money. At first, I borrowed money for train fare and clothing from the Korean man who brought me. He said that it would take three years of work to repay the loan. Then, one morning, I heard that Japan had lost the war. The Japanese women in the next house were crying. The money I had received from the soldiers
became useless and I threw it away. Koreans gathered in Jokgyong village. I could now return to Korea, but wondering what I could do after going back
with this body, I decided not to go.
I remained in China, married a Chinese man who already had three children, and became their stepmother. I kept my Korean citizenship and still live in
Wuhan, China. I wish to visit my hometown, but because of citizenship problems it is a difficult process.

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How did I feel? I felt as if we were taken here to be killed. I could not but weep. No one talked. All were weeping. That night we slept there and in the morning we were put in those rooms. Soldiers came to my room, but I resisted with all my might. The first soldier wasn't drunk and when he tried to rip my clothes off, I shouted "No!" and he left. The second soldier was drunk. He waved a knife at me and threatened to kill me if I didn't do what he said. But I didn't care if I died, and in the end he stabbed me. Here( She pointed her chest).
He was taken away by the military police and I was taken to the infirmary. My clothes were soaked with blood. I was treated in the infirmary for twenty days. I was sent back to my room. A soldier who had just returned from the fighting came in. Thanks to the treatment my wound was much improved, but I had a plaster on my chest.
Despite that the soldier attacked me, and when I wouldn't do what he said, he seized my wrists and threw me out of the room. My wrists were broken, and they are still very weak. Here was broken.... There's no bone here. I was kicked by a soldier here. It took the skin right off... you could see the bone.

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At that time, my fiancée had been drafted by the Japanese military and sent to the south. I was helping my father's business at home. One day, the Japanese police called and told me to come because they had a job for me. They said that I would be preparing meals and mending torn clothes for the soldiers. I did not want to go, but the police said that all men and women must come because the country was at war then and that everybody must follow the General National Mobilization Law. So I went to work. I saw many Japanese soldiers. There were some other women like me, too. We got up in the morning, washed our faces and cooked breakfast to feed the soldiers. We washed their clothes and mended torn clothes. Then, at night, we were called and confined to a room. ...it was a terrible job. I was only weeping. In the daytime I sewed clothes and did the soldiers' laundry. It was easy. But at night I died. I was dying. I felt as if I was dead. I wished to flee away, but I did not know the way. Soldiers were standing at the gates. If you fled, you would be shot. I was too young. I did not know anything. I could not realize that I was pregnant. I began to throw up what I had eaten. Then a woman, who was with me, said that I was pregnant. In two months I had a miscarriage. Even now when I think about it, tears come to my eyes. Oh... I am sorry to make you hear such a terrible story.
I thought that my fiance had died, but long after the war he returned unexpectedly. We married. I could not tell that story to him. I have never told it to anyone. How can you tell such a thing?
50 years passed. I came to know that there are people who had endured the same experiences. And I could not keep silent. I could not bear it any more. I told my husband. I bowed and begged him to forgive me. He was surprised and said that he had painful experiences during war, but you had also such painful experiences. There was nothing we can do about it. That was the war. Saying such, he forgave me. Hitherto I had always feared what my husband would do on knowing this story. I have thought and thought only about it. When I told this to my husband, I felt at ease.
Now I am living with my husband, only the two of us. I can not work any more in farm, because I have pains in my knees. I grow vegetables a little and go to sell them. As we are old, we do not eat rice much. So we can live in this way. But we have no money. Our life is so hard.

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I was forced to stay at the hospital which they have made as a garrison. I met six women in the garrison after two or three days in the place. The Japanese soldiers were forcing me to have sex with several of their colleagues. Sometimes 12 soldiers would force me to have sex with them and then they would allow me to rest for a while, then about 12 soldiers would have sex with me again.
There was no rest, they had sex with me every minute. That's why we were very tired. They would allow you to rest only when all of them have already finished. Maybe, because we were seven women in the garrison, there were a fewer number of soldiers for each one of us.
But then, due to my tender age, it was a painful experience for me. I stayed for three months in that place after which I was brought to a rice mill also here in Angeles. It was nighttime when we were fetched to be transferred. When I arrived in the rice mill, the same experience happened to us. Sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the evening... not only 20 times. At times, we would be brought to some quarters or houses of the Japanese. I remembered the Pamintuan Historical House. We were brought there several times. You cannot say no as they will definitely kill you. During the mornings, you have a guard. You are free to roam around the garrison, but you cannot get out. I could not even talk to my fellow women two of whom I believed were Chinese. The others I thought were also from Pampanga. But then, we were not allowed to talk to each other.

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I thought I was drafted as a labour worker when, at the age of 17, the Japanese village leader’s wife ordered all unmarried Korean girls to go to work at a Japanese military factory. I worked there for three years, until the day that I was asked to follow a Japanese soldier into his tent. He told me to take my clothes off. I resisted because I was so scared, I was still a virgin. But he just ripped my skirt and cut my underwear from my body with a gun which had a knife attached to it. At that point I fainted. And when I woke up again, I was covered with a blanket but there was blood everywhere.

From then on, I realized that during the first year I, like all the other Korean girls with me, was ordered to service high-ranking officials, and as time passed, and as we were more and more ’used’, we served lower-ranking officers. If a woman got a disease, she usually vanished. We were also given ’606-shots’ so that we would not get pregnant or that any pregnancies would result in miscarriage.

We only received clothes two times per year and not enough food, only rice cakes and water. I was never paid for my ’services’. I worked for five years as a ’comfort woman’, but all my life I suffered from it. My intestines are mostly removed because they were infected so many times, I have not been able to have intercourse because of the painful and shameful experiences. I cannot drink milk or fruit juices without feeling sick because it reminds me too much of those dirty things they made me do.

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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 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.

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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.