| |||||
| Centuries: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decades: | |||||
| See also: | Other events in 1991 Years in South Korea Timeline of Korean history 1991 in North Korea | ||||
Events from the year 1991 in South Korea .
| |||||
| Centuries: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decades: | |||||
| See also: | Other events in 1991 Years in South Korea Timeline of Korean history 1991 in North Korea | ||||
Events from the year 1991 in South Korea .
Until 1991, the international community largely had never heard the tragic stories of the "comfort women." "Comfort women" is the euphemistic phrasing referring to the women who endured sexual slavery until 1945, at the hands of the Japanese military in Japan and abroad up until the Pacific War ended (Soh, 1996). [2] In 1991, survivor and eventual activist Kim Hak-sun publicly testified of the horrors she experienced as a military "comfort woman." Kim's public testimony paved the way for not only fellow Korean women to speak out about their abuse but global victims as well.
In her late sixties, Kim Hak-sun gave the first public testimony of the life of a "comfort woman" in August 1991. In December 1991, she then filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government for their crimes during the Pacific War (Soh, 1996). [3] Kim was joined by many other "comfort women" as they too filed lawsuits against the Japanese government. Their demands often included a "formal apology, compensation, construction of a monument, and correction of Japanese history textbooks to teach the truth about the 'comfort women'" (Soh, 1996). [4]
Many of the women that came forward after Kim's testimony shared similar horrific accounts of their times at these so-called "comfort stations." While in these camps, many women suffered from sexually transmitted diseases and would also be subjected to forced abortions (Luck, 2018). Due to the inhumane conditions and violence inflicted on these women, many died during their enslavement.
The long-standing silence of the "comfort women" was due to many various factors. Many of the women, enslaved for these "comfort stations" were taken from "poor, rural families," thus leaving very few avenues for them to pursue justice later in life (Soh, 1996). [5] Similarly, in the patriarchal society of Korea at the time, coming forward with such claims of sexual slavery would have been seen as bringing shame on her family. Many were left to bear the burden of their pain and injustice alone. The injustice only furthered as some of the survivors took their lives.
Even after Kim Hak-sun's testimony, there was no formal acknowledgment, apology, or reparations given by the Japanese government until 1993. In 1993, the then Chief Cabinet Secretary, Kono Yohei, issued an apology and admitted to "the Japanese government's responsibility for the comfort station operations" (Young, 2014). [6] However, many view the Japanese government's acknowledgment as "half-hearted" (Luck, 2018). [7] Director of Asian studies at Temple University, Japan, Jeff Kingston, stated (while referencing the pledge of teaching about "comfort women" in the Japanese school curriculum), "…But this latter pledge has been broken. Twenty years ago, all of Japan's mainstream secondary school textbooks covered the comfort women, and now none of them do, at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's behest." (Luck, 2018). [8]
Incheon, formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City, is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. Today, about 3 million people live in the city, making it South Korea's third-most-populous city after Seoul and Busan.
Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese ianfu (慰安婦), which literally means "comforting, consoling woman". During World War II, Japanese troops forced hundreds of thousands of women from Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, China, and other countries into brothels where they were sexually enslaved and repeatedly raped. Many women died or committed suicide due to brutal mistreatment and sustained physical and emotional distress. After the war, Japan's acknowledgment of the comfort women's plight was minimal, lacking a full apology and appropriate restitution, which damaged Japan's reputation in Asia for decades.
Jung is a Latin alphabet rendition of the Korean family name "정", also often spelled Jeong, Chung, Joung or Jong. As of the South Korean census of 2015, there were 2,407,601 people by this name in South Korea or 4.84% of the population. The Korean family name "정" is mainly derived from three homophonous hanja. 鄭 (2,151,879), 丁 (243,803) and 程 (11,683). The rest of the homophonous hanjas include: 政 (139), 桯 (41), 定 (29), 正 (22) and 情 (5).
Kakou Senda was a Japanese writer who is known for writing one of the first books on comfort women in Japan. Born in Dalian, Kwantung Leased Territory he wrote Military Comfort Women in 1973.
Su is the pinyin romanization of the common Chinese surname written 苏 in simplified characters and 蘇 traditionally.
Kim Hak-sun (1924–1997) was a Korean human rights activist who campaigned against sex slavery and wartime sexual violence. Kim was one of the victims who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army between the early 1930s up until the end of the Pacific War. She is the first woman in Korea to come forward publicly and testify her experience as a comfort woman for the Japanese military. Her testimony was made on 14 August 1991. In December 1991, she filed a class-action lawsuit against the Japanese government for the damages inflicted during the war. She was the first of what would become hundreds of women from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Netherlands who came forward to tell their stories of their enslavement to the Imperial Japanese military. She was inspired to finally take her story public after 40 years of silence by the growth of the women's rights movement in South Korea. Kim died in 1997 and her court case was still ongoing.
Events from the year 2003 in South Korea.
Takashi Uemura is a Japanese academic and former journalist who, while a reporter for The Asahi Shimbun, wrote about comfort women. He later came under scrutiny for alleged inaccuracy of terminology and omissions of information. Rival newspapers attacked him for twisting the truth, and more far-right figures went so far as to accuse him of fabrication.
Events from the year 1985 in South Korea.
Events from the year 1982 in South Korea.
Events from the year 1981 in South Korea.
Chunghee Sarah Soh or Sarah Soh is an American professor of Anthropology at San Francisco State University. She is a sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in issues of women, gender, sexuality.
Comfort bag was a gift packet prepared by civilians to be sent to Imperial Japanese Military soldiers for the purpose of encouraging them. The bag contains comfort articles not issued by the Japanese Military, such as toiletries, dried fruits, canned foods, and letters of encouragement. Bags were prepared by schoolgirls or local patriotic women's societies. These activities were also made in Korea, which was then under Japanese rule, to encourage Korean soldiers in the Imperial Japanese Military.
Lee Yong-soo is a former comfort woman from South Korea. Lee was forced to serve as a sex slave during World War II with the Imperial Japanese Army. She is one of the youngest comfort women still living.
The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan was written by Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University. The book delves deeper into the World War II comfort women issue.
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan is a Korean non-governmental organization advocating the rights of the surviving comfort women and lobbying the Japanese government to take actions of a full apology and compensation.
Kim Soon-duk (1921–2004), also known as Kim Tŏk-chin, was a Korean comfort woman who became one of the best-known survivors due to her vivid paintings that depicted life as 'comfort women.' She participated in movements against sex slavery including the Wednesday Demonstration. She also travelled abroad to attend exhibits that displayed her paintings, participated in international speaking tours, and testified about her experiences.
Mine is a 2021 South Korean television series directed by Lee Na-jung, and starring Lee Bo-young, Kim Seo-hyung, Lee Hyun-wook, and Ok Ja-yeon. The story revolves around strong women who free themselves from the prejudices of society to find their true 'mine'. It also concerns the lives of members of a wealthy family and their servants. Mine is the first Korean drama to feature a lesbian as a lead character.
Comfort women – girls and women forced into sexual slavery for the Imperial Japanese Army – experienced trauma during and following their enslavement. Comfort stations were initially established in 1932 within Shanghai, however silence from the governments of South Korea and Japan suppressed comfort women's voices post-liberation. Catalysed by the feminist-led Redress movement of the 1990s, the cause of comfort women has since been better publicised – in part due to the role of the visual arts in promoting healing and the creation of activist communities.
