The Comfort Women
This powerful video, told using Chung Seo-Woon’s voice, illustrates the horrific story of the “Comfort Women” in Indonesia from 1932 and 1945. Chung Seo-Woon recounts how she was tricked into leaving her family and forced to become a sex slave for the Japanese military. I don’t want to give the whole story away because I think it’s important to watch the video and hear her voice and perspective. I also found this article that describes the story of another victim of the Japanese military with a little more background into how Emperor Hirohito started the mass rapes of innocent women.
I am ashamed to admit that I had never heard about the Comfort Women before watching this video. I wonder why I was never taught about them in world history class… I remember Sophomore year in that class we talked about Joeseph Kony, the man who forced children to become guerrilla soldiers in Uganda, pretty much the entire semester. Did any of you learn about the comfort women? How were the stories of victims told in your history classes? Were they told at all? From whose perspective?
In terms of using these texts in a language classroom, I think it would be interesting to have my students create a deliverable (poem, poster, video, etc.) that places them back in time when this is occurring. They are in their home countries, safe, and far away from the brothels, but still hearing about these atrocities. What can my students do to stop or prevent this from continuing? Is there a peaceful way to stop this from happening?
Thanks for sharing this powerful video, Kalina! Yes, it’s a shame in our Japanese history that we did have comfort women during the war. This is one of the major historical problems affecting current political situations between Japan and South Korea, and I feel quite sad and sensitive about the relationship getting worse and worse recently. I agree with you in that it’s important to acknowledge the victims’ voices and experiences and share the dark history (often times in Japan, the history textbooks don’t tell about the dark side- how horrible the situation was), but at the same time, I think it’s important that we won’t tell the stories in a way that creates hostility against each country. I often feel attacked when South Korean people promotes anti-Japanese movement like boycotts of Japanese products, building more comfort women statues, or asking for more compensation after agreement, etc. I think it’s important to keep in mind that we are learning about all these historical mistakes in the past to gain understanding and build more peace for the future, not to have another war out of the hostility.
So true, Mari! Thank you so much for your input. I am quite ignorant when it comes to Asian history, which is embarrassing because I have so many friends from Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, etc. I think the situation can be compared to Nazi Germany and how modern-day Germany is still bashed for being White Supremacists. I think your comment about learning about historical mistakes to build peace instead of to blame and incite future conflict is an effective perspective! Let’s hope the future leaders of the world feel the same.
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