Comfort Woman

MALACHY SMYTH

Anna Lee is 82-years-old this year and recalls her days of captivity with the Imperial Japanese Army as if it was a recent happening. From the security of her room at Sharing House she recalls the painful years and memories that linger after 50 years.

Like many of the other Comfort Women, Anna was taken from her home at 16 and brought to Ulsan where she was forced to do the bidding of the Japanese soldiers in a brothel-like situation. Any resistance or refusal on her part was met with beatings and other methods of ill-treatment. The beatings and the rape continued during the Second World War and finally came to an end with the defeat of the Imperial Army.

The walls of Anna's room are her private picture gallery and one in particular she likes, shows her proudly wearing a wedding dress. She hastens to add she never got married, but friends held a special day for her when she wore the dress and shoes and posed for the photographs of the wedding day she never had.

Her friend lives two doors down the corridor and they both go to Mass regularly in the small chapel in the valley and they receive friendship and support from the rest of the community.
Since she joined Sharing House in 2002 she has learned some skills and one she especially enjoys is painting. Some of her works are displayed in the Museum for Comfort Women and there the tragic history of their nightmare journey is recorded. In a quiet corner almost hidden away is a remembrance shrine to all who suffered the indignities of the time, most long gone and some yet remaining. On the back wall high above the six candles and decorative vases and flowers is the life size painting of a woman in resurrection mode as if taking leave of the pain and misery of it all. The shrine holds the memories and the hopes of women of all time and says in floral tribute ‘we are one.'

In other areas around the museum the walls and display cabinets show off the creative works of the some 20 residents from paintings to memorabilia and memories of days long gone. Also on the walls are the testimonies and stories of some of the better known Comfort Women. One such story is from Kun Ja Kim, born in Pyongchang in Kangwon Province in 1926.

"I became an orphan when I was 14-years-old and I was sent to the home of a colonial officer, Mr Choi. As his ‘foster child,' I cooked and cleaned for him. I had a boyfriend and we wanted to get married, but his family objected because I was an orphan." Kun Ja goes on to say, "I remember the day that changed my life forever. I was wearing a black skirt, green top and black shoes. It was March 1942 and I was 16-years-old. I had been sent out of the house by police officer Choi and ordered to go and make some money.

I found a Korean man wearing a military uniform and he told me he would send me on an errand and that I would get paid. I followed him and he told me to board a train - it was a goods train. I didn't know where we were going but I saw seven other young girls and another man in a military uniform on the same train. There were other soldiers in different carriages as well but I didn't see them until I was getting off. At our stop there was a Japanese soldier of rank waiting for us with a truck. The soldiers climbed on the truck and we were put in the back. After a long drive the truck pulled up in front of a house that looked like an old inn. I was later told the name of the town was Hunchun in China.

The next evening a Japanese soldier came round but he was speaking Japanese and I didn't understand him. Nor did I know what he wanted until he raped me. When I refused and fought back he punched me in the face and the force of the blow split my eardrum. That was the beginning of the days and nights of rape and beatings. Daily, I was raped by Japanese soldiers and it was common to be raped by 20 different soldiers a day and on some days it could be as high as 40. If we resisted we would be punished, beaten and stabbed. I carry the scars of the beatings and the stabbings on my body.

After three years of this nightmare, the war ended. I thought my nightmare would end but we were simply told to get out. We didn't know where we were or how to get home. Six other girls and I walked to the border with China and Korea. It took several weeks on foot to walk and eventually we arrived at Paekdu Mountain which is the border between China and North Korea.
We survived by eating what we could, roots and different vegetation as we went. We had to cross the Tumen River which runs between China and North Korea and one of the girls drowned because we couldn't save her. Her journey ended there and she left a world of misery and violence behind. I eventually made it to my hometown but I couldn't stay there as I had no friends or family. I became a Catholic and was introduced to this Sharing House by social services. I am lucky to be here."

On February 14 advocates on behalf of the Comfort Women held the 800th demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to try and procure Japanese Government compensation which so far they have refused to pay.

Fr Malachy Smyth is Columban Communications Co-ordinator in Ireland.