Sharing House

Saturday morning I hauled myself out of the apartment for an all day ordeal at the Sharing House which is a communal house for Comfort Women about an hour outside of Seoul. I was headed to hear the stories of sexually abused Korean women who were held captive during the Japanese occupation during the first part of the twentieth century.
I will go on about the experience but first a history lesson:

Comfort women is a term used for women that were forced into prostitution and used for sexual slavery in Japanese brothels during World War II. It should be mentioned that the term "comfort women" is used as a euphemism as the women were not used as comfort but rather for sexual purposes, whatever the soldiers may have gained from such encounters. There were eight women living at the house where I visited. We only had the chance to hear from two of them but the museum that has been established by the community of volunteers was quite informative and speaks to the usual methods of human rights activism. They see the establishment of the house as a form of protest and entertain groups of visitors, students and the public to visit in hopes to raise awareness and spread the knowledge of their cause.

I was also invited to join them at a protest on Wednesday around 12 at the Japanese embassy where every week they gather to protest the Japanese government. These women hold the Japanese government responsible for the actions and have not been given an apology or reparations to the surviving women. Many of the women who survived this experience are well into their 70's and 80's. There are an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 women that fell victim to Japanese brothels over the span of their existence. The numbers also range based on the group of scholars you read. It is also important to remember that the Japanese empire at this time spanned from the Northern border of China then South to the Dutch East Indies as well as Malaysia, Philippines and Myanmar.

One woman's story started when she was abducted at the age of 15 in 1927 by a member of the Japanese army. She was thrown into the back of a truck and transported into China where she served as a comfort woman remained until transferred around to various sites. After the defeat of the Japanese she married a Chinese man and proceeded to raise his children and did not return to Korea until 2000 when she was able to track down her remaining living siblings and declare Korean nationality.

I found the experience to be meaningful and insightful. The personal testament explains much of the hostility felt by this country for the Japanese and the abusive actions taken toward Koreans during the occupation.

The actions the women described that were taken against them and the health problems that they have encountered since are diseases and sterilization which is often due to abusive sexual situations. An example of treatment from the Japanese is they would inject a woman with mercury if she were declared to have and STD. Condoms were often reused and pregnancy were terminated with forced abortions. Women that did not follow directions and take orders were either physically beaten or in extreme instances killed in public demonstrations.
Another comment that one of the women continued to mention was the distrust of the current Korean and Japanese governments. She mentioned that one of the reasons that the Japanese government has not really apologized is because the current Prime Minister maintains the policy that actions of the past should not reflect the current period of a country. While I have not conducted much research into this idea I would think that the Japanese government would not like to reflect on the occupation and treatment of such people similar to the way the US government does not constantly reflect on the treatment of Native Americans. The women have opened an art gallery to artistically display the feelings that they have suppressed over the years.

To push the envelope I asked about their involvement in other causes such as the ongoing human trafficking that is present in Eastern Asia I was met with grim responses. The older women are responsible for spreading awareness of their own cause I was not surprised by the response I got. A lingering thought I took away from the experience was that they expect a foreign government to be held responsible for sexual slavery while they would not comment on the same actions that are still ongoing in their own country.