1

Universiteit van Amsterdam

The Halmonis’ Wednesdays

The Development of the Wednesday Demonstration, a Weekly Demonstration by Former “Comfort Women,” as an Expansive Tool of Transitional Justice

Yangsun Kim 12260754 22,765 words

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS IN History – Holocaust and Genocide Studies University of Amsterdam

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nanci Adler Second Reader: Dr. Eveline Bucchheim

July 2019

2

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT...... 3 INTRODUCTION ...... 4

PERSONAL MOTIVATION/ SIGNIFICANCE ...... 4 INTRODUCTION TO THE WEDNESDAY DEMONSTRATION ...... 6 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ...... 7 VICTIMS’ IDENTITIES: “COMFORT WOMEN?” OR SEXUAL SLAVES? ...... 9 LIMITATIONS ...... 10 METHODOLOGY ...... 11 THE ROLE OF THE WEDNESDAY DEMONSTRATION ...... 12 CHAPTER I. BEFORE “BROKEN SILENCE” ...... 15

SEXUAL VIOLENCE AS AN INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCE OR AS AN INSTRUMENT OF MASS VIOLENCE? . 15 1. 1 ORIGINS OF THE JAPANESE MILITARY SEXUAL SLAVERY SYSTEM ...... 16 1. 2 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE SEXUAL SLAVERY SYSTEM: ...... 19 1. 3 50 YEARS OF SILENCE: THE PROCESS OF REBUILDING THEIR BROKEN LIVES ...... 24 CHAPTER II. A ROAD TO “SOMEWHERE” ...... 27

A ROAD TO “SOMEWHERE” ...... 28 2. 1 THE 50 YEARS OF SILENCE ...... 29 2. 2 FORMATION OF “SOMEWHERE” ...... 33 2. 3 BAE’S “FORCED” MEMORY AND KIM’S “DESIRED” MEMORY ...... 36 CHAPTER III. THE HALMONIS’ WEDNESDAYS ...... 41

3. 1 THE HALMONIS: FROM THE VICTIMS TO THE LIVING WITNESSES AND THE EMPOWERED AGENTS 43 3. 2 THE JAPANESE EMBASSY AS PERFORMANCE SPACE ...... 46 3. 3 THE VESTS: THE SHIFTS IN DESIGN OF THE VISUAL PRESENTATION ...... 48 CHAPTER IV. “THE PROMISE ENGRAVED ON THE EMPTY CHAIR” ...... 56

4. 1THE ERECTION OF THE PEACE MONUMENT ...... 59 4. 2 PERFORMANCES OF CARE AND PERFORMANCES OF GEOGRAPHICAL EXPANSION OF REMEMBRANCE ...... 65 CHAPTER V. AN ‘ORDINARY HOUSE’ AS A ‘PLACE OF MEMORY’ ...... 70

5. 1 AN “ORDINARY” HOUSE AS A “PLACE OF MEMORY”...... 71 5. 2 RE-PRODUCING MEMORIES OF THE HALMONIS ...... 78 CONCLUSION ...... 83 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... 88 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 89

3

Abstract

The thesis explores the development of the Wednesday Demonstration, a weekly demonstration held by Halmonis (former “comfort women”) and activists in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul every Wednesday since 1992. It examines how the Japanese military institutionalized the sexual slavery systems where tens of thousands of girls and women, mainly from Korea, were forced to become “comfort women” before and during World War II, and how survivors in South Korea broke the 50 years of silence in 1991. Then, the thesis explains how this weekly gathering has created a platform for victims, perpetrators, and other ordinary people to remember the past, to redefine it through interactions, and to become “embodied reckonings.” By explaining what the Wednesday Demonstration has transformed into, and by introducing how it has re-defined identities of the victims, this study offers a victim-centric approach to the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery.

4

Introduction Personal Motivation/ Significance I have always wondered why numbers that can accurately and quickly inform people about what is happening in the world cannot capture the diversity of each individual’s personal stories. Thus, I explored diverse narratives and stories behind statistics that describe mass violence against humanity during my undergraduate studies at Denison University, and carried this interest forward by pursuing a Master’s degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Since my undergraduate studies at Denison University, I have become deeply interested in a unique case of “comfort women,” in which women who were forced to become Japanese military sexual slaves before and during World War II established a collective trauma based on testimonies of individual survivors. This led me to ask the following question: “Can former ‘comfort women’ speak for themselves in the aftermath of Japanese massive violation of human rights?” So, during my senior research, I analyzed how former “comfort women” expressed their collective trauma and how their narratives about the remembrance have been integrated into the dominant public narrative in South Korea. After four months of intensive empirical and theoretical research, I volunteered for two years at the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, an affiliated organization of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for the Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, in order to continue my pursuit of transitional justice by helping the survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery fight for justice. Then, since taking several courses, particularly “transitional justice” course at the University of Amsterdam, I have questioned the limitation of legal approach to transitional justice for the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery and considered the development of its grassroots initiative.

Thus, in the thesis, I aim to examine the development of an action referred to as the Wednesday Demonstration, a weekly demonstration by former “comfort women,” the Korean Council, and other activists, calling for a Japanese public apology, in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul since 1992. Through studying the role of the grassroots movement as a mechanism for transitional justice, this study will allow us to explore a victim-centric approach to transitional justice.

5

Figure I. The Picture of Hwang Geum-ju, former “comfort woman” at the 651st Wednesday Demonstration

By [responding] like this, what are you [Japan] going to leave in history? What are you going to do when we [victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery] die? It would be still unsatisfactory even if you apologize to death. However, by responding like this, how could we live when we still feel anger, unfairness, and sadness? I will come here [to the Wednesday Demonstration] on every Wednesday until I die. Even though it is difficult, I will come until [the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery] will be resolved. Hwang Geum-ju, former “Comfort woman”1

1 Original sentences in:

이렇게 해 가지고 역사에 뭘 남길 거야? 우리들 다 죽고 나면 그 땐 어떻게 할 거냐구? 죽도록 사죄해도 시원찮은 판에 이러고 있으니 우리가 억울하고 서러워서 어떻게 살아. 내가 죽기 전에는 매일 매일 나올 거야. 힘들어도 해결될 때 까지….. Hwang Geum-ju,황금주 (1927 - 2013) On April 6, 2005 (651st Wednesday Demonstration) Hankyoreh, 한겨례 신문사 Sunshil Kim, Suyoil 12 si 수요일 12 시 [Wednesday, 12 PM], (Seoul: War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. 2017), 16-17. 6

Introduction to the Wednesday Demonstration Every Wednesday, uniformed high school students, university students, foreign tourists, Japanese activists, and journalists gather in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.2 As noon approaches, a van, named “the hope van,” stops on the other side of the embassy, and gray- haired Halmonis (a term meaning “grandmothers” in Korean) get out of the van.3 Meanwhile, a group of Korean riot police appears, and a police line is made on the road in front of the embassy to prepare for the demonstration.4 Then, beginning with a brief introduction by a staff of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, referred to as the Korean Council, and with singing a song “Like a Rock” (which will also be discussed later in this chapter), another demonstration starts.5 While some of the participants hold colorful placards with slogans, demanding “legal reparations,” others standing on the sidewalk behind the seated victims shout “the Japanese government should officially apologize for the issue of the Japanese military ‘comfort women’” in a single voice.6 After the chanting of the slogans, the demonstration lasts one hour, including speeches by participants, cultural performances, a reading of the weekly statements of current news or activities by the Korean Council, introduction of the victims, and a final rallying call.7 This weekly gathering, held every week since 1992, is referred to as the Wednesday Demonstration. This weekly gathering raises several critical questions. Who are exactly the Halmonis? Why do they gather in front of the Japanese Embassy every Wednesday? What is the truth behind the Japanese military “comfort women?” Why do the Halmonis and activists call for an official apology and legal reparations? These questions are not only about understanding the Japanese military sexual slavery and identification of victims and perpetrators. They are also about how the weekly gathering has created a platform for victims, perpetrators, and other

2 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum (Seoul:War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 2017), 47; Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings: "Comfort Women", Performance, and Transpacific Redress (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018), chap. I, Kindle. 3 Mi-Hyang Yoon 윤미향, 25nyeonganui Suyoil 25 년간의 수요일 [Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday], (Seoul: Sai Haengson, 2016), 31. 4Most of them were in their early twenties who were serving their two-year compulsory national service in the Korean National Police force instead of in the military; As part of the Korean National Police force, the riot police force guards government buildings and embassies. Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, chap 1. Kindle; Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 31. 5 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, chap 1. Kindle. 6 Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 31. 7 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, chap 1. Kindle. 7 ordinary people to remember the past, to redefine it through interactions, and to become “embodied reckonings.” 8 Thus, this study poses the main research questions of what the Wednesday Demonstration has transformed into and how it has re-defined identities of former “comfort women.”

Historical Background

I went to Japan as one of the first members of the Women’s Voluntary Service Corps when I was 16. That was around June 1944. It was night. I lifted up barbed wires and ran way in a different direction, unlike the previous attempts. I wandered near a factory and got caught by a soldier. I was taken to a military base by truck. I took 10 soldiers a day. Kang Duk-kyung, former “comfort woman”9

Born in a small city, called Jinju, South Korea in 1929, a sixteen-year-old girl, named Kang Duk-kyung, was drafted into the first Women’s Voluntary Service Corps and placed in a Fujikoshi factory in Toyama, Japan.10 Around June 1944, she was caught by a Japanese soldier when she was escaping hunger and servitude at the airplane factory.11 Then, she was taken to a “comfort station.”12 At the “comfort station” in Japan, she was raped every day, and witnessed many other girls from the station attempting to commit suicide. One year later, the war ended and she returned to Busan, South Korea where she worked as a waitress and a maid.13 However, even though she was not a “comfort woman” any longer, she remained silent about the traumatic memory for 50 years. Although it is difficult to know the exact number of women who were forced into sexual slavery, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 women from the Korean peninsula, China, Malaysia and the Philippines were trafficked, as “comfort women.”14 The “Comfort women” system was first authorized by the Japanese government in 1930s to provide “comfort” to Japanese soldiers in order to prevent frequent incidents of uncontrollable sexual violence

8 It is the title of a book by Historian Elizabeth Son; Elizabeth Son claims that understanding the work of survivors and activists to reckon with the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery requires attending to their embodied acts. Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Introduction, Kindle. 9 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12. 10 Idem. 11 Ibid., 34. 12 Idem. 13 Idem. 14 Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy: Not Over Yet," East Asia 33, no. 4 (2016): 255. 8 perpetrated by Japanese soldiers against civilian women.15 The majority of existing documentation of the “comfort women,” including the names of the girls and young women who were taken, was largely destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Army.16 Thus, most of the information heavily relies on the testimonies of the survivors.17 As Kang recalls in her testimony, many girls committed suicide during and after their time at the “comfort stations.”18 Even after they were released from “comfort stations,” most of the survivors remained silent, because there was no support from society to heal their overwhelming sufferings, and it continued for almost five decades.19 Then, on August 14, 1991, a former “comfort woman,” named Kim Hak-Sun, went public for the first time through a news conference in Seoul, and described her memories of being a “comfort woman.”20 Inspired by her courage, during the first decade since Kim’s first testimony in 1991, 237 other “comfort women” survivors also broke the silence and talked about their traumatic memories.21 In 1992, Kang also registered herself as a former “comfort woman.”22 Beginning on January 8, 1992, a group of South Koreans, including the “comfort women” survivors and Kang, has gathered together every single Wednesday in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and demanded that the Japanese government apologize publicly and sincerely about its history of forcing more than 200,000 women from Korea, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines into the sexual slavery during World War II.23 Kang participated in various activist events and always attended the Wednesday Demonstration until she died of lung cancer in February, 1997.24

15 Jee Hoon Park and et al, "Korean Survivors of the Japanese ‘Comfort Women’ System: Understanding the Lifelong Consequences of Early Life Trauma," Journal of Gerontological Social Work 59, no. 4 (2016): 333. 16 Idem. 17 Ibid., 334. 18 Idem. 19 Idem. 20 Y.-M Park, "Compensation to Fit the Crime: Conceptualizing a Just Paradigm of Reparation for Korean "Comfort Women," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 30, no. 2 (2010): 206. 21 Idem. 22 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12. 23 Ibid., 33. 24 Ibid., 12. 9

Victims’ Identities: “Comfort Women?” Or Sexual Slaves? Before discussing methodology and research question, it is important to raise the vital consideration of a proper term to describe Kang Duk-kyung and her fellow survivors, as well as those who lost their lives. Many scholars, including sociologist Sarah C. Soh, refer to victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery as “military comfort women” and “comfort women,” by putting quotation marks surrounding these terms in order to highlight the historically unique and hidden nature of the sexual slavery in the Japanese euphemism.25 However, the use of the term “comfort women” could be still problematic. On November 29, 2018, the Japan Times announced that, from this time forth, it would use a redefined term “comfort women,” who were forced to work as sex slaves before and during World War II.26 The paper replaced the term “forced labor” with “wartime labors” to describe them.27 It announced that: ‘Comfort women’ have been referred to as ‘women who were forced to provide sex for Japanese troops before and during World War II.’ Because the experiences of ‘comfort women’ in different areas throughout the course of the war varied widely, from today, we will refer to ‘comfort women’ as ‘women who worked in wartime brothels, including those who did so against their will, to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.’28

The shift of the meaning has triggered widespread criticism of the newspaper, by leaving questions of what would be an appropriate term to describe these victims.29 Since the term “comfort women” system was not publicly known during the Japanese occupation in Korea, many other terms and euphemisms were used to refer to it, such as “the Women’s Voluntary Service Corps.”30 In other words, before and during World War II, this publicly non-existent organization concealed where women and girls were truly being taken.31

25 Chunghee Sarah Soh, “The Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Movement forRedress,” Asian Survey 36, no. 12 (December 1, 1996), 1227. 26 Justin McCurry, “‘Comfort women’: anger as Japan paper alters description of WWII terms,”The Guardian, November 30, 2018, Accessed May 1, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/30/japanese-paper- sparks-anger-as-it-ditches-ww2-forced-labour-term?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other; “South Korea’s top court orders Mitsubishi Heavy to pay compensation for wartime labor,” The Japan Times, November 29, 2018, Accessed May 1, 2019. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/29/national/crime-legal/south-koreas-top-court-orders- mitsubishi-heavy-pay-compensation-wartime-labor/#.XRf76sqxXmo 27 Idem. 28 “South Korea’s top court orders Mitsubishi Heavy to pay compensation for wartime labor.” 29 The shift has triggered widespread criticism, because many viewed it as an adoption of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative political agenda (attempt to reshape Japan’s wartime history). Justin McCurry, “‘Comfort women’: anger as Japan paper alters description of WWII terms.” 30 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 34. 31 Idem. 10

Then, in the aftermath, even though the term “comfort women” itself is problematic, the term “comfort women” is still used, because it involves significant historical connotations.32 The dilemma of the term that reflects the perspective of the Japanese government and perpetrators raises questions of a victim identity: what would be an appropriate term to capture the victims’ involvement in remembering the Japanese military’s forced sexual slavery? Would it still be appropriate to keep using the term “comfort women” when approximately 240 women broke their long silence in 1991? Or, is there any other term that can re-define their identities? Considering these perspectives, this thesis will use the terms “comfort women” and “survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery,” to refer to the victims, and then, introduce a new term to re-define their identities in later chapters.

Limitations As noted above, the majority of existing documents regarding the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery were destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Army, and most of the information heavily relies on the testimonies of the survivors.33 While 239 survivors registered themselves as former “comfort women,” only 21 of those women are still alive.34 Thus, rather than interviewing survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery, the access to the study would be limited mainly to their written testimonies. In addition to the limited access to information, the thesis will rely heavily on written documents and written interviews, rather than oral interviews, due to the geographical distance between the author and the survivors.

32 The term “comfort women” solely describes women from the perspective of the perpetrators: the Japanese military soldiers. Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 34. 33 Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy,” 334. 34 Until June 10, 2019, there are only 21 Halmonis alive in South Korea. “Another “Comfort Women” Halmoni died… only 21 survivors left, ” “위안부 피해 할머니 또 별세… 생존자 21 명,” Yonhap News, 연합뉴스, April 2, 2019, accessed June 10, 2019, https://n.news.naver.com/article/422/0000368413

11

Methodology Since the mid-1990s, many books and articles related to the Japanese military sexual slavery based on the testimonies of many former “comfort women” have appeared. The current scholarly debate surrounding the issue focuses mainly on physical and mental sufferings of women during captivity and the political ramifications.35

Additionally, many scholars, including sociologist Sarah C. Soh, have criticized the present day South Korean society’s recognition of the suffering of the “comfort women” by inscribing it “within” the male discourse of national trauma.36 However, while it is important to examine problems derived from the “homogenizing” narrative, understanding of victims’ participations in remembering the issue, such as their involvement at the Wednesday Demonstration, has been relatively neglected.37 Additionally, critical examinations on the dilemma of using the term “comfort women” and evolving identities of the victims, from the suppressed to empowered agents, have been overlooked.

In order to examine the development of the Wednesday Demonstration and its meaning, I will introduce five considerations: Japanese military institutionalization of the sexual slavery system, 50 years of silence that survivors endured in South Korea, the development of the Wednesday Demonstration, the construction of the Peace Monument on the 1000th Wednesday Demonstration, and the construction of the War and Women’s Human Rights museum. This thesis focuses on digital and print archives at the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual slavery by Japan, including the testimonies of South Korean survivors as main primary sources. As a native Korean speaker, the author will translate primary sources, such as testimonies of survivors and interviews given by activists and artists, from Korean to English.

The first two chapters will explain how victims had been forced to become Japanese “comfort women,” and how they had remained silent even after they returned to South Korea for fifty years. These explanations will be based on survivor testimonies, and the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal Judgement on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery. Then, the later chapters focus on interviews given by activists, including Yoon Mi-hyang, the current president

35 Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy,” 334. 36 Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 3. 37 Idem. 12 of the Korean Council, Kim Dong-hee, the director of the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, and designers of the Peace Monument and architects of the museum. Particularly, these chapters demonstrate how survivors, activists, and their supporters have employed performative strategies to re-construct the understanding of the Wednesday Demonstrations, by linking these findings to the relevant studies that have been carried out by performance studies scholars as well as historians, including James E. Young and Elizabeth Son.

Merging performance theories, cultural studies, and feminist studies with a transitional justice analysis, this thesis offers ways of reconceptualizing understandings of collective remembrance that tend to concentrate on institutionalized forms of reconciliation by shifting its focus toward victim-centered grassroots movements. Thus, it refocuses attentions on participation of ordinary people, particularly victims, artists, and students, as empowered agents. Historian James E. Young’s explanation about acts of commemoration, including both spontaneous and permanent structures of memorials, would allow the Wednesday Demonstration to be understood as a social space, developed from a spontaneous space for the “comfort women” survivors to demand a Japanese official apology to a permanent space where younger generation and the public can engage with their fight for justice.38

The Role of the Wednesday Demonstration

So, what has the Wednesday Demonstration transformed into? How has it re-defined identities of former “comfort women”? How exactly has the Wednesday Demonstration created a space for victims, perpetrators, and public to remember the past? By raising these several questions, I will examine its progress through three parts: its emergence, its evolution, and its impact. Before studying its development, Chapter I “Before ‘Broken Silence’” aims to understand the Japanese military sexual slavery as an instrument of mass violence. Rather than understanding it as an inevitable consequence of war, it explains the “comfort women” system as an integral part of Japanese military aggression. In order to examine it, Chapter I explains development and operation of the “Comfort Women” system based on testimonies of several Korean survivors. Additionally, it briefly examines why survivors remained silent for almost five decades even after they were liberated.

38 James Edward Young, The Stages of Memory: Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces between, (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2018), chap. I, Kindle. 13

The first time this issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery was addressed publicly was when the first executive director of the Korean Council raised the issue at the International Conference on Women and Tourism in Jeju island, South Korea in 1988.39 Three years later, in 1991 the first survivor broke the silence by telling her story at a news conference in Seoul.40 In order to examine what motivated Kim Hak-sun, the first survivor, to speak out about her traumatic memory after fifty years of silence, Chapter II examines 50 years of silence in depth, and how survivors broke their silence. In this chapter, it will explain how a platform emerged where there is an audience willing to listen and actors willing to speak. By comparing the situation of how Kim Hak-sun broke the long silence to that of Bae Bong-gi, the first woman who identified herself as a former “comfort woman” in Okinawa, Japan in 1975, it examines the critical meaning of the victims’ willingness to speak for themselves.41

After explaining why survivors remained silent for almost five decades and how they broke their silence in 1990s, Chapter III and Chapter IV aim to explore the development of the Wednesday Demonstration. Particularly, they examine how the movements as performances have enabled survivors to embody their historical claims in a public arena. In order to do so, I divide the Wednesday Demonstration into three distinct periods: the first phase (1992 - 2000) that focused mainly on raising awareness of the issue, the second phase (2000 -2011) that broadened their domestic and international support, and the last phase (2011- present) that has encouraged more interactions between the victims and the audience through culturally embodied forms, including the erection of the Peace Monument. By examining the development of the Wednesday Demonstration through the presence of the victims during the first two phases, Chapter III introduces a new re-defined identity of the victims that have been emphasized throughout the movement: Halmonis (meaning “Grandmothers” in Korean) as the living witnesses and as the individual empowered agents.

To understand the evolution of the Wednesday Demonstration in more depth, Chapter IV explores a critical mechanism, the Peace Monument, for shifting dynamics of the Wednesday

39 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42. 40 Ibid., 12. 41 Gil, Yoon-hyung Gil 길윤형, “Wooriga e-jeobeorin choichoui wiyanbu jeongeunja….gu e-rum Bae Bong-gi” 우리가 잊어버린 최초의 위안부 증언자…그 이름 배봉기 [Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans], Hankyoreh 한겨례. Published August 8, 2015, Accessed May 5, 2019, http://m.hani.co.kr/arti/international/japan/703614.html?_fr=gg#cb 14

Demonstrations, particularly on audience participation. On December 14, 2011, “Pyeonghwabi” (“The Peace Monument” in Korean) was erected to commemorate the pain of “Comfort women” at the 1,000th Wednesday Demonstration.42 Chapter IV introduces the transformative value of the Wednesday Demonstration, as it has changed audience’s views, and reflects on aesthetic reinterpretations of survivors’ experiences by the two artists. Then, the chapter examines how multiple audiences have interpreted the meaning of the materialized remembrance, and explains how the monument invites performances.

The final chapter, “An ‘Ordinary’ House as a ‘Place of Memory,” will explore the very notion of what constitutes the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum to examine its role as an increasingly crucial element in the evolving collective remembrance of the survivors’ stories. The chapter introduces critical challenges that survivors, activists, and supporters faced in the construction of the museum, and explains how it re-directed its interpretive approach to a “place of history.” Then, it reveals how the survivors’ pasts are re-mediated and re-memorialized through understanding museum-audience interactions. This examination of the interactions will shed light on the museum as a constantly changing space re-produced by the diverse participation of visitors.

42 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12. 15

Chapter I. Before “Broken Silence” Sexual Violence as an Inevitable Consequence or as an Instrument of Mass Violence? Sexual violence has often been understood as an inevitable consequence of war and mass violence. However, is it? Is it merely a byproduct of episodes of mass violence? In contrast to the approach to sexual violence as an inevitable consequence, understanding it as an instrument of mass violence introduces a new perspective: sexual violence as an integral and deliberate part of a war. Yun Jeong-ok, the first Executive Director of Korean Council, argues that the Japanese military sexual slavery in the 1930s and 1940s in the Asia-Pacific region was an integral part of Japanese military aggression. 43 The proceedings of the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery also demonstrate that the Japanese institutionalization of sexual slavery of girls and women was an integral part of Japanese military aggression.44 It is significant to understand the Japanese military sexual slavery as a deliberate and systematic policy, because it has guided how survivors and human rights activists have fought against it. By adopting this new understanding of sexual violence as a weapon of the Japanese military aggression, this chapter aims to explain the development and operation of the so-called “Comfort Women” system, and to examine the South Korean modern history that has affected the victims’ lives. In particular, based on a military document produced during the war by the Japanese government and the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal judgement, the chapter briefly examines the history of the Japanese military aggression in the Asia-Pacific region in order to introduce the origins of the Japanese military sexual slavery system. Then, through several testimonies of the survivors, the chapter traces the institutionalization of the sexual slavery system, specifically in the sexual enslavement of Korean girls and women. By

43 In the introduction in the first book of testimonies of survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery, Yun Jeong-ok argued that “victims became Japanese military sexual slaves, because they were merely Korean women……. This Japanese military sexual slavery policy can be seen as an integral part of the Japanese military aggression….” Original Sentence: “종군 위안부가 된 분들은 단순히 조선 여성이기 때문에 당한 것이다. 군 위안부 정책은 일본의 조선침략정책의 집약이라고 볼 수 있기 때문에….” The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center 한국정신대문제대책협의회 그리고 정신대 연구소, Ganjaero Ggulryugan Joseonin Gunwiyabudeul I 강제로 끌려간 조선인 군위안부들 I [The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I], (Gyeong-gido Paju: Hanwool, 1996), 6. 44 Prosecutors and Peoples of the Asia-Pacific Region v. Hiroto et al. Judgement, Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery, Case No. PT-2000-1-T, December 4, 2001, para. 10. [hereinafter The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000]. 16 understanding the origins of the military sexual slavery system and its institutionalization, the chapter analyzes Yun’s claim about the sexual slavery as an integral part of the Japanese military aggression. Even after the war ended, survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery remained silent for almost five decades.45 The first time this issue was publicly addressed was in 1988 by a woman advocating for survivors, and it was not until 1991 that the first survivor spoke out.46 Then, on August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-sun, then 67, broke the 50 years of silence, as she described her memories of being a “comfort woman” in front of “a crowd of reporters and a flood of flashlights” at a historic news conference in Seoul.47 Inspired by her courage, 238 other survivors also shared their traumatic memories.48 Why did these women stay silent for so long, and why did they decide to break it nearly fifty years later? After the brief explanation of the origins of the Japanese military sexual slavery system and its institutionalization, the chapter attempts to answer this question by examining South Korean modern history that has affected the victims’ lives. 1.1 Origins of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery System “Sexual violence is not an outcome of war, but….women’s bodies are an important site of war, which makes sexual violence an integral part of wartime strategy”.49

Historian Regina Muhlhauser explains that, despite prominent usages of the term in public discussions and media coverage, there has been no clear definition of “sexual violence as a weapon of war.”50 What does sexual violence during mass violence mean? In other words, what kind of acts have been committed, against whom, and specifically in which situation? Even though there has been no clear definition of “sexual violence as a weapon of war,”51 it is important to understand the definition of sexual violence itself in order to understand it in certain situations. Thus, sexual violence is defined as, “any act of a sexual nature which is committed on

45 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 1. 46 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42. 47 Ibid., 12. 48 Ibid., 33; Hyon-hee Shin, “‘Comfort women’: Living, harrowing mark on history,” The Korea Herald, August 17, 2014. 49 In 2009 report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women reported. Yakin Erturk, 15 Years of The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences (1994-2009) – A Critical Review (New York: UN Human Rights Council, 2009), vol. 13456. 50 Regina Muhlhauser, "Refraining Sexual Violence as a Weapon and Strategy of War: The Case of the German Wehrmacht during the War and Genocide in the Soviet Union, 1941-1944," Journal of the History of Sexuality 26, no. 3 (2017): 368. 51 Idem. 17 a person under circumstances which are coercive […….] And is not limited to physical invasion of human body and may include acts which do not involve penetration or even physical contact.”52 This can include forced public nudity, coercing victims to perform sexual acts with others, and other gruesome acts which target the sexual autonomy and integrity of an individual. American scholar Elissa Bemporad explains that episodes of mass violence cannot be separated from “the notion of the body and power structures in society”; the biological nature of female bodies has increased possibilities of women to be targets of sexual violence during war and mass violence.53 Based on the definition of sexual violence as “any act of a sexual nature which is committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive,” political scientist Lisa Sharlach introduces a term, ‘genocidal sexual violence.’ 54 She defines genocidal sexual violence as sexual violence committed as an act of genocide, which fulfills the requirements of genocidal intent.55 Despite the fact that it cannot be categorized as a ‘genocidal sexual violence’ in a legal framework, the development of the Japanese military sexual slavery as an institution illustrates Sharlach’s introduction. With its aim to dominate the Asia-Pacific region, the Japanese government and military consistently perpetrated various forms of mass violence in each of the territories they invaded.56 Among these various forms of violence, one of the brutal atrocities perpetrated by them, known as the “Rape of Nanking,” paradoxically and significantly motivated the Japanese government and military to institutionalize its sexual slavery system.57 In 1937, when Japan invaded China, Japanese troops in Nanking committed massacres, murders, and particularly, “[during this period] of six or seven weeks thousands of women were raped……many cases of abnormal and sadistic behavior in connection with these rapes occurred.”58 During the first month of the Japanese occupation in the region, approximately 20,000 cases of sexual violence occurred.59 Then, by the

52 UNICTR, Prosecutor v. Jean Paul Akayesu Judgement, paras. 598 & 688. 53 Elissa Bemporad and Joyce W. Warren, Women and Genocide Survivors, Victims, Perpetrators, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018) 2. 54 UNICTR, Prosecutor v. Jean Paul Akayesu Judgement, paras. 598 & 688. 55 Lisa Sharlach, “Rape as Genocide: Bangladesh, the Former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda,” New Political Science 22 no. 1 (2000): 89-102. ‘Genocidal sexual violence’ is a dominant explanatory framework for understanding sexual violence during mass violence. Genocidal intent is the mens rea of the crime of genocide outline in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention. 56 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 141. 57 Ibid., 148. 58 IMTFE Judgement paras. 453-454. 59 Ibid., 389. 18 summer of 1939, the Japanese military and government faced overwhelming outrage in the international community.60 Then, in order to alleviate the anti-Japanese sentiment driven by uncontrollable sexual violence committed by Japanese soldiers against civilian women, the Japanese government and military institutionalized “comfort stations,” which were set up for the first time in China in 1932, ordered by Yasuji Okamura.61 Also, the Japanese military deliberately created this controllable system in order to prevent its troops from contracting sexually transmitted diseases and to offer “comfort” to them.62 Additionally, it developed the sexual slavery systems in order to prevent possible spies within the military.63 The Japanese institutionalization of the sexual slavery system illustrates human rights lawyer Catherine MacKinnon’s distinction between rape in peace and rape in war. She explains that, while rape in peace is “out of control,” genocidal rape is “rape under control.”64 Then, she adds her explanation by describing the “ethnic rape as an official policy of war in a genocidal campaign for political control,” and she describes it as “rape to drive a wedge through a community, to shatter a society, [and] to destroy a people.”65 Even though human rights lawyer Rhonda Copelon opposes the term, ‘genocidal sexual violence,’ MacKinnon argues that it is unique because of its nature as part of a deliberate policy to destroy a group of people.66 To analyze, while various forms of sexual violence committed by the Japanese soldiers could be understood as “rape in peace”(rather, by applying this concept, it would be “rape in general” in this situation), the Rape of Nanking critically changed the dynamics of sexual violence perpetrated by the Japanese military. In other words, its attempt to resolve the problems, including the problem of its reputation, shifted its violence as “rape in peace” to “rape in war.”

60 IMTFE Judgement para. 164; Takashi Yoshida, The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 37. 61 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, paras. 142, 157. 62 Idem. 63 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 34. 64 Catherine MacKinnon, “Rape, Genocide, and Women’s Human Rights,” Harvard Women’s Law Journal 17, no. 5 (1994): 12. 65 Idem. 66 Copelon strongly opposed the term, ‘genocidal sexual violence,’ because it could obscure suffering of other victims raped in war. Catherine MacKinnon, “Rape, Genocide, and Women’s Human Rights,”12, and Rhonda Copelon, “Gendered War Crimes: Reconceptualizing Rape in Time of War,” in Women’s Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives, edited by Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper (New York: Routledge, 1995), 199. 19

Furthermore, this institutionalization became an integral part of its deliberate policy to dominate the Asia-Pacific region. Thus, the Japanese military and government deliberately operated and institutionalized its military sexual slavery system.67 Even though the Japanese military and government deliberately destroyed most of documents related to World War II, the “recruitment memo,” entitled “Matters Concerning the Recruitment of Women,” sent on March 4, 1938 by an Adjutant General in the Japanese War Ministry to the Chiefs of Staff of the North China Area Army and the Central China Expeditionary Forces, provides substantial evidence of its responsibility. 68 The Recruitment memo demonstrates the coercive nature of the “comfort station” and the military’s supervision: In the future, armies in the field will control the recruiting of women and will use scrupulous care in selecting people to carry out this task. This task will be performed in close cooperation with the military police or local police force of the area. You are hereby notified of the order to carry out this task with the utmost regard for preserving the honor of the army and for avoiding social problems.69

The statement that the military police and local police should be involved in the recruitment demonstrates the responsibility of the Japanese military in the coercive and deceptive recruitment of girls for its military sexual slavery system. Thus, the recruitment memo illustrates the system of Japanese military sexual slavery was an integral part of Japan’s aggressive war throughout the Asia-Pacific, as the highest levels of the Japanese government established policies and procedures for the operation of this system.70 1.2 Institutionalization of the Sexual Slavery System The Sexual Enslavement of Korean Girls and Women After the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese military demand for systematic sexual services increased.71 Then, the Japanese military and government viewed Korea as a main source for recruiting women for the services.72 Although it is difficult to estimate the exact number of women and girls who were deceived and forced into the sexual slavery system, it is believed that

67 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 92. 68 Idem. 69 Notice from the Adjutant to the Chiefs of Staff of the North China Area Army and Central China Expeditionary Force, The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 92. 70 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 250. 71 Ibid., 189. 72 Idem. 20 tens of thousands of Korean women were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence.73 Thus, the Japanese military procured Korean women disproportionately into their “comfort system.” A survivor, Kim Bok-dong, testified how in 1941, when she was 15 years old, the village headman forced her mother to send her to work in the Volunteer Corps.74 She also testified that the Japanese military took her to Guangdong, China, and put her to work in a “comfort station.”75 She confirmed that the Japanese recruited Korean women disproportionately into the sexual slavery systems by illustrating that, of thirty women at the station, only one woman was not Korean.76 Then, a few days later, a medical officer who examined Kim Bok-Dong on her arrival raped her. She stated that she was frightened, and she guessed that “if [she] tried to resist, [she] would be the only one to suffer, so [she] resigned herself to doing as [he] said.”77 The next day, she attempted to commit suicide with two other women. 78 She described her “comfort station” experience: There were thirty rooms. Each woman was assigned a room. The rooms were separated only by plywood and it was possible to hear someone breathing in the next room. The rooms were very small and contained only a bed thrown down on some wood assembled on the concrete floor. Each room was marked by a number on top and the comfort woman’s name beneath….Inside the ‘comfort station,’ it wasn’t just names that became Japanese, I had to use the whole Japanese language too………Fifteen soldiers usually came each day, but on the weekend the number often exceeded fifty.79

The testimony of Kim Bok-dong allows us to glimpse into characteristics that mark the so-called “comfort stations.” While the Recruitment Memo shows military control and regulation of the “comfort women” system, Kim’s testimony poses several considerations: against whom

73 Thomas J. Ward and Wiliam D. Lay, “The Comfort Women Controversy: Not Over Yet,” 255. 74 The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center 한국정신대문제대책협의회 그리고 한국정신대 연구소, Ganjearo Ggulryugan Joseonin Gunwiyabudeul II 강제로 끌려간 조선인 군위안부들 II [The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” II], (Gyeong-gido Paju: Hanwool, 1997), 85. 75 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 197. 76 Idem. 77 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 198; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 89. 78 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 198. 79 Ibid., 197 & 198; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 91. 21 the Japanese military committed this systematic sexual violence, methods of procurement, experiences upon arrival at the “comfort stations,”and physical and mental violence.

Against whom? Understanding sexual violence as a weapon of war requires a critical consideration: against whom this violence is targeted. In this case, who were the victims? Why were they targeted? ‘Genocidal sexual violence,’ introduced by Sharlach, is perpetrated against a target group of mass violence. For instance, differences in the number of incidents of sexual violence with the reasons for it between ethnic groups of the Rwandan genocide has led many scholars to conclude that sexual violence was employed as a weapon to destroy the Tutsi ethnic group.80 In particular, most of the perpetrators have targeted the most vulnerable people among the target group when they have committed sexual violence during mass violence. Even though victims of ‘genocidal sexual violence’ cannot completely reflect the range of individual victims, most of the victims have been women.81 Furthermore, one of the survivors of sexual violence from the Rwandan genocide testified that “the pregnant women were the most targeted,” because for the interahamwe (Hutu paramilitary group), perpetrating a pregnant woman would achieve to claim two victims.82 Similarly, the Japanese military targeted the most vulnerable members of society, based on age, poverty, class, family status, education, nationality, or ethnicity, for its “comfort women” system.83 Based on the testimonies of Korean survivors, the majority of women and girls were taken at the ages of between 14 and 19.84 Particularly, women from Japan’s occupied territories, primarily from poor and rural communities, were more susceptible to being deceived and coerced into slavery.85 Most of victims at an early age had to go to work at their early age to

80 Anna Rhodes, “The dead dream of the resurrection of the living: coping with the legacy of sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide,” (Master thesis in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Amsterdam: January 2018), 16. 81 Idem.. 82 It was a survivor testimony of Stephanie from Rwandan genocide; Idem. 83 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 263. 84 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 35. 85 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 263. 22 provide financial support to their families.86 Additionally, they did not receive a high level of education.87

Methods of Procurement Many survivors, from Philippines, Malaysia, and East Timor, and some from Korea, China Taiwan and Indonesia, testified that they were enslaved by forcible abduction. 88 Meanwhile, the most common method of procuring women and girls for the “comfort stations” in Korea was deception.89 The Japanese military took advantage of women’s poverty and their desire for a better life.90 Through false promises of employment in factories, hospitals, or other types of similar work, many women and girls “volunteered” and followed the recruiters.91

Sufferings at the “Comfort Stations” It was widespread that victims suffered from the rapes on their first day in the “comfort station” or soon after their arrival, as many survivors testified.92 For instance, in her testimony, Kim Bok-dong remembered that the doctor who examined her was the first perpetrator who raped her.93 Their experiences upon arrival at the “comfort stations” were not the only incidences of sexual violence that they experienced, but merely the beginning of it. At the “comfort stations,” women and girls had to endure rape during most of their waking hours.94 When Kim Bok-dong was in Guangdong, she recalled that on weekdays she had to take 15 soldiers a day, and on weekends, it was more than 50 soldiers.95 As a result of enduring dozens of rapes each day, many survivors, including Kim Bok-dong, testified that their genitals were swollen and they could not urinate without pain. 96 In addition to the relentless rape, many survivors were tortured and abused. Park Young-sim, another Korean survivor, testified that when she did not respond to a

86 The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” I, 17. 87 Idem. 88 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 269. 89 Ibid., 277. 90 Idem. 91 Idem.; Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 35. 92 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 299. 93 Ibid., 198; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 89. 94 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 312. 95 Peyvand Khorsandi, "Kim Bok-dong: South Korean Survivor of Japan's 'comfort Women' Camps." The Independent. February 06, 2019. Accessed April 08, 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kim-bok- dong-dead-south-korean-survivor-japan-comfort-women-human-rights-wwii-a8764541.html. 96 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 312. 23 soldier’s demand, he cut her neck with a long knife and “raped her while blood was soaking her body.”97

Dehumanization and Objectification of the Women As the testimonies of the survivors, including Park Young-sim, indicate, the Japanese military dehumanized and objectified the victims. They regarded the women as military supplies and “transported them along with weapons.”98 For instance, at the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal held in Tokyo where the former Emperor of Japan and several military officials were trialed, a Japanese officer testified that the dehumanization and objectification of the women allowed the Japanese soldiers to regard them as commodities “no different than human toilets.”99 That Japanese officer made the following statement during trial: During the battle, which lasted about fifty days, I did not see any women at all. I knew that as a result of (being without access to women), men’s mental condition ends up declining, and that’s when I realized once again the necessity of special comfort stations. The desire is the same as hunger or the need to urinate, and soldiers merely thought of comfort stations as practically the same as latrines.100

The dehumanization and objectification of the women deprived the girls and women of their basic rights, including liberty of movement and payment.101 Most of the women did not receive any kind of payment. Kim Bok-dong testified that “at the time, [she] did not even know [she] was supposed to receive money.”102 Additionally, the majority of them were transported great distances from their homes to be close to the Japanese troops.103 However, in attempt to escape from the sexual slavery facilities, most of the women faced lack of resources, language barrier, and unfamiliarity of their location.104

97 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 317. 98 Ibid., 357. 99 Idem. 100 Yoshiaki Yoshimi, Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 199; The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 357. 101 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 350. 102 Ibid., 198; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 90. 103 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 289. 104 Ibid., 352. 24

1.3 50 Years of Silence: The Process of Rebuilding Their Broken Lives Abandonment after the War: Attempts to Return Home and Reintegrate into Society The suffering of the “comfort women” did not end with the termination of the war. After the war ended, while some victims were swiftly killed by the Japanese military, others were simply ignored and left helpless at the “comfort stations.”105 Even after the war, some women were kept as forced laborers; Kim Bok-dong testified that, during the immediate post-war period, she was forced to work as a nurse with 300 other women at the 10th Army Hospital run in Singapore. 106 Meanwhile, many women did not survive on their way back home from the “comfort stations.” Ahn Bok-soon, another survivor testified that, she was the only survivor from her “comfort station,” as a ship transferring her and other women was bombed and sank, and all of them, except her, were killed.107 Some women chose not to return to their home countries or their hometowns. According to the study done by sociologist Young-hee Shim, while some survivors, including Ha Sang-sook decided not to go back and to stay in China, others who returned to Korea rarely went back to their hometowns.108 Even if survivors managed to return with non-existent support system to provide resources, their sufferings did not end. Many survivors testified that they still experienced physical suffering even after their release from sexual enslavement. Kim Bok-dong had digestive problems caused by torture.109 In addition, many lost their reproductive abilities that interfered with their marital and family life.110 Kim Bok-dong testified that, because of her inability to bear children, her husband had frequent affairs. 111 In addition to their physical sufferings, they endured “social isolation, societal stigma, economic hardship, marriage difficulties, and the

105 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 362. 106 Ibid., 198; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 95. 107 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 369. 108 “Silence and Social Aftermath of the Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Focusing on their Life after the Return” Study done by Young-hee Shim of the Department of Sociology, Hanyang University, The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 365. 109 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 401. 110 Ibid., para. 412. 111 Ibid., 198; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military”Comfort Women” II, 98. 25 failure of the state of Japan to recognize and repair its wrongs.”112 As a result, survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery remained silent for almost five decades.113 Examining the causal relations between women’s long silence and social isolation, Young-hee Shim identifies several factors (including living conditions, cultural factors, and lack of opportunity to tell their stories as they lost their previous relationships due to their hesitance to return home) as main reasons for survivors’ long silence.114 She explains that devastation and burdens of daily living, caused by emancipation from Japanese rule and the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, could not provide either financial or healing support for victims.115 Additionally, survivors might not have been able to find words to describe their experiences.116 After a long history of women’s silence and Korean society’s ignorance, the Japanese military “comfort women” issue began disclosing its truth in the late 1980s. The issue was first raised in South Korea in April 1987 during a seminar on “International Tourism Gisaeng”117 hosted by Korean Church Women United (Han-guk Gyohoe Yeoseong Yeonhapheo, hereafter KCWU).118 There, English literature scholar Yun Jeong-ok presented her independent research about the “comfort women” issue.119 Then, the KCWU established a Research Committee on this issue to support her research.120 At a seminar held in Jeju island, in 1988, right before Seoul’s 1988 Olympic Games, Yun raised the issue of the Japanese military ‘comfort women’ for the first time in public.121 Because of the democratization of South Korea in 1987, a strong sense of

112 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 413. 113 Ibid., para. 1. 114 “Silence and Social Aftermath of the Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Focusing on their Life after the Return” Study done by Young-hee Shim of the Department of Sociology, Hanyang University. The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 459. 115 “Silence and Social Aftermath of the Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Focusing on their Life after the Return” Study done by Young-hee Shim of the Department of Sociology, Hanyang University. The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 459. 116 Ibid., 461. 117Since the 1970s, the Korean government promoted international tourism, euphemistically called “gisaeng tourism,” focused on female sexual services targeting particularly at Japanese male tourists. 118 Na-Young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’: Navigating between Nationalism and Feminism.” Ed. Kim, Seung-Kyung, and Carole R. McCann. Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspective. (New York: Routledge, 2003), 579. 119 Idem.; Dong-sun Kim 김동선, “[Wianbu Bogoseo 55]17. Wianbu Silsang Chuk Gobalja, Yun Jeon-ok Jeon Ewha Yeodae Gyosu” [위안부 보고서 55]17. 위안부 실상 첫 고발자, 윤정옥 전 이화여대 교수 [[“Comfort Women” Reports 55] 17. The First Accuser of the Issue of the “Comfort Women,’ Yun Jeong-ok, the Former Professor at the Ewha Woman’s University]. Asia Economics. 아시아 경제. September 3, 2014. Accessed April 27, 2019. http://www.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?idxno=2014090310153546706 120 Na-Young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women,’ 579. 121 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42. 26 awakening rapidly spread among the Korean women’s movement.122 Then, with participation of thirty-seven women’s organizations, the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan was established in 1990.123 Then, on August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-sun, the former "comfort woman," went public for the first time, and described her memories of being a “comfort woman.”124

By adopting the frame of reference of sexual violence as a weapon of the Japanese military aggression, this chapter explained the development and operation of the so-called “Comfort Women” system, and examined the South Korean modern history that affected the victims’ lives. By understanding the origins of the military sexual slavery system and its institutionalization, the chapter analyzed Yun’s claim about the sexual slavery as the integral part of the Japanese military aggression. However, as this chapter explained, survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery remained silent for almost five decades.125 The chapter briefly mentioned how Yun and Kim Hak-sun raised the issue of the Japanese military “comfort women” for the first time by breaking the long silence. In order to examine what motivated Kim Hak-sun to speak out about traumatic memory of the Japanese military sexual slavery in 1991 after fifty years of silence, Chapter II will examine 50 years of silence and how other survivors participated in breaking the silence in more depth.

122 Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2009), 372-73. 123 Na-young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women,’ 579. 124 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12. 125 The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 1. 27

Chapter II. A Road to “Somewhere”

Figure II. Kim Hak-sun at the Wednesday Demonstration in 1996126

I went out to a workshop about job/employment, arranged by an association, and there I met a grandmother who happened to be a victim of atomic bombing in Hiroshima. Since I had suffered from feelings of anger towards Japan and I wanted to talk about what happened to me to somewhere, I told her the truth that I was a former Japanese military “comfort woman.” Because I was the first South Korean former “comfort woman” who publicly testified, I have been to many places. It is very difficult to recall all the terrible memories.

Kim Hak-soon, former “comfort woman”127

126 Kim Hak-sun, 김학순 (1924- 1997), at the Wednesday Demonstration in 1996 Sunshil Kim, Wednesday, 12 PM, 8-9. 127 Original sentences in: 동회에서 알선해 주는 취로사업에 나갔다가 우연히 원폭피해자인 한 할머니를 만났다. 나도 일본에게 억울한 일이 많고 내 인생이 하도 원통해서 어디 이야기라도 하고 싶었던 참이라 내가 군 “위안부”였다는 사실을 이야기했다.국내에서 처음 나온 위안부 증언자라고 여기저기 많이 불려 다녔다. 다시 그 기억들을 되새김질하는 것이 무척 힘이 들다. Written Testimony of Kim Hak-sun, The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I, 44. 28

A Road to “Somewhere”

On August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-sun, the former "comfort woman," described her memories of being a “comfort woman,” in front of “a crowd of reporters and a flood of flashlights at a historical news conference,” because she “wanted to talk about what happened to [her] to somewhere.” 128 Then, Kim’s desire to speak to “somewhere” raises several critical questions. First, why did it take almost 50 years for Kim Hak-sun to speak out about her traumatic memory to “somewhere”? Then, despite the long period of silence, how was “somewhere” created? By defining Kim’s “somewhere” a platform where there are audience who are willing to listen and actors who are willing to speak, Chapter II aims to examine why South Korean victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery endured 50 years of silence after they returned to South Korea and how Kim Hak-sun and others broke the silence. First, this chapter explains an absence of “somewhere” for the victims to speak in a “we” narrative in South Korean society. By introducing several main factors, including the legacy of a philosophical and cultural system unique to Korea (confucianism), the chapter explains why the historical experiences of “comfort women” were invisible in Korean public discourse. Then, this chapter introduces how several events, including Yun Jeong-ok’s presentation on the issue of the Japanese military “comfort women” for the first time, raised awareness of the issue in the society. 129 Last, it reflects on how “somewhere” emerged as Kim Hak-sun broke the silence in 1991 by comparing her situation to that of Bae Bong-gi, the first woman who identified herself as a former “comfort woman” in Okinawa, Japan, in 1975.130 By posing a question of the difference between Kim’s testimony and Bae’s identification in presenting their memories, the chapter reflects on the formation of “somewhere” that required both public willingness to listen and victims’ desire to speak. Then, it examines the critical meaning of the victims’ willingness to speak for themselves.

128 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I, 44. At “the Seminar: Women and Tourism Culture” on April 21 to 23, 1988, right before Seoul’s 1988 Olympic Games, Yun raised the issue of the Japanese military ‘comfort women’ for the first time in public. Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42. 130 Yoon-hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 29

2.1 The 50 Years of Silence

Absence of the Victims’ Memories in the South Korean National Discourse Yoon Mi-hyang, the current president of the Korean Council, claims that, over the five decades, South Korean society was not “ready” to embrace the traumatic memories of former “comfort women.”131 Implying that South Korean national discourse did not include the victims’ memories for fifty years, Yoon’s explanation poses a question of why the society was not “ready.” Like sociologist Young-hee Shim explained in the previous chapter, sociologist Na-young Lee explains that several factors, including an unsettling colonial history and its legacy, the U.S. military occupation, and continued national poverty, contributed the South Korean government’s inability raise the issue of the “comfort women.”132 Among these various factors, the section highlights the patriarchal culture of the postcolonial era and the state’s prioritization on its economy as main considerations of the creation of inclusion and exclusion in South Korean national discourse. In order to do so, it is necessary to understand what collective trauma is. Defining trauma as socially constructed, sociologist Jeffrey Alexander raises a question of how sufferings of certain people become our “own.” 133 In particular, he argues that events are not inherently traumatic, and that an event can become traumatic through a cultural construction, including coding, weighting, and narrating. 134 Carrier groups, or collective agents, work on a trauma process of collective representation, which considers four criteria, the nature of the pain, the nature of the victim, relation of the victim to the wider audience, and responsibility.135 Applying Alexander’s four requirements, the patriarchal culture and the state’s priority on its economic growth had played significant roles in preventing the construction process of the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery as South Korean “our” collective trauma. First, the section explains how the cultural legacy of a patriarchal society had shaped both public and victims’ perceptions of the issue through linking it with the dilemma of language. Then, the section

131 Original sentence in: “이렇듯 당시 우리 사회는 일제에 의해 유린당한 피해자들을 따뜻하게 감싸 안을 준비가 되어 있지 않았습니다.” Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 92. 132 Na-Young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’: Navigating between Nationalism and Feminism,” Edited by Kim, Seung-Kyung, and Carole R. McCann. Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspective, (New York: Routledge, 2003): 577-578. 133 Jeffrey C. Alexander, Trauma: A Social Theory, (Malden, MA; Cambridge, UK; Polity, 2012), 6. 134 Idem. 135 Ibid., 17. 30 examines how the state’s prioritization on its economic growth had also exploited women’s sexuality as a commodity in contemporary South Korean patriarchy. As South Korean national discourse selectively focused on its economic growth by recovering its diplomatic relations with Japan, the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery remained invisible.

The Patriarchal Culture (Confucianism) Sociologist Sarah Soh suggests that a major factor of the long silence over the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery within South Korean society is the cultural legacy of a patriarchal society. 136 Based on Soh’s suggestion, I argue that victims could not find any adequate expression to describe their trauma in the patriarchal Korean society. In particular, the nature of their pain on sexuality and the expectation of them to be chaste before marriage not only silenced their trauma to become Korean “our” trauma, but also generated a dilemma of language. Political scientist Jenny Edkins argues that collective trauma requires communication and language, and that “language itself is social and political, not individual.”137 So, language itself has power to include certain events as collective trauma and to exclude others as merely massive social disorder. The dilemma of language former “comfort women” faced can mainly be attributed to a philosophical and cultural structure unique to Korea: Confucianism. Legal scholar Young-hee Shim explains that sexuality was not considered as a proper topic even of casual talk in South Korea, and she regards Confucianism as its critical factor in South Korean public perception of sexuality and gender relations.138 Historian Martina Deuchler bolsters the claim that, despite a sweeping change in women’s status and role, Confucianism continued to influence on gender relations in Korean culture by emphasizing on an image of chaste woman.139 The concept of chastity, mainly referring to virginity, had contributed to reluctance of victims of sexual violence

136 Chunghee Soh, “The Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Movement for Redress,” Asian Survey 36, no. 12 (December 1, 1996): 1229. 137 Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 7. 138 Even though very few identify themselves as being Confucian (as their religious affiliation), Confucian ideas and practices (presumably inherited from Goryeo dynasty, 918-1392) still plays a critical role in South Korean culture and daily life. Martina Deuchler, Confucian Transformation of Korea, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), 231; Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 7; Young-Hee Shim, "Feminism and the Discourse of Sexuality in Korea: Continuities and Changes," Human Studies 24, no. 1 (2001): 133. 139 Martina Deuchler, Confucian Transformation of Korea, 231. 31 to report a rape and was a taboo in this patriarchal society.140 Furthermore, Soh explains that, regardless of individual circumstances, women who lost their chastity were made to feel ashamed and “likely to be ostracized even by their own families.”141 Thus, with language of a patriarchal society, former “comfort women” had silenced their pains rather than attempted to persuade the wide South Korean audience. According to a survey, conducted by the Korean Council, four out of six survivors who managed to return to South Korea did not go back to their home.142 Gil Won-ok, the former “comfort woman,” explains why she could not return home: Even though I decided to return to [South Korea] and it took months to come back from [the “comfort station”], I could not go home. Back then, everyone was happy because of the Korean liberation from Japan, but I could not. Since then, I have been searching for a shade. The shade where I could hide my body. I could not get back into my house with dirty and poor body. How could I see my parents’ face with that body?143

As Gil’s reluctance to reveal her past indicates, the cultural legacy of a patriarchal society also shaped victims to perceive their past to be forgotten. By describing her situation with “dirty and poor body,” perceptions of Gil and other survivors were no different from the public perception.

Sex Tourism In addition to the dilemma of language derived from the contemporary South Korean patriarchy, the continued exploitation of women’s sexuality as a commodity played significant roles in exacerbating the difficulties for victims to break the silence in South Korea. Facing the problem of post-war readjustment, the nation prioritized on economic growth and security from North Korea.144 Particularly, during Park Jung-hee’s military dictatorship, the regime focused on rebuilding its relationship with Japan through the 1965 Korean-Japan Treaty.145 With an absence of any discussion about the Japanese military sexual slavery issue, the treaty established basic

140 Martina Deuchler, Confucian Transformation of Korea, 139. 141 Chunghee Soh, “The Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Movement for Redress,” 1229. 142 Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 89. 143 Original sentences in: 무슨 일이 있어도 살아서 고향에 돌아가야겠다며 그 먼 길을 몇 달에 걸쳐서 살아 돌아왔는데 집으로 갈 수가 없었어요. 남들은 해방이라고 부둥켜안고 만세 부르며 기뻐하는데 나는 그럴 수가 없었어요. 그 떄부터 내 한 몸 숨길 만한 곳이 어디인지, 그늘만, 그늘만 그렇게 찾아다녔어요. 더럽혀지고 빈털터리 몸을 해 갖고 집으로 들어갈 수도 없었어요. 그런 몸으로 어떻게 부모님 얼굴을 볼 수 있겠어요. Gil Won-ok’s written interview, Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 88. 144 Idem. 145 Idem. 32 diplomatic relationships between Japan and Korea.146 As Japan provided economic reparations, both governments agreed the final and complete settlement regarding any damage incurred during the colonial period. 147 Applying Alexander’s definition of “collective trauma,” the regime’s priority on the nation’s economic growth presumably led it to refuse to recognize the issue of the “comfort women” as its collective trauma. After establishing the diplomatic relationships with Japan, the Park Jung-hee regime encouraged the development of Japanese sex tourism to South Korea during the 1970s. The military regime promoted this prostitution tourism, so-called Gisaeng tourism, “for the sake of the nation”: to bolster its economic growth.148 Examining the Japanese state involvement in the development of the South Korean sex industry in the early 1970s, political scientist Caroline Norma empirically indicates that, by 1973, 82 percent of visitors to South Korea were Japanese, and almost 95 percent of them were male. 149 Also, Gisaeng prostitution consisted of approximately 40 percent of South Korea’s tourism income during the early 1970s. 150 The exploitation of women’s sexuality as a commodity under the political economy in contemporary South Korean patriarchy demonstrates not only its selective focus on the economic growth but also its lack of acknowledgement of the “comfort women” issue as “our” trauma. Along with the dilemma of language, Edkins claims that time plays a significant role in creation of collective trauma. She explains that trauma can be inscribed into linear narrative, the time of a state that reproduces stories and myths of national glory and heroism.151 In contrast, there is another notion of temporality, trauma time that encircles trauma. 152 These two contrasting notions of time, linear time and trauma time, guide both states and individuals what to forget and what to remember. While both states and individuals in linear time return back to their routines and move on from traumatic events, in trauma time they are encircled in trauma. Thus, the South Korean national discourse selectively focused on its linear progress on its economic growth. Meanwhile, the discourse interpreted the “comfort women” issue as an

146 Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 213; Chunghee Soh, “The Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Movement for Redress,”1230. 147 Idem. 148 Caroline Norma, "Demand from Abroad: Japanese Involvement in the 1970s’ Development of South Korea’s Sex Industry," Journal of Korean Studies 19, no. 2 (2014): 410; Yoon Ching and Miriam Louie. "Minjung Feminism,” 423. 149 Ibid., 401. 150 Idem. 151 Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics, 16. 152 Idem. 33 obstacle to its economic relationship with Japan. Bolstering the concept of the select memory by the national discourse, Edkins explains that a state narrative creates insiders, but at the same time it also produces outsiders.153 She argues that the outsiders’ failure to belong to a society often forces them to remain silent.154 Highly related to the victims’ problems of expressing their trauma without any control, victims have two choices: using the narrative controlled by a state to become “insiders,” or remaining silent to avoid becoming “outsiders.”155 Thus, in order to avoid becoming “outsiders” from the state narrative that prioritized on its economic growth, victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery remained invisible and silent for fifty years.

2.2 Formation of “Somewhere” South Korea’s Democratic Transition Then, the combination of democratic transition in South Korea, women’s movements around the issue of sex tourism, and international awareness on women’s human rights issues led to growing awareness of and interest in the Japanese “comfort women” issue. After a long period of dictatorship under Park Jung-hee, who promoted the state-regulated prostitution, and General Chun Doo-Hwan, the presidential election of December 1987 defined South Korean transition to democracy.156 Not only did the transition allow multiplicity of narratives about social issues but it also enabled more open discussions about sexual violence. During the transitional period from military dictatorship to democracy, Kwon In-suk, a student activist, testified that she was sexually tortured by police at the Buchon police station in 1986.157 As Kwon was the first to identify herself as a victim of sexual violence, her testimony contributed to a shift in views of rape in South Korea: “from the shame of the victim to the crime of the perpetrator.”158 Even though Kwon’s testimony is not directly linked to the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery, it definitely prepared one of necessary steps for the formation of “somewhere.”

153 Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics, 180. 154 Idem. 155 Idem. 156 Chien-peng Chung, "Democratization in South Korea and Inter-Korean Relations," Pacific Affairs 76, no. 1 (2003): 10. 157 Chizuko Ueno and Jordan Sand, "The Politics of Memory,” 136; Yoon Ching and Miriam Louie, "Minjung Feminism,” 420. 158 Chizuko Ueno and Jordan Sand, "The Politics of Memory,” 136. 34

Existence of Women’s Support Groups Meanwhile, through the transition, questions concerning the cultural legacy derived from Confucianism, and various forms of sexual violence caused by sex tourism motivated the creation of women’s support groups for former “comfort women.” Lee Hyo-jae, co-founder of the Korean Council, explains that the organization was founded upon interest in “women’s suffering and harmed caused by colonial suppression and national division, paying attention to the commonality between Gisaeng tourism and ‘comfort women.’”159 To explain, organizations, including the Korean Church Women United (KCWU), had campaigned against the state- regulated Japanese sex tourism to South Korea since the 1970s.160 Then, Yun Jeong-ok, who had been independently researching about the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery, raised the issue for the first time through a platform set by the KCWU.161 Yun, who was a college student during the Japanese occupation in 1943, explains that her sense of responsibility has motivated her to conduct the independent research on the issue. She recalls, It was 1943, and in my memory, it was November. I was 17 years old, and I was a freshman at a college…….Teachers told us to go to Chongsindae (The Women’s Voluntary Service Corps)1….. The recruitment got worse after second semester …It was strange. Men in military uniforms gave us a document about the recruitment, however they did not give us enough time to read. I did not know what was written. But then, I dropped out of the college……After the liberation, I went to Seoul Central train station. There, everyone returned except women. I thought that there was something wrong and strange. Then, I asked a stranger on the street, and he told me shocking information….that the women who were recruited worked [as sexual slaves] even without time to eat. 162

159Na-Young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women,’” 582. 160 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 62. 161 Na-Young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women,’” 579. 162 Original sentences in: 1943 년, 내 기억에 11 월이었던 것 같아. 대학 1 학년, 열입곱 살이었을 것 같아. 고등학생 때부터 선생님이 간호원으로 나가라고 자꾸 그랬어. 정신대로 가라는 거지…..여름 방학 지나고 둘째 학기 부터는 더 심해졌어…..그때부터 기분이 이상한거지. 군복 입은 사람하고 누군가가 와선 말이지, 네모반듯한 종이를 나눠 줘. 인쇄 글자가 빼곡하게 들어 있는데, 우리한테 읽을 시간도 안 주고 인주를 나눠 주더니 지문을 찍으래. 내용도 읽지 못하게 하고 그거 찍어선 싹 걷어 가지고 나가. 뭐가 적혀 있는지도 몰라. 그다음에 내가 자퇴했다고…. 해방 후에 서울로 다시 왔지. 내려와 가지고 보니까 학도병 갔던 사람, 강제 징용 갔던 사람, 보국대 갔던 사람, 다 오는데 여자가 돌아왔다는 소리를 못 들었어. 거기서부터 내가 이거 이상하다고 생각한 거야. 그때가 스무 살이었어. 그래서 학도병 나갔던 사람에게 물어봤어. 그런데 깜짝 놀랄 이야기를 들었어. 이 여자아이들이 먹을 시간도 없이 밤새도록 그랬다는 거야. Yun Jeon Ok’s written interview, Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 121-122. 35

Motivated by a sense of responsibility that she could avoid the recruitment of “comfort women, Yun presented “the underlying connection between the issues of the ‘comfort women’ in colonial Korea and the Gisaeng” at the International Conference on sex tourism held in Jeju island in 1988.163 Combined with the democratic reform of South Korea in 1987, a strong sense of awakening rapidly spread among the Korean women’s movement.164 Then, with participation of thirty-seven women’s organizations, the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan was established on November 16, 1990.165

International Awareness: the Global Development of Feminism Along with the women’s movement in South Korea in the 1980s, international development of the universalistic discourse on violence against women strengthened the formation of a platform for the former “comfort women” to speak.166 In other words, people began to understand the “comfort women” issue as a global issue of systematic sexual violence against women in armed conflicts.167 The Serbian militia’s rape campaigns in Bosnia in the early 1990s and the mass rape of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 drew international attention to the issue of sexual violence as a weapon of war. 168 Sociologist Sarah Soh views the international media coverage of mass rape as a war strategy as a contribution to internationalizing the issue of the “comfort women.”169 Even though situating the “comfort women” case within a women’s human rights discourse may obscure, or diminish the historical particularity of the issue, framing it as a women’s human rights violence “shows its relevance outside particular geographic and historical parameters.”170 Thus, combined with the democratic transition in South Korea and women’s movement, the language of human rights had led growing awareness of and interest in the Japanese “comfort women” issue, which can be interpreted as a partial formation of “somewhere,” a platform where audience is ready to listen to the memories of the former “comfort women.”

163 Chunghee Sarah Soh, “The Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Movement for Redress,” 1232. 164 Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 372-73. 165 Na-young Lee, “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women,’ 579; Mi-Hyang Yoon, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 129. 166 Chizuko Ueno and Jordan Sand, "The Politics of Memory,” 137. 167 Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women, 41. 168 Patricia A. Weitsman, "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda," Human Rights Quarterly 30, no. 3 (2008): 561. 169 Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan, 41. 170 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle . 36

2.3 Bae’s “Forced” Memory and Kim’s “Desired” Memory When Kim Hak-sun testified public for the first time on August 14, 1991, Kim emphasized on her motivation to speak by stating that she “wanted to talk about what happened to [her] to somewhere.”171 Then, after she testified, 237 other survivors joined her by sharing their traumatic memories in a public platform with the support from the Korean Council.172 In order to testify, Kim Hak-sun and others needed this platform. However, it was also the victims’ willingness to speak that realized Kim’s “somewhere.” By introducing the case of Bae Bong-gi, the first woman who identified herself as a former “comfort woman” in Okinawa, Japan, in 1975, the section reflects on the meaning of the formation of “somewhere” that required both public willingness to listen and victims’ desire to speak.173

The “Crazy Old Woman” In my dreams, I went to my hometown, but I didn’t have a home…. I never had a house. Bae Bong-gi, the former “comfort woman”174 In November 1944, Bae Bong-gi, a 30-year-old woman, left her home when a “comfort women” recruiter deceived her by telling that she could earn money without working, so “if she just lie down, banana will fall down to her mouth.”175 Living under the Japanese name of Akiko, she became a “comfort woman” at a station where the Japanese army called the “house with the red-tiled roof” in a small island in Okinawa Prefecture.176 When the United States defeated Japan not long after Bae became the “comfort women,” she was detained with Japanese soldiers in a U.S. war prisoners camp.177 Even though she learned that Japan was defeated, she could not figure out that it also meant the liberation of Korea.178 Thus, without a house of her own, she

171 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12; The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I, 44. 172 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12; 42. 173 Yoon-hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 174 Fumiko Kawata, House with a Red Title Roof: The Story of a Military “Comfort Woman” from Korea, Trans. Han U-chong, (Seoul: Macilkyonje Sinmunsa, 1992), 87-96; Yoon-hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 175 Bae Bong-gi came from poor and rural household where she needed to go to work at the early age of 6 to provide financial support to her family. She married when she was 17 years old, however her marriage did not last long. Fumiko Kawata, House with a Red Title Roof: The Story of a Military “Comfort Woman” from Korea, 87-96; Yoon- hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 176 Maki Kimura, Unfolding the ‘Comfort Women’ Debates: Modernity, Violence, Women’s Voices, (London, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 10. 177 Yoon-hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 178 Idem. 37 lived in a small shed where there was no running water or electricity in Okinawa prefecture.179 Because she often screamed from her headaches, mainly caused by her trauma, children in the neighborhood called her the “crazy old woman.”180 Then, in 1975, the “crazy old woman” was “forced” to reveal her story in order to stay at her “home,” the tiny shed in Okinawa. When the United States returned Okinawa prefecture to Japanese sovereignty through the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, Japan had announced that it would offer special permanent residency to Koreans living in the prefecture who could prove their entry to Japan before August 15, 1945, if they would declare within 3 years after the reversion. 181 In order to avoid being deported from Okinawa, Bae, who could write neither Korean nor Japanese, told a owner of a restaurant where she used to work at that she was a “comfort woman.”182 As the owner filed a petition about her story to the government, she could avoid being deported. However, she could not avoid hiding her story from the general public in Japan.183 Because Bae revealed her story in order to avoid being deported to Korea, historian Kim Mi-hye claimed that she was “forced” to identify herself as the former “comfort women” by Japanese deportation policy.184 Then, she had suffered from many requests for coverage of her story that she did not want to share until she died at the age of 77, on October 18, 1991.185

179 Su-sup Kim, a member of General Association of Korean residents in Japan (Chongryun) who met Bae in October, 1975, testified about her habitation at that time. Yoon-hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 180 Idem. 181 Okinawa prefecture was subject to American rule until it was returned to Japan on May 15, 1972, and Korea was liberated from Japan on August 15, 1945. Hong Kim, “The Sato Government and the Politics of Okinawa Reversion,” Asian Survey 13. No. 11. (1973):1021; Yoon-hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 182 Idem. 183 On October 22, 1975, Kochi Newspaper reported a story of Bae Bong-gi, who described that she could not return, because she was “ashamed” of her “work” during the wartime. Yoon-hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 184 Idem. 185 Idem. 38

The Meaning of Kim’s “Desired” Testimony It is significant to note that when Bae revealed her story in 1975, as discussed above, a confluence of social, political, and economic factors in South Korea kept the Japanese military’s sexual enslavement out of public discourse.186 However, it is more important to examine why Bae’s story remained as a single story, when Kim’s testimony had become 238 “comfort women” stories that sparked an emergence of “somewhere.” In fact, in addition to the critical element of the absence of the platform, another critical difference between Bae Bong-gi and Kim Hak-sun is the willingness of the victims to speak. Bae was not ready to speak about her traumatic experiences, as she identified herself as the vicim merely in order to avoid being deported from Okinawa.187 As Kim Mi-hye explained, Bae was “forced” to report her trauma by the Japanese deportation policy.188 In contrast, as her testimony indicates, Kim Hak-sun was willing to speak; she desired to “talk about what happened” to her to “somewhere.”189 While Bae’s “forced” report still labeled her as a victim, Kim’s willingness to speak for herself created another identity: an agent of the platform. Sociologist Chandra Talpade Mohanty explains that “women,” particularly the oppressed women in the third World, are socially categorized as a homogeneous group labeled as “powerless” and “exploited.”190 However, as Kim Hak-sun chose to speak about her traumatic memories rather than remaining in silence, she was no longer a “powerless” victim. Thus, Kim’s “desired” testimony is significant, because it symbolizes the emergence of victims’ new identities. It was on the way to be a survivor from a victim.

186 Once Okinawa prefecture was returned to Japan in May, 1972, General Association of Korean residents in Japan (Chongryun: Chongryun members mainly consist of those who have retained their registration as Joseon nationals, instead of taking with Japanese or South Korean nationality) established a research committee on truth of conscripted Korean laborers during the Second World War. Then, after constantly making efforts to visit Bae for several years, despite Bae’s reluctance to have conversations with them, Kim Soo-sup and Kim Hyun-ok, members of the association in Okinawa, had interacted closely with Bae for almost 15 years since October, 1975. However, even though Bae was the first Korean survivor who identified herself as the former “comfort woman,” Bae’s story is relatively unknown to South Korean society. In their first interview with a South Korean newspaper in 2015, they questioned South Korean ignorance of Bae’s story because of affiliation of Chongryun association with North Korea. Yoon-hyung Gil, “Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans.” 187 Idem. 188 Idem. 189 The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I, 44. 190 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, (Duke University Press, 2003), 335. 39

Despite the creation of the platform for public audience to listen to voices of the victims, when Kim Hak-sun and other survivors publicly described their memories at “comfort stations,” some in South Korea hesitated to include the trauma of the former “comfort women” in their “us.” For instance, when Kim Bok-dong reported herself as a former “comfort woman” to the Korean Council via its “Hotline for Volunteer Labor Corps Victims” on January 17, 1992, her sister and nephews begged her not to do it.191 Also, when Kim Duk-jin, another victim, went to see her nephew in order to discuss whether she should report her past or not, he said, “please do not report it, because it is a lot of work and my children will be shocked.”192 Despite these challenges, the victims did not end their fight against injustice on the Japanese past wrongdoings merely by testifying their traumatic experiences at “somewhere” that was created through both public willingness to listen and victims’ desire to speak. As the Japanese government continued its denial on the government’s involvement in the military sexual slavery, the Korean Council and the victims have developed their “somewhere” into the Wednesday Demonstration to Resolve the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” Issue in front of Japanese Embassy in Seoul on January 8, 1992.193 In other words, the victims have developed their new identities through the Wednesday Demonstration.

191 Written Testimony of Kim Bok-dong, The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” II, 98. 192 Original sentences in: 내가 공부를 시킨 조카가 고등학교 선생을 하고 있는데 찾아가서 과거를 말하고 신고할까 의논했다. 이 조카는 ‘태평양유족회 재판도 다 소용 없더라구요. 괜히 귀찮기만 하고 자식들이 충격받으니 신고하지마세요. 라고 했다. Written Testimony of Kim Duk-jin, The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center, The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I, 56-57. 193 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 42, 47. Chapter III and IV will discuss the development of the Wednesday Demonstration in depth. 40

The Critical Moments of The Critical Moments of South The Critical Moments of Women’s Support Groups Korean Modern History Individual Victims/ Survivors 1945: Liberation 1950: The Korean War 1953: the Armistice agreement signed 1960: The Establishment of the 1965: the Treaty on basic Korea Church Women United relations between Japan and the (KCWU) Republic of Korea was signed 1973: KCWU campaigned the Anti 1975: Bae Bong-gi’s Sex Tourism identification of herself as the former “comfort women” October 26, 1979: assassination of President Park Jung-hee

1980: Gwangju Democratic Uprising 1986: Bucheon police corporal Mun Gwidong sexually torture Kwon In-suk 1987: June democratization movement

1988: Report of Yun Jeong-ok on 1988: The Seoul Olympics her research on the Japanese military “comfort women” at the International Seminar on “Women and Tourism” May, 1990: Women’s NGOs began May, 1990: President Roh demanding the Japanese Taewoo’s visit to Japan government for truth investigation For the first time, the South and official apology Korean government demanded the November, 1990: Foundation of the Japanese government for truth Korean Council for the Women investigation of the issue of the Drafted for the Military Sexual Japanese military sexual slavery. Slavery by Japan However, Japan denied its involvement in the system. 1991: The first public testimony by Kim Hak-Sun Table 1. Chronological Chart: Women’s Support Groups/ South Korean Modern History/ Victims’ Testimonies 41

Chapter III. The Halmonis’ Wednesdays

Figure III. The 500th Wednesday Demonstration194

Since January 8, 1992, the Wednesday Demonstration for the Resolution of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Issue has been held every single Wednesday.195 For more than 25 years, the participants have continually stated their seven clear demands to the Japanese government: acknowledgement of war crimes, a truth investigation, a state apology, reparations, punishments for officers in charge, a record in history textbooks, and the construction of memorials and archiving centers. 196 According to the Korean Council, it has become “a platform for remembrance, solidarity, and education, regardless of participants’ gender, age, and nationality.”197 Witnessing the 28 years of the continuous fight of the victims for justice in front of the Japanese government through this platform, activist Yoon Mi-hyang198 describes the small space of the Wednesday Demonstration as “[a performative] stage for the Halmonis (meaning

194 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 195 The visit of then Prime Minister of Japan Kiichi Miyazawa triggered the first demonstration; The only time victims and participants did not gather on Wednesday was after the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan. Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 47. 196 Idem. 197 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 198 The Current President of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan 42

“grandmothers” in Korean) and the citizens.”199 Thus, for twenty eight years, the topic of the Japanese military’s forced sexual slavery has been continuously reimagined and performed by the Halmonis and other participants. By understanding the Wednesday Demonstrations as performances, this chapter aims to examine the victims’ continual re-construction of the remembrance on the issue in a particular location (in front of the Japanese embassy) during three distinct periods over the 28 years. Many scholars have predominantly approached legal and political understandings of the issue by mainly concentrating on institutionalized state forms of reparations and redress.200 In contrast, the role of performative acts, particularly the Wednesday Demonstration, in the Japanese military “comfort women” issue has been relatively neglected. By dividing the 28 years of the Wednesday Demonstration into three distinct periods (1992-2000; 2000-2011; 2011-present), the chapter will examine the significance of the power that victims present as the living witnesses and as the individual empowered agent, and their interaction with multiple audiences by combining them with the performative acts. Historian Elizabeth Son understands the Wednesday Demonstration through two phases: the first phase from 1992 to 2000, and the second phase from 2000 to present. 201 Similar to Son’s two phases of the protests, I divide the Wednesday Demonstration into three distinct periods: the first phase (1992- 2000) that focused mainly on raising awareness of the issue, the second phase (2000- 2011) that broadened their domestic and international support, as it has been understood as a global issue of systematic sexual violence against women in armed conflicts, and the last phase (2011- present) that has encouraged more interactions between the victims and the audience through culturally embodied forms, including the Peace Monument.202 While the next chapter will discuss the last phase (2011 - present) with the erection of the Peace Monument and participation of multiple audience more deeply, this chapter examines the development of the Wednesday Demonstration through the presence of the victims during the first two phases. First, the chapter introduces new identities of the victims that have been emphasized throughout the Wednesday Demonstration: the Halmonis as the living witnesses and as the individual empowered agent. The chapter explores the development of the first and second

199 Yoon, Mi-Hyang, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 32. 200 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap.I, Kindle. 201 Idem. 202 Idem. 43 phases through several factors, including the Japanese embassy as performance space, the visual presentation of the Halmonis through symbolic vests, and participation of the multiple audience (passerby and the Japanese government). From 1992 to 2000, the Wednesday Demonstration was used as a platform for reconceptualizing the victims’ individual trauma as a public and collective grievance.203 Then, during the second phase, it transformed into a platform of “performances for and as redress for survivors” through broadening domestic and international support.204 After examining these two phases, the chapter re-visits the presence of the Halmonis, in order to examine their image, the aged female body, and explains how the image plays its role in Halmonis’ performances at the Wednesday Demonstrations.

3. 1 The Halmonis: From the Victims to the Living Witnesses and the Empowered Agent

“I am not a ‘comfort woman.’ I always tell people that I am Lee Yong, Soo, a name my mother and father created for me.” Lee Yong Soo, former “comfort woman.”205

Before examining the development of the Wednesday Demonstrations, it is significant to understand how the term “Halmoni[s]” reflects the identity of the victims, and how it shifts the description of the survivors from perspectives of perpetrators to those of victims. Since their experiences at the “comfort stations,” the victims have held diverse identities, including victim, silenced survivor, living witness, Halmoni, history, and peace protester.206 So, what would be an appropriate term to describe the victims’ involvement in re-constructing the memories of the Japanese military’s forced sexual slavery? Would it be still appropriate to keep using the term “comfort women” when the women broke the silence in 1991? Or is there any other term that can capture her identity better, if not completely? Lee Yong Soo, the victim of the Japanese military sexual slavery, rejects the label “comfort woman” to describe herself.207 Like Lee, many Korean survivors, along with members of the Korean Council and participants of the Wednesday Demonstration, choose to be called Halmoni with their individual names in front of it.208 In the

203 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap.I, Kindle. 204 Idem. 205 Yong Soo Lee, interviewed by Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 206 Maki Kimura Unfolding the ‘Comfort Women’ Debates: Modernity, Violence, Women’s Voices, (London, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 213-214; Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 207 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 208 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 5. 44 previous chapters, I referred to the women as victims, survivors, and former “comfort women,” in order to concentrate on their lives at the “comfort stations” and the 50 years of silence. However, the term “comfort women” seems to inescapably engage us in approaching the issue from the perspective of the perpetrators, as the term itself is euphemism used by the Japanese perpetrators. Thus, from this chapter on, I also use the term “Halmoni” that the survivors themselves have chosen. The term “Halmoni” is not only significant because it is chosen by the victims themselves. It also reflects the active role that the victims have played in the Wednesday Demonstrations, as they have performed their identities as living witnesses and their individual identities there. First, the “Halmoni” reflects present statuses of the women, as living witnesses, in accordance with the passage of time: the grandmothers who have endured both physical and mental injuries from the “comfort stations,”and the five decades of silence, and who eventually broke the silence. At the 200th Wednesday Demonstration in 1996, Kang Duk-kyung Halmoni said, We will fight against the Japanese government with you (participants of the Wednesday Demonstrations) until we die, and until only one person is left. I also want the whole world to know about the issue. We, the Halmonis, will not die easily, and do not want to die [quickly.] We are going to live long. We became strong…..And we will get stronger as time goes on, and we are going to live longer.209

Kang’s emphasis on her desire to live long and on her identity as a Halmoni illustrates how each one of the Halmonis represent the living witnesses. Through their continuous presence at the Wednesday Demonstrations, the public often perceives them as “living embodiments of the history of the Japanese military sexual slavery.” 210 Additionally, Kang’s remarks on the Halmonis’ desire to live long to bear witness to the issue demonstrates the urgency of time, considering their old age.

209 Original sentences in: 우리 죽을 때 까지 한 사람이 남을 때까지라도 너그하고 싸울테니까. 일본 사람들하고 싸울테니까. 그리 온 전 세계 국민들에게 좀 알아 줬으면 좋겠고. 우리 할머니들 그리 쉽게 안 죽고 안 죽고 싶어요. 오래 좀 살 거예요. 독해졌어요……더구나 갈수록 더 할 거예요. 더 오래 살 거예요. Kang Duk-kyung 강덕경(1929 - 1997) 200th Wednesday Demonstration in 1996 Anh hye-ryong, 안해룡 Sunshil Kim, Wednesday, 12 PM, 34. 210 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap I, Kindle. 45

However, historian Elizabeth Son explains that the public perception might obscure their other identities independent of their “comfort station” experiences.211 Sociologist Sarah Soh also views that the use of the term “Halmoni” “conveniently erases the actual feminine sexuality of former ‘comfort women’…., [and it can conceal the victims’l personal identity as individuals.”212 Regrettably, Soh neglects to acknowledge the dual function of the term “Halmoni.” The survivors are often called by their names with the term “Halmoni” at the end, such as Kang Duk- kyung Halmoni or Gil Won-ok Halmoni. Thus, I argue that the term “Halmoni” includes not only the victims’ identity as living witnesses, but also their personal identities independent of their lives at the “comfort stations”: their individual identities. While the term “Halmoni[s]” itself implies a group of the victims, by putting individual names in front of it, it avoids its potential risk of reducing all identities of the women to a single category. Rather, it allows each individual victim to possess their own contribution to the Wednesday Demonstrations and the reconstruction of the memories. For instance, while attending the Wednesday Demonstration every week until she died of lung cancer in February 1997, Kang Duk-kyung Halmoni painted many artworks, such as Dispossessed Romance (Figure IV on page 48), to visualize her experiences at “the comfort station.”213 The label “Kang Duk-kyung Halmoni” enables the public to understand her identities both as the living witness and the painter. Similarly, Gil Won-ok Halmoni sings songs to express her feelings on the issue.214 Son explains that occupying the position of victim in the social movement became “an empowering act of agency for these women.”215 Thus, the function of the term “Halmoni” enables the women individually and uniquely to engage in the social movement as empowered agents. The duality of the pairing the term Halmoni with their own name showcases that they are both living witnesses and individual empowered agents.

211 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap I, Kindle. 212 Chunghee Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan, 75. 213 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 13. 214 He-rim Jo, “Sexual Slavery victim makes debut as singer,” The Korea Herald. August, 10, 2017. Accessed June 5, 2019. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170810000740 215 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 46

3. 2 The Japanese Embassy as Performance Space Every Wednesday, the Japanese Embassy in Seoul becomes a space for the Halmonis and others to practice their embodied acts of demanding the Japanese government to resolve the injustice of theJapanese military’s sexual enslavement of young girls and women.216 Why is it the Japanese Embassy? How does the location of the Wednesday Demonstration reflect the dynamics of the Halmonis’ performance? Performance studies scholar Richard Schechner explains that performance does not mean only one practice “for the first time,” rather it means “for the second to the nth time.”217 Schechner’s consideration of repetition as the critical element of performance explains the strengthened role of the Japanese Embassy as the performance space in the continual iteration of the embodied acts by the Halmonis and the activists every Wednesday. To analyze, the role of the Japanese Embassy does not only function as the diplomatic representation of the Japanese government.218 But, it also becomes a symbolic space of the Wednesday Demonstration by inviting multiple actors and audience to practice their performances, and it actually becomes audience, which the Halmonis and the activists have directly demanded. First, it has become a symbolic and political space for multiple performances, including the Halmonis’ embodied acts, cultural performances by supporters, and press conferences with activists.219 While its physical structure is located in Seoul, South Korea, its legal, symbolic, and political space belongs to the Japanese government.220 Thus, the embassy acts as a alternative for the nation of Japan. Additionally, it is situated approximately five minutes away by foot from the Gyeongbokgung, royal palace which was partially destroyed and forcibly replaced by the Japanese colonial government during the Japanese occupation (1910-45).221 This close proximity of the Japanese embassy to the main royal palace serves as a reminder of the cultural and societal harm Japan inflicted on South Korea and further contributes to the symbolic relevance of the Wednesday Demonstration location.

216 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 47. 217 Richard Schechner, Between Theater and Anthropology, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), 36. 218 Irene Campari,“Uncertain Boundaries in Urban Space,” edited by Peter A. Burrough and Andrew U. Frank. Geographic Objects with Indeterminate Boundaries, (London: Taylor and Francis, 1996), 61. 219 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 220 Irene Campari,“Uncertain Boundaries in Urban Space,” 61. 221 Elizabeth W Son argues that the location of the Japanese Embassy off the main boulevard indicates “a physical and symbolic de-centering of a Japanese colonial past.” Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 47

Each Wednesday, the Japanese embassy does not merely become a symbolic and political space, but it also participates in the Halmonis’ movement by transforming into the main audience, whether it is its own will or not. Traditionally and historically, people with knowledge, or the oppressors, became actors and teachers who control what constitutes knowledge, and how it may be used, while the oppressed becomes the audience.222 However, the embassy, which could be interpreted as the oppressor both historically and presently in its diplomatic role as the surrogate of the Japanese government becomes the audience, or the oppressed, for one particular hour on Wednesdays. To explain, due to the nature of the building, its immobility, the Japanese embassy cannot help but participate in the multiple performances on the street in front it by becoming the audience. It is important to note that the Japanese government kept denying its involvement until the beginning of the Wednesday Demonstrations.223 Then, in response to the early Wednesday Demonstrations, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono announced a government statement, also known as Kono statement, by recognizing the military involvement in the issue, in 1993. 224 However, it did not include any direct statement about the state involvement. 225 Also, the Japanese government set up a fund, known as Asian Women’s Fund, in 1995, to raise private fund and distribute it as financial reparations to victims.226 However, as it intended to avoid legal accountability of the Japanese government, victims have refused to receive the fund.227 Despite their insufficient measures, both Kono statement and Asian Women’s Fund demonstrate the responses of the Japanese government as the audience of the Wednesday Demonstrations. Furthermore, since the Peace Monument was erected on the 1000th Wednesday Demonstration on December 14, 2011, this main audience has inevitably faced the symbolic embodiment of the sufferings of the Halmonis (the next chapter will discuss it in more depth). Thus, the one-hour during the Wednesday Demonstration changes the dynamics of the Japanese embassy’s roles from the diplomatic surrogate to the symbolically significant performance stage and the audience.

222 Karen S. Mitchell, and Jennifer L. Freitag, “Forum Theatre for Bystanders: A New Model for Gender Violence Prevention,” Violence Against Women 17, no. 8 (August 2011): 992. 223 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 43. 224 Idem. 225 Idem. 226 Idem. 227 Idem. 48

3.3 The Vests: The Shifts in Design of the Visual Presentation The First Phase from 1991 to 2000 (Groundwork) The Second Phase from 2000 to 2011 (Diversity)

They wanted to bury us but they did not know we were seeds (Mexican Proverb).228

Like the Mexican proverb, the 50 years of silence that the Halmonis endured illustrates how society buried the memories of the Japanese military sexual slavery. However, the society “did not know [that the Halmonis] were seeds.” 229 For the first decade of the Wednesday Demonstrations, activists, mainly from the Korean Council, planted “the seeds” by centralizing the protests on how to represent the Halmonis’ victimization, which enabled those seeds to grow, and victims transformed into survivors and agents of change.230 This first decade adopted the framework of mourning loss, while the second decade of protests developed into “sonic, visual, and physical presentations” with aims of remembrance and solidarity.231 Halmonis wore vests from the beginning of the Wednesday Demonstrations to signify their role in the movement, and as the aim of the protests has changed, so have the design of the vests. This section examines the shifts in the design of the vests to illustrate how the public and the Halmonis themselves changed their perception on the Wednesday Demonstrations.

228 Original sentence: “Quisieron enterrarnos pero no sabian que eramos semillas” (Mexican Proverb). 229 Idem. 230 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 231 Idem. 49

The White Vest

Figure IV. Deprived Purity by Kang Duk-kyung Halmoni (1995)232 The painting, Deprived Purity, by Kang Duk-kyung Halmoni is an expression of her traumatic experiences: a sense of loss. English literature scholars David Eng and David Kazanjian define loss as “what is apprehended by discourses and practices of mourning, melancholia, nostalgia, sadness, trauma and depression.”233 In the painting, Young Kang, hiding her face to cry, expresses her mourning and sadness of her traumatic experience perpetrated by a Japanese military soldier. The scattered skeletons represent the trauma of the victims who died before they could break the silence. This painting represents the earlier framework of mourning, and loss to articulate their demands for an official apology from the Japanese government by the Korean Council from 1991 to 2000.234 While Kang Halmoni expressed her sense of loss through paintings, the Halmonis as a whole chose to wear white vests as a symbol of their mourning and loss, along with signs and banners, during the first phases of the Wednesday Demonstrations.235

232 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 68. 233 David L. Eng, and David Kazanjian, Loss: The Politics of Mourning, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 2. 234 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 13; Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 235 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 50

Instead of the adoption of diverse frameworks, the Wednesday Demonstrations of the early 1990s mainly focused on raising awareness about the Halmonis’ pain, their victimization, and their demands to the Japanese government. Since few people knew or talked about the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery, activist Yoon Mi-hyang explains that “the Wednesday Demonstration started with a simple objective: to let the Japanese government know of our [seven] demands.”236 These demands were presented as the phrases on the signs and banners during the early Wednesday Demonstrations (Figure V below).237

Figure V. The First Wednesday Demonstration238 These collective demands indicated on the slogans on the white vests 239 showed the initial objectives of the movement: establishment of the historical truth about the sexual violence

236 The collective demands of the Wednesday Demonstration include awareness of the “comfort stations” as war crimes, establishment of the historical truth of the violence, a Japanese state apology, legal reparations for victims, punishment for those responsible for the crimes, a record in Japanese history textbooks, and construction of memorials and archiving centers. Yoon Mi-hyang interviewed by Elizabeth W Son; Elizabeth W. Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle; Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 47. 237 The slogans on the signs and the banners in the Figure V include: “The Japanese government should establish the memorials for the victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery” (“일본정부는 정신대 희생자 위령비를 건립하라!”), and “[The Japanese government] should include the issue in the history textbook” (“역사 교과서에 정신대 강제연행 사실을 넣어라.”) 238 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 239 Original sentences in: “사실인정”; “배상하라” 51 and identification of the Halmonis as victims in order to receive state reparations.240 Elizabeth Son explains that the white vests, which represent Korean mourning clothes, functioned as the “public manifestation of an ‘inward sense of loss.’”241 The public manifestation raises a critical consideration: whose “inward sense of loss”? The victims, their families, their community, or society at large? The early Wednesday Demonstrations focused on broadening the collective sense of loss by adopting a framework of national victimhood (a narrative of Minjok, translated as “people” in Korean, which includes ancestors, the Halmonis, activists, and other members of society).242 As Figure V illustrates, during the first period of the Wednesday Demonstrations, while there is a group of riot police in front of the Japanese embassy and a group of journalists capturing the moments, most of the participants wore white vests. 243 Yoon emphasizes the function of the white vests, by explaining that “[the white vests] show our wounds….No one knew [the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery back then], so it was necessary to show that through clothing.”244 Thus, wearing the white vests symbolizes both the Halmonis’ embodied acts of expressing their sorrow and “our” wounds. Examining the meaning of “our wounds,” Son explains that the framework of national victimhood was necessary in order to draw more support for the movement in South Korea.245 To summarize, the white vests represent a visual tool that enabled the Halmonis’ invisible, or even unknown, memories of the violence to be reconstructed as a visible and collective “loss.”

The Yellow Vests: The Halmonis as the “Individual” Living Embodiments Beginning in 2000, the visual presentation of the Wednesday Demonstrations changed dramatically. All the participating Halmonis began wearing yellow vests, and other supporters held slogans on more colored signs and banners. Son explains that, through both national and international support, a growing number of people began joining the movement.246 For instance, on the 634th Wednesday Demonstration in 2004, a group of Japanese human rights activists hosted the movement, as the first time that foreigners hosted it, and the 721st Wednesday

240 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 241 Idem. 242 Idem. 243 Idem. 244 Yoon Mi-hyang interviewed by Elizabeth W Son; Elizabeth W. Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 245 Idem. 246 Idem. 52

Demonstration was hosted with other human rights activists in 27 countries, including Canada, Hong Kong, Nepal, and the United States.247 As activist Yoon Mi-hyang often emphasizes the solidarity of the Halmonis with other victims in wartime sexual violence, the participation of foreigners and foreign countries illustrates the broadened international support through the invocation of a women’s human rights discourse.248 By shifting its focus from “raising awareness” to “a sense of hope and solidarity,” activists strategized a dramatic shift of the visual presentation: from white vests to yellow vests.249 To analyze, while the first phase laid the groundwork of the Halmonis’ movement by connecting their invisible memories with the framework of the national victimhood, the second phase (2000-2011) represents more diverse embodied acts. In the beginning of the 2000s, the Halmonis wore their bright yellow vests, with the slogan “The 2000 International Tribunal of Japanese Sex Slavery Criminals.” 250 The words emphasized the accountability of the Japanese government by identifying the crime as sexual slavery. Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery, held in Tokyo on December 8 – 12, 2000, provided unprecedented public platforms for survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery not only from South Korea but also from eight other countries to testify about their sufferings, using their own names and declining protective measures such as voice distortion devices.251 It is significant to note that, while the traditional institutionalized legal approach often shows the limitation of the victims’ presence at the court, the Women’s Tribunal enabled the survivors to strengthen their visibility on the issue through their own testimonial performances. By structuring “victimized” countries as prosecutors, and survivors as key witnesses, the Women’s Tribunal found Hirohito, the former Emperor of Japan, military officials, 252 and the Japanese government accountable for the crime of sexual slavery. Furthermore, historian Elizabeth Son analyzes that the Women’s Tribunal allowed the survivors

247 Original Sentence: “2004.12.1 634 차 “일본정부로부터 전후 보상을 실현시켜 한반도의 평화를 지원하는 회” 주관 수요시위 <외국인 첫 수요시위 주관>,” “2006.8.9. 721 차 해방 61 주년을 맞아, 국제 엠네스티와 세계연대의 날 기념시위” Sunshil Kim, Wednesday, 12 PM, 53-54. 248 Yoon, Mi-Hyang, Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday, 225- 245. 249 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 250 Idem. 251 I intentionally use the word, “survivors,” in order to include the Halmonis from South Korean and other survivors from other countries, to be understood as a collective group of the victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery, and the other survivors are from North Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia, and the Netherlands. The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para. 87. 252 Ando Rikichi, Hata Shunroku, Itagaki Sieshiro, Kobayashi Seizo, Matsui Iwane, Umezu Yoshijiro, Terauchi Hisaichi, Tojo Hideki, and Yamashita Tomoyuki (The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal). 53 to perform as living evidence, and their memories and gestures during their testimonial performances were materialized during the procedure.253

Figure VI. The 700th Wednesday Demonstration254 In contrast to the visual presentation of the white vests, focusing mainly on the message of “our” inward sense of loss, the changed visual manifestation, of the yellow vests, delivered a message of a “sense of hope and solidarity” as the color evokes light and vitality. As Figure VI shows, the messages written on the yellow vests changed from “The 2000 International Tribunal of Japanese Sex Slavery Criminals” to “Honor and Justice of Human Rights for the Halmoni[s].”255 With a growing number of participants, only Halmonis wore the yellow vests.256 The possibility to easily spot Halmonis’ yellow vests illustrate the visual presence of the Halmonis and showcases that they are at the heart of the Wednesday Demonstration.

253 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. II, Kindle 254 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 255 My translation, original sentences in: “할머니에게 명예와 인권을.” (Figure VI: Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/) 256 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 54

The Participation of Multiple Audiences The discussion about the Japanese embassy as the performance space allowed us to glimpse into the Japanese government as the main audience, and the discussion about the dramatic shift in the design of the vests that the Halmonis wore illustrated the symbolism within the movement as well as the growing number of participants. Then, what about passerby? How did pedestrians or tourists visiting the main palace of Seoul, get involved in the Wednesday Demonstrations? Or, how did they not? While the physical presence allowed the Halmonis to visually present themselves in front of the Japanese embassy, sonic presentations, including a song “Like a Rock,” interrupts whatever passerby were doing as they could not help but listen to them. Historian Son bolsters the role of this somatic disruptions in the Wednesday Demonstrations by explaining that “[they] capture attention and raise awareness through the repositioning of the bodies of bystanders and passerby.”257 For instance, sounds of the song, “Like a Rock,” sung by the Halmonis and the supporters at every Wednesday Demonstration, are often amplified through speakers to reach beyond the physical space of the protests. By broadcasting this song to those who may otherwise disregard the protest, they were prompted to listen to a song that contains a message that, despite the “stormy weather,” the Halmonis will continue to fight. This likely sparked their curiosity and encouraged them to inquire about the topic of the protest, therefore develop awareness of the issue beyond the participants and audience members.

The Seated Halmonis: The Image of the Aged Female Body Along with the visual presence the vests create, another key factor in the visual presentation of the Halmonis during the Wednesday Demonstrations is the fact that Halmonis are seated in front of the rest of the demonstrators. This encourages the audience to easily recognize and acknowledge the conditions of the Halmonis: their 80 years of the journey to become the visible living embodiments of sexual enslavement by the Japanese military had considerable effects on their mental and physical health. Their deteriorating health is both a testimony of how long they have been fighting and the impact of their traumatizing experiences at “comfort stations.”

257 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 55

This chapter examined the development of the Wednesday Demonstration through the presence of the victims during the two phases (the first phase from 1992 to 2000, and the second phase from 2000 to 2011). First, the chapter explored new identities of the victims that has been emphasized throughout the Wednesday Demonstration: the Halmonis as the living witnesses and as the individual empowered agents. By studying these new roles that the Halmonis have performed at the Wednesday Demonstration, the chapter examined the development of the first and second phases through several factors, including the Japanese embassy as a performance space, and the visual presentation of the Halmonis. From 1992 to 2000, the Wednesday Demonstration was a platform for reconceptualizing the victims’ individual trauma as a public and collective grievance.258 Then, during the second phase, it transformed into a platform of “performances for and as redress for survivors” through broadening domestic and international support.259 In sum, the chapter explored how the Wednesday Demonstrations has developed as “the platform for remembrance, solidarity, and education, regardless of participants’ gender, age, and nationality,” through the visible presence of the re-defined Halmonis .260

258 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. I, Kindle. 259 Idem. 260 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 56

Chapter IV. “The Promise Engraved on the Empty Chair”

Figure VII. The 1000th Wednesday Demonstration261

261 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 57

On December 28, 2015, after 25 years of the long journey that the Halmonis performed their roles as the living witnesses and the individual empowered agents, the governments of South Korea and Japan announced that they had reached “a landmark agreement.....to resolve their dispute over Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan’s Imperial Army.”262 The announcement included the agreement of the Japanese government to give $8.3 million to 46 surviving Halmonis in Korea as a form of reconciliation between South Korea and Japan.263 Additionally, it also contained their consideration of the demolition of the Peace Monument, a bronze statue of a girl commemorating the “comfort women,” installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.264 Then, the agreement stated that the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery became “resolved finally and irreversibly.”265 Immediately following the announcement of the bilateral agreement, civil society organizations, including the Korean Council, denounced it as insufficient, because the Halmonis were not invited for any discussion of the agreement, and they claimed that victims’ voices were ignored; so they have called for its nullification.266 However, the Japanese government’s pressure to remove the small embodied form of commemorating the “comfort women,” raises a significant consideration. It implies the Japanese government’s sense of unease and discomfort on the existence of the Peace Monument. So, why exactly does the Japanese government desire to demolish the small statue? More broadly, what does the statue of a girl staring at the Japanese embassy mean to participants of the Wednesday Demonstrations, including the Japanese government, the Halmonis, and the growing number of the audience? As the previous chapter discussed, the first two phases of the Wednesday Demonstrations (1992-2000; 2000-2011) offered the performance space for the visible presence of the Halmonis, as living witnesses and as living empowered agents. However, since 2011, the

262 Sang-hun Choe, “Apology, if not closure, for ‘Comfort Women,’” New York Times, December 29, 2015, A1. 263 Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy,” 225. 264 Idem. 265 “Full Text: Japan-South Korea Statement on ‘Comfort Women,’” Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2015, accessed June 6, 2019, http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/12/28/full-text-japan-south-korea-statement-on- comfort-women 266 “[The Japanese government] neither mentioned any specifics on its crimes not admitted that it was a systematic crime led by the state. Hence, there was not acceptance and commitment on Japanese government’s legal responsibilities. Moreover, the apology, made by Mr. Abe as the representative of the cabinet, was not made directly by the Prime Minister to the victims who have been waiting for a sincere apology for a very long time.” Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. (2016). Submission by The Korean Council for the Women drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, Letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy,” 225. 58 number of participating Halmonis has declined, as many of them have died or others could not attend the movement due to health issues.267 Meanwhile, the number of supporters continues to grow. Thus, by concentrating on a role of the increasing number of participants, I frame the period from the erection of the Peace Monument on the 1000th Wednesday Demonstration on December 14, 2011 to present as the third phase of the movement. Still understanding the Wednesday Demonstrations as performance acts, this chapter is divided into two main discussions: the creation of the Peace Monument and its influence after the erection on the 1000th Wednesday Demonstration, particularly on performances of its multiple audience. First, the chapter begins with how the Halmonis’ embodied acts have transformed the audience’s views by examining the process of the proposal and the design of the Peace Monument. Particularly, the chapter introduces how Kim Pan-soo, one of the participants in the movement, developed his view about the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery by attending countless Wednesday Demonstrations, and proposed the creation of the Peace Monument.268 Then, the chapter introduces constant challenges of creating the monument that two artists, Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung, faced during their design process. By analyzing the aesthetic reinterpretations of the Halmonis’ experiences by the two artists, I will examine how the monument visualizes four different time periods that the Halmonis have endured: the time at the “comfort stations,” the 50 years of silence, the current Wednesday Demonstrations, and future. After the endless dilemma that the artists faced to create a symbolic embodiment of commemorating the Halmonis, the two artists presented the Peace Statue on December 14, 2011. The erection of the statue shifted the dynamic of the Wednesday performances, as the multiple audience could engage more actively in the performances. Thus, the chapter examines how the audience has understood the meaning of the statue and has interacted with it, particularly through performances of care and performances of expanding installments of embodiments of remembrance geographically.

267 Until June 10, 2019, there are only 21 Halmonis alive in South Korea. “Another “Comfort Women” Halmoni died… only 21 survivors left, ” “위안부 피해 할머니 또 별세… 생존자 21 명,” Yonhap News, 연합뉴스, April 2, 2019, accessed June 10, 2019. https://n.news.naver.com/article/422/0000368413 268Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim 김서경, 김은성, Bineuijaehseginayksok 빈의자에 새긴 약속 [Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair], (Seoul: Mal, 2016), 17. 59

4.1 The Erection of the Peace Monument The Proposal by the Opponent Against the Wednesday Demonstration In their memoir about the process of building a small monument in commemoration of the 20 years of the Wednesday Demonstration, two artists, Kim Seo-Kyung and Kim Eun-sun, emphasize on who proposed the plan: Kim Pan-soo, who has always attended the Wednesday Demonstration by coming from Jeonju, which takes three hours to get there by bus.269 Why did they emphasize his proposal? How did Kim Pan-soo contribute to the creation of the monument? The main reasons why they highlight him as a person who suggested the erection would probably be more than his dedication to attend the movement by taking a bus for six hours every Wednesday. More significantly, his proposal indicates how the Wednesday Demonstrations have transformed both his and other audience’s views on the Japanese military sexual slavery issue from something to be forgotten to something to be remembered. Kim Pan-soo initially visited the Wednesday Demonstration in order to stop the Halmonis’ movement because he considered the issue as a shameful part of Korean history. 270 However, as soon as he began attending the movement, he was impressed by the lives and stories of the Halmonis, and became one of the key agents of the demonstration.271 Performance scholar Augusto Boal defines Theatre of the Oppressed as “a system of physical exercises, aesthetic games, image techniques and special improvisations whose goal is to safeguard, develop and reshape this human vocation, by turning the practice of theatre into an effective tool for the comprehension of social and personal problems and the search for their solutions.”272 Similar to Boal’s definition of the Theatre of the Oppressed, the Halmonis’ performances have functioned as an effective mechanism for Kim Pan-soo and others to understand the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery from perspectives of the Halmonis, and to search for its resolution. Admittedly, as the next chapter will introduce more deeply, there are some people who still consider the issue to be forgotten and ashamed of. 273 However, the change of Kim’s identities from the protester against the Wednesday Demonstration to the engaging supporter of it shows that the Wednesday

269 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 17. 270 Idem. 271 Idem. 272 Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed, (London: Pluto Press, 2008), 14-15. 273 In the next chapter, I will discuss those who protested against an establishment of the War and Women’s Human Rights museum on a site infamous for the symbol of the Independence movement against the Japanese imperial rule during its occupation, because they considered that the Japanese military sexual slavery issue is shameful and disgraceful. 60

Demonstrations have developed not only the identities of the Halmonis as the living witnesses and the individual empowered agents (see Chapter III) but also changed those of the audience. While traditional performance settings usually fixes the roles of audience as listener and actors as speakers, the Wednesday Demonstration also enables the interchangeability of their roles. Along with Boal’s definition of the Theatre of the Oppressed, psychologists Karen Mitchell and Jennifer Freitag explain that, unlike traditional theatre, where audience remains as passive spectators, in performances of the oppressed, audience members and actors in theatre of the oppressed create collaborative performances through dialogue and interchange of their roles.274 Likewise, audience members of the Halmonis’ performances do not remain themselves as passive audience only, but they also become actors through changing or facilitating the script of the Wednesday performances. For instance, Kim Pan-soo suggested the change of the setting of the performances by adding an object on the stage: the Peace Monument. Thus, Kim’s proposal illustrates the Wednesday Demonstration as an effective tool to reshape the views of the audience and the active engagement of the audience members through facilitating the script of the performances.

“The Promise Engraved on the Empty Chair” The Design of the “Pyeonghwabi” by Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung On December 14, 2011, “Pyeonghwabi” (the Peace Monument in Korean) was erected to commemorate the pain of “comfort women” at the 1,000th Wednesday Demonstration.275 Artists Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung designed it with the appearance of a girl with small hands and short hair, sitting on a chair and staring at the Embassy of Japan. Considering that two infamous human rights activists, Kim Bok-dong Halmoni and Gil Won-ok Halmoni were only 15- year-old and 13- year-old girls when they were taken to the “comfort stations,” the artists planned to centralize the appearance of a young girl as the main symbol of the Peace Monument.276 They particularly aimed to create it for the Japanese government to face its war crimes on its enforcement of young girls to serve as sexual slaves.277 However, the creation of the statue of a young girl was not merely intended to arouse Japanese attention to its crime. By

274 Karen S. Mitchell and Jennifer L. Freitag. “Forum Theatre for Bystanders: A New Model for Gender Violence Prevention.” Violence Against Women 17, no. 8 (August 2011): 992. 275 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 12. 276 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 5. 277 Idem. 61 closely looking at separated parts of the monument, the section explores how the artists intended to symbolize them. So, based on the explanation by the artists, the statue visualizes and represents four different time periods of the lives that the Halmonis have endured: the time at the “comfort stations,” the 50 years of silence, the current Wednesday Demonstrations, and future. While I will discuss portrayal of future and present of the Halmonis’ performances, constantly reshaped by participation of the audience members, in more depth later in this chapter, I examine the three time periods in this section.

Figure VIII. The Peace Monument278

So first, how did the artists intend to re-imagine the pain of the victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery? Since the beginning of their process to design the monument, artists Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung had received criticism and objections from Japanese press and the Japanese government. 279 So, after a long consideration, they changed their design of the monument from a black stone memorial to an embodiment of a young girl wearing a “Hanbok,” a Korean traditional dress (Figure IX below).280 The artists explain that they often tried to re- imagine how young girls, displaced by the Japanese military to serve as sex slaves from their

278 Picture taken by the writer, as attending the Wednesday Demonstration on December 28, 2016. 279 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 17. 280 Female teenagers commonly wore this traditional Hanbok [a jeogori (top), and a long chima (skirt)] during the World War II era. Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 64. 62 home, dealt with their circumstances.281 As many survivors testified that they sang “Arirang,” a Korean traditional folk song which is considered an unofficial national anthem of Korea, with others at the “comfort stations” to remember home, they attempted to visualize the song “Arirang” in “Hanbok.” 282 Additionally, they designed the roughly cut hair to express the violent disconnection with their home, in which the Joseon girls had to leave their parents and their homes by force.283 Thus, the artists emphasizes the sense of loss that victims experienced at the “comfort stations” with the image of a girl with roughly cut hair, wearing the “Hanbok.” 284

Figure IX. The Image of A Young Girl Wearing “Hanbok”285 However, the image of a young girl cannot capture the sufferings of the Halmonis who remained silent for fifty years completely. In addition the portrayal of the sense of “loss” in the Hanbok and the roughly cut hair, the artists intended to visualize “accumulated fragments and pieces of suppressed sufferings,” their fifty years of silence, that the Halmonis had endured.286 In

281 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 64. . 282 Rebecca Arkenberg, “Arirang: An Introduction to Korean Music and Culture,” American Recorder 50, no. 1 (January 1, 2009): 10–11. 283 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 22. 284 Loss as “what is apprehended by discourses and practices of mourning, melancholia, nostalgia, sadness, trauma and depression,” defined by scholars of English and literature, David Eng and David Kazanjain (see chapter III). 285 Picture taken by the writer 286 Original sentences in: “그 동안 억눌러 왔던 아픔의 조각과 파편들이 쌓이고 쌓여 기다긴 과거의 시간을이루었고, 마침내 할머니의 그림자로 변하였습니다.” Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 84. 63 order to do so, they created the statue’s shadow with a mosaic of flat gray granite stones as the silhouette of a seated Halmoni (her bent back and her bun shows her as elderly). While the image of the young girl represents the sense of loss, it is important to understand that it is Han, that the artists designed the shadow of the Halmoni to embody. Asian American studies scholar Elaine H. Kim, explains that “Han is a Korean word that means, loosely translated, the sorrow and anger that grow from the accumulated experiences of oppression.”287 Thus, the shadow of the Halmoni recognizes the persisting and unresolved pain on the Halmonis. In addition, the artists designed a white butterfly, meaning “rebirth,” on the heart of the Halmoni (Figure X below), in order to ease the pain of the Halmonis who died before breaking the silence and to hope for them to be reborn in a better world.288 In sum, the shadow complicates the understanding of the statue as it recognizes the Halmonis’ endurance of the passage of time with their suppressed and fragmented Han.

Figure X. The Shadow of the Halmoni with a white butterfly on her heart289 While the image of a young girl and the shadow of the Halmoni have embodied the sufferings and Han that the Halmonis had endured during their time at “comfort stations” and the five decades of silence, the details of the statue express the determination that the Halmonis have shown at the Wednesday Demonstrations. Rather than using anger, sadness, or weakness in

287 Elaine H. Kim, “Home Is Where the Han Is: A Korean-American Perspective on the Los Angeles Upheavals.” In Reading Rodney King/ Reading Urban Uprising, ed. by Robert Gooding-Williams, (London: Routledge, 1991), 215. 288 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 89. 289 Picture taken by the writer. 64 facial expression of the statue, Kim Seo-kyung made the girl dignified in appearance (Figure VIII on page 60).290 As the statue faces the Japanese Embassy, it allows the girl to stare straight ahead at the Embassy. This girl’s appearance highlights the Hamonis’ long patience for the Japanese government to apologize.291 Additionally, in contrast to their initial plan to create the girl’s hands courteously folded, after confronting a strong disapproval of the Japanese government against the installation, the artists made the girl’s small fists clenched to show a strong and stubborn will of “comfort women” to resolve the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery (Figure VIII on page 60).292 While the artists embodied the Halmonis’ strong desire to resolve the issue in the details of the monument, they also invited one of the Halmonis to participate in its creation. Gil Won-ok Halmoni wrote “Pyeonhwabi”(평화비) on the obsidian plaque next to the statue (Figure XI on page 64). The Gil Halmoni’s handwriting indicates a symbolic embodiment of the presence of the Halmonis on the statue.

Figure XI. The Plaque next toe the Statue293 The section discussed how the visuals of the statue symbolize the three time periods, the victims’ sense of loss, because of the displacement from home and family, Han that the Halmonis had endured for fifty years, and the determination of the Halmonis through the Wednesday Demonstrations. The obsidian plaque summarizes these meanings of the statue by announcing that “this peace monument stands to commemorate the spirit and the deep history of

290 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 102-104. 291 Idem. 292 Ibid., 22. 293 Picture taken by the writer. 65 the Wednesday Demonstration.”294 Meanwhile, the artists made an empty chair next to the girl. What does the empty chair imply? The artists explain that the empty chair invites people to understand the issue more actively as everyone was allowed to sit down and most of them do it.295 How does the empty chair invite a space for current and future generation and audience of the Wednesday Demonstrations? The next section will explain how the multiple audience has practiced the performances.

4. 2 Performances of Care and Performances of Geographical Expansion of remembrance After the endless challenges that the artists confronted to create the symbolic embodiment of commemorating the Halmonis, the two artists presented the Peace Statue on December 14, 2011. Sine then, the Peace Monument has functioned as “scriptive things,” defined by performance studies scholar Robin Bernstein, as a thing that “broadly structures a performance while allowing for agency and unleashing original, live variations that may not be individually predictable.”296 As an important “scriptive object,” the empty chair next to the statue has three layers of meaning: a space for those who already died, a space where people can sit down and reflect on the issue, and a place for future generations who will continue to fight against the historic wrongdoings.297 So, each time someone sits down, a different texture of memory is created. As historian James E. Young explains that “memory is never seamless, but always a montage of collected fragments, recomposed by each person and generation,” the different textures of memory, produced by visitors’ actions, would generate different meanings in the memories the textures elicit. 298 In addition to the empty chair of the monument as the “scriptive object,” the statue has driven the audience of the Wednesday Demonstrations engage actively in various performances. Here, the section examines a role of the statue in active involvement of the audience, and their two kinds of performances, performance of care and performance of geographical expansion of remembrance.

294 See the Figure XI. 295 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 102-104. 296 Robin Bernstein, Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights, (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 12-13. 297 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. IV, Kindle. 298 James Edward Young, The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), 198. 66

Performances of Care

First, the Peace Monument has created a space for the audience to participate in performances of care. Not only can anyone sit down on, or stand next to the empty chair of the statue, but also he/she can provide any sort of care to the statue. For instance, South Koreans often dress the statue. According to historian Elizabeth Son, performances of care are embodied acts that “materialize concern and interest by providing for the needs of looking after what one is caring for.”299 Then, the roots of the word care contains a sense of loss and the action of providing for the needs of those who have suffered a loss.300 Combined with the image of a young girl conveying the sense of loss, the South Korean public action of providing for the needs of the statue, such as dressing the statue in a warm scarf during winter, illustrates an act of care.301 Additionally, visitors often leave letters, stuffed animals, or flowers, at the feet of the statue or on the empty chair next to the girl. Thus, the performances of care by the audience to the Peace Monument show how the audience actively engages in the Wednesday Demonstrations by reshaping the setting of the performance with live variations, such as flowers on the empty chair or the girl in a warm scarf.

Since the announcement of the 2015 agreement, the performances of care have been increased and strengthened with more diverse forms. The bilateral agreement between the South Korean government and the Japanese government included the removal of the Peace Monument installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.302 As the artists Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung and the South Korean public commonly refer to the statue as the Sonyeosang (Girl Statue), the name anthropomorphizes the monument, and people often refer to the statue as her, and take caring actions for the statue like they would do for a human.303 In order to protect her from the removal, a group of university students have staged a sit-in and night to guard the life- size bronze statue for more than two years, and the statue has not been removed to this date (June 25, 2019).304 Some have spent nights next to the statue and others have come during the day.

299 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. IV, Kindle. 300 Idem.; Philippe Svandra, “The Notion of Care Between Ethics, Work, and Politics,” Recherche en soins infirmiers 122, no. 3 (October 8, 2015): 18–25. 301 As I often participated in the Wednesday Demonstrations for two years from 2016 to 2018, I witnessed the state of a girl in a warm scarf. 302 Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, "The Comfort Women Controversy,” 225. 303 Seo-kyung Kim and Eun-sung Kim, Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair, 102-104. 304 Hyun-ju Ock, “Student sit-in shields ‘comfort woman statue,’” The Korea Herald, January 27, 2016. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160127000938 67

Traveling for hours from Ulsan to join the sit-in during the day, Lee Yang-san, a university student, said, “[she came] because [she] would forever feel ashamed if [she] did nothing to properly solve the issue.”305 The students’ sit-in to protect the statue from being take down does not merely demonstrate the solidarity of the audience with the Halmonis to resolve the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery. But, it also shows the expanded time of each Wednesday performance, as the audience who has become actors stay in the performance space more than one hour on Wednesdays. Thus, the performances of care through the audience’s interaction with the statue has created more diversity in the Wednesday Demonstrations.

Figure XII. The Statue of a Girl Wearing a Scarf /Volunteer Group’s tent next to statue306 Performances of Geographical Expansion Installment of Embodiments of Remembrance In addition to the performance of care, the Peace Monument allows remembrance on the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery no longer confined within the space situated in front of the Japanese Embassy and, broadly, within national borders. There are more than 120 Peace Monuments with the empty-chair theme erected in cities and villages in South Korea, and 27 of them in cities, outside of South Korea, including Sydney, Australia, and New Jersey, the United

305 Hyun-ju Ock, “Student sit-in shields ‘comfort woman statue.” 306 Picture taken by Hyun Kyung Lee in November 2018. Hyun Kyung Lee and Shu-Mei Huang, “The contested gazes of ‘Comfort Women’ statues in Korea and Taiwan,” https://www.heritage.arch.cam.ac.uk/publications/spotlight-on/comfort-women 68

States.307 Even though the statues have been erected by strong supports mainly from communities of Korean immigrants in those countries, it gives people who cannot visit the Wednesday Demonstrations in front of the Japanese embassy opportunities to understand the issue and to interact with the statue. 308 Then, through these interactions, such as performances of care or performances of installing more statues, people become more active part of communities of remembrance of the Halmonis.

By examining the meanings of the statue of a young girl staring at the Japanese Embassy, to multiple audiences, this chapter let us return to the question of why the Japanese government opposed the existence of the small Peace Monument. This chapter argues that it is because the statue is a symbolic embodiment of “transitional justice.” Human Rights studies scholar Louis Bickford defines “transitional justice” as a field of activity that focuses on “how societies address legacies of past human rights abuses, mass atrocity, and other forms of severe social trauma, including genocide or civil war, in order to build a more dramatic, just, or peaceful future.” The statue addresses the sufferings of victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery with the appearance of the young girl with the determination of the Halmonis portrayed her clenched hands. Also, the re-construction of the script of the statue, constantly reshaped by the participations of audience members through performances of care, enables the Halmonis and the participants to attempt to build a “more dramatic, just, or peaceful future.”309 By placing this statue at the Japanese Embassy, embassy workers and other Japanese officials can easily see, and they actually face the symbolic embodiment of the sufferings of the Halmonis almost everyday. Japanese ambassador to South Korea Bessho Koro has claimed that the Peace Monument was “not helping to solve problems in Japanese-South Korea relations…everyday [he goes] to work at the embassy and [he sees] that statue; [he does not think] that it was the right decision to put it there.”310 The statue’s proximity deprive the embassy workers and the Japanese government itself of the opportunity to avoid facing the Halmonis’ memories, but to look at their sufferings and their resilience embodied in the small

307 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 308 Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. IV, Kindle. 309 Robin Bernstein, Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights, (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 12-13. 310 Bessho Koro (Japanese ambassador to South Korea) interviewed by Elizabeth W. Son Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Chap. IV, Kindle. 69 statue. The activists who pushed for the statue at the Japanese Embassy emphasize how it is a powerful tool to broadcast their demands to the government.311 Additionally, their dedication to keeping the statue exactly as it is embodies the resilience of the Wednesday Demonstrators in continuing to ask for their seven demands until the Japanese government gives a constructive response.

311 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 70

Chapter V. An ‘Ordinary House’ as a ‘Place of memory’

Over the course of the discussions about the Wednesday Demonstration, we’ve explored two considerations, the demonstration itself and the erection of the Peace Monument, to its role as “a platform for remembrance, solidarity, and education, regardless of participants’ gender, age, and nationality.”312 The Wednesday Demonstration has redefined identities of survivors/ victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery as the Halmonis, the living witnesses and individual empowered agents. Meanwhile, the erection of the Peace Monument has produced diverse kinds of performances by the multiple audience. If the Wednesday Demonstration involves not only a space to ask for the seven demands313 to the Japanese government but also “a platform for remembrance, solidarity, and education,” it remains to ask what further constructs the memories of the Halmonis. 314 Considering that, while there is a request to build archiving centers for the memories of “comfort women” among the demands to the Japanese government, “there was no [permanent] place to remember the victims” in South Korea, the Korean Council decided to build a museum in 2003: the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum.315 After approximately a decade to build, in 2012, the museum was established as a place that: Remembers and teaches the history of Japanese military sex slavery victims, and campaigns for resolution of Japanese military sex slavery issue…..[, and also as a museum of] activism to make the world without war and violence against women, in solidarity to fight on-going wartime sexual violence.316

This chapter explores the very notion of what constitutes the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum to understand it as an increasingly crucial element in the evolving collective remembrance of the Halmonis’ stories. First, the chapter explores the museum as a site that engaged competing obligations of which past should be remembered by introducing how the

312 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 313 Through this platform, for more than 25 years, the Halmonis and supporters have continually stated their seven clear demands to the Japanese government: acknowledgement of war crimes, a truth investigation, a state apology, reparations, punishments for officers in charge, a record in history textbooks, and the construction of memorials and archiving centers. Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 47. 314 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration.” http://www.womenandwar.net/ 315 Sunju Kim, “Memory and Connection: Kim Dong Hee, Director of War and Women’s Human Rights Museum,” The SEOULive 18 (June 4, 2019): 55; Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 06. 316 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 2. 71 construction of the museum was relocated from a site in the Seodaemun Independence Park to an existing building that required remodeling. As the Independence Park functions as a space of commemoration of Korean independence movements against the Japanese occupation in the early 20th century, some opposed to the construction by arguing that the memories of the Halmonis did not belong to the history of the national achievements. Then, their strong opposition poses a question: can memories of achievement and shame coexist? After reflection on the possibility of the coexistence of seemingly contrasting memories, it explores how this challenge re-shapes a narrative of the museum and re-directs its interpretive approach to a “place of history,” explained by historian James Young. Second, the chapter reveals how pasts of the Halmonis are re-mediated and re-membered through understanding the museum-audience interaction. Particularly, the chapter explains how it has encouraged active participation of visitors through volunteering to paint Peace Murals, sharing their messages to the Halmonis on Butterfly Cards, that symbolize the hope of the Halonis to continue their fight for justice, and reflecting on the collective remembrance by visiting the Memorial Hall.

5. 1 An “Ordinary” House as a “Place of Memory” The “Undignified” History: Challenges of Creating the Exhibition To understand the development of the museum’s interpretive approach to the remembrance on the Halmonis and their trauma, it is significant to highlight the challenges of creating the exhibition on the grounds of the Seodaemun Independence Park. During the Japanese colonial period, the park was the main prison where Japanese imperial authorities arrested and held Korean independence activists in brutal conditions until the liberation of Korea in 1945.317 Today, the park is a history museum of the memory of the suppressed about independence movements against the Japanese colonial rule.318 In 2005, as its significant relevance to the Japanese occupation, the museum to remember the journey of the Halmonis received an official permission from the Seoul City government to build the site originally on the grounds of this park.319 Then, Kim Hee-ok, the initial architect, designed the museum to display various materials showing the history of the Japanese occupation, the sufferings of “comfort

317 I.SEOUL.U.Visit Seoulnet. http://english.visitseoul.net/attractions/Seodaemun-Independence-Park_/1753 318 Idem. 319 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 7. 72 women,” and human rights issues related to their pains.320 As a museum of negative memory, defined as a museum focusing on historical trauma, the museum was planned to memorialize the history of marginalization, injustice, and sexual violence at the hands of the Japanese military government, rather than celebrating achievements of South Korean past.321 The museum’s focus on the history of marginalization provoked conflicts about whose past is told in the space of commemoration of the independence movements, and what exhibitions in the park could be included or omitted. The Korean Liberation Association and Association for Surviving Family Members of Martyrs of the Country strongly opposed to its construction in the “sacred place” of liberation of movement as the park would be “undignified” to have it located within the same setting.322 They specifically described the plan to construct the museum as “a defamation about patriotic martyrs for the country.”323 Even though both the independence activists and the Halmonis had suffered from the wrong-doings by the Japanese colonial rule during the same period, the opponents did not perceive that the long journey of the Halmonis to confront historical wrong-doings by the Japanese government could fit into a narrative about the struggles of the independence activists against it. Political scientist Michael J.Sandel explains that pride and shame are sentiments that presuppose a shared identity.324 The Korean Liberation Association and Association for Surviving Family Members of Martyrs of the Country interpreted the movement by the independence activists as achievements of the past and national pride. In contrast, their description of the construction as “a defamation about patriotic martyrs for the country” indicates that their understanding of the Halmonis’ memories were limited only to Halmonis’ sufferings from the Japanese military sexual slavery, and it excluded Halmonis’ active involvement at the Wednesday Demonstration. So, they interpreted the

320 Goo, Bon-Joon, 구본준,“Byeokdol mada Wianbu Halmoni Yiyagi…Giyeokgwa Chumo, Chiyueui Jib” 벽돌마다 위안부 할머니 이야기….기억과 추모, 치유의 집 [Stories of ‘Comfort Women’ Halmonis on each brick…A House of Memory, Commemoration, and Healing]. Hangyoreh 한겨례, June 13, 2012. Accessed June 10, 2019. http://m.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/culture_general/537388.html?_fr=gg#cb 321 Brandon Hamber, “Conflict museums, nostalgia, and dreaming of never again.” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 18, no. 3 (2012): 265; Aleida Assmann and Anja Schwarz. “Memory, Migration, and Guilt.” Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture 4, no.1 (2013): 51; Susan Opotow, “Historicizing Injustice: The Museum of Memory and Human Rights, Santiago, Chile,” Journal of Social Issues 71, no. 2 (June 2015): 229. 322 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 7. 323“Wiyanbu ingun bak-mulgan ol hae neun sea woah gil gga”‘위안부 인권 박물관’ 올해는 세워 질까 [Could ‘Comfort Women’ Human Rights Museum be Built This Year?] Yeonhap-News 연합뉴스. January 5, 2010. Accessed June 7, 2019. https://m.yna.co.kr/amp/view/AKR20100104229700004; Bon-Joon Goo, “Stories of ‘Comfort Women’ Halmonis on each brick…A House of Memory, Commemoration, and Healing.” 324 Michael J. Sandel, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010), 235. 73 memories as a shameful part of South Korean history. Then, this strong opposition poses a critical question: can memories of achievement and shame coexist? By perceiving that the Halmonis’ movement could not belong to the history of the national achievements, the protesters were not open to the possibility of the coexistence of seemingly contrasting memories, so the plan to build the museum of the memories of the Halmonis were on hold.

A Symbol of Space that does not have a Symbol: The Two Storied-House The key challenges of creating the exhibition re-shaped and re-directed the museum’s interpretive approach to understanding the Halmonis’ stories. Facing the strong opposition, the construction plan was on hold, and a new place was decided. Through raising enough funds from citizens mostly from South Korea and Japan, the museum site was moved into a converted and extended 30-year-old house in the neighborhood of Seongsan-dong, Seoul.325 As the location of the museum changed, so did the museum’s design. Through a contest, architects Jang Young- chul and Jeon Suk-hee became new designers of the museum.326 Then, the two architects designed the museum with a combined narrative of Halmonis’ sufferings as a motive to build the museum and donation of tens of thousands of “ordinary” citizens as solidarity and support to create it (“ordinary” in a sense that they do not have genetic relationships with the Halmonis; it also implies those who did not directly suffer from Japanese “comfort women” system).327 Often, a state decides to turn sites of historical destruction into “place of memory.”328 Through the permission from the Seoul City government, the Korean Council and architect Kim attempted to broaden understanding of the memories of the Japanese colonial rule displayed in the Seodaemun Independence Park by connecting to the memories of the Halmonis.329 Historian James Young explains that, while sites of memory may embrace both their own meanings and image of a state’s ideals, later generations invest them with new meanings as they visit under new circumstances.330 Young describes the new meanings provided by new audience as “an

325 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 7. 326 The architect who originally designed the museum was Kim Hee-ok. However, as the location of the site changed, so did the building design. Thus, after a long consideration, the architect offered an unexpected offer. It was to give young designers opportunities to design the building. Thus, the competition for the museum design was held. Bon-Joon Goo, “Stories of ‘Comfort Women’ Halmonis on each bric.” 327 Idem. 328 James Edward Young, The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, 120. 329 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 7. 330 James Edward Young, The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, 120. 74 evolution in the memorial’s significance.”331 Applying Young’s description, the challenge of creating the exhibition on the Independence Park offered new audience and designers opportunities to invest new meanings of the collective remembrance about the Halmonis. As it created new circumstances for visitors to approach the memories of the Halmonis, the new location freed the memories from its relevance to the independence movements and its role as an additional connection to the memories of the Japanese colonial rule. However, the new site required new meanings and its symbolic connection with the memories of the Halmonis. So, artists have invested a new symbolic meaning of the location of the new place. While the Seodaemun Independence Park had a symbolic/historical meaning of the torture by the Japanese government, the memories of the Halmonis had no historical connection with the area of Seongsan-dong.332 Additionally, the new site was a house lived by “ordinary people.”333 Then, the architects interpreted the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery as a tremendous event “that has shaken the lives of ordinary people.”334 In that sense, journalist Sang-joon Park argues that the museum located in the neighborhood of Seongsan-dong is “a symbol of space that does not have a [historical] symbol.”335 By concentrating on the meaning of “ordinary people,” the architects placed a symbolic connection of the Halmonis with visitors who enter the museum as “ordinary people,” and designed the museum where visitors could explore the memories of the Halmonis who were once “ordinary people.”

The Stories of Five ”Halmonis” on the Tickets In order to do so, the museum offers tickets with individual stories of five “Halmonis” that evoke psychological sensitivity of visitors to imagination and empathy. When a visitor opens a main entrance gate, he/she enters “Greeting Hall,” a dark space of the museum without any proper lobby or “actual entrance,” which many interpret this space as the beginning of the journey.336 Modeled on a small, passport-sized booklet of a summarized biography of a victim of

331 James Edward Young, The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, 120. 332 Sang-joon Park 박상준, “Jinhongwa Yeomwoneui Jib. Seoul Jeonjaenggwa Yeoseong Ingun Bakmulgwang” 진혼과 염원의 집, 서울 전쟁과 여성 인권 박물관 [House of Love and Desire, War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul], Korea Tourism Organization, 한국 관광 공사, Http://korean.visitkorea.or.kr. 333 Idem. 334 Idem. 335 Idem. 336 Sang-joon Park, “House of Love and Desire, War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul”; Bon-Joon Goo,“Stories of ‘Comfort Women’ Halmonis on each brick…A House of Memory, Commemoration, and Healing.” 75 the Holocaust offered at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington D.C, a visitor receives a ticket that has a story of one Halmoni.337 The five Halmonis featuring on the tickets are Kim Hak-sun Halmoni, who was the first woman in Korea to speak about her experience as a “comfort woman” publicly; Kang Duk-kyung Halmoni who was an active participant of the Wednesday Demonstration; Park Young-sim Halmoni who became famous for a black and white picture of her as a pregnant teenager at a “comfort station”; Bae Bong-gi Halmoni who became known to the public as a “comfort woman” in 1975; and Hong Gang-rim Halmoni who could not return home and stayed in China until her death (See Figure XIII on page 75).338 In the museum, the ticket narrative guides visitors to learn details of what happened to one individual Halmoni and to connect her story to the whole lives of the entire Halmonis.339 Art historian Louis Purbrick explains this activity of identification with the narrative by arguing that visitors can develop an empathic connection to the Halmonis by recognizing what they are viewing “can be retrospectively recognized as abuses of human rights.”340 Additionally, like the USHMM booklet that enables visitors to personalize its rendering history, sociologist Susan Opotow explains visitors’ encounter of the Halmonis’ stories through tickets as “the emergence of an inclusionary orientation” toward the Halmonis who were excluded in the past.341 Thus, the five different tickets containing the stories of the five Halmonis invite visitors to begin their empathic journeys into Halmonis’ sufferings, pains, and their resilience at the Wednesday Demonstrations.

337 Daniel P. Reynolds, Postcards from Auschwitz : Holocaust Tourism and the Meaning of Remembrance, (New York: New York University Press, 2018), Chap. 6, Kindle. 338 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 13. 339 Sang-joon Park, “House of Love and Desire, War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul.” 340 Louis Purbrick, “Museums and the embodiment of human rights.” Museum and Society 9, no. 3 (2011): 185. 341 Susan Opotow,“Historicizing Injustice: The Museum of Memory and Human Rights, Santiago, Chile,” Journal of Social Issues 71, no. 2 (June 2015): 230; Greig Crysler, "Violence and Empathy: National Museums and the Spectacle of Society," Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 17, no. 2 (2006): 23. 76

Figure XIII. Five tickets with stories of five Halmonis342

The Narrative of the Museum Guiding visitors to explore the building from the basement, to the second floor, then to the first floor, the architects divided the narrative of the museum into three parts: Part I. The Past, Repressed History (Basement), Part II. The Present Encountering the Past (Second Floor), and Part III. Stepping into the Present toward the Future (First Floor). After receiving the tickets, visitors begin their journey by entering a narrow graveled alley by the buildings leading to the basement of the museum, having indirect experiences of isolation and fear as well as a heavy burden of history that the Halmonis must have felt (See Figure XIV on page 76).343 In the dark

342 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 13. 343 Idem. 77 basement, visitors listen to one of the five Halmonis’ testimonies in video clips.344 There, visitors can develop their empathic connections with a Halmoni more deeply. After experiencing the Halmonis’ sufferings and pains through Part I, visitors take a staircase to move toward the well- lighted second floor, where painful voices of victims change to more hopeful tone.345 On the second floor, visitors learn that Halmonis’ painful past has not yet been fully reconciled with the present by learning about their present activities and campaigns, particularly the Wednesday Demonstrations.346 Additionally, visitors can get access to 30 Halmonis’ lives, other than five Halmonis’ stories on the tickets, through their pictures, newspaper articles, and their video testimonies, by touching screens on the second floor.347 After understanding the struggles that the Halmonis have faced before and during the Wednesday Demonstrations, visitors arrive on the first floor, where they can reflect on pains and sufferings of victims of wartime sexual violence in other countries.348 By understanding the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery as an instrument of war and conflicts, the museum attempts to reinvigorate solidarity of the issue with memories of victims of wartime sexual violence in other countries.

Figure XIV. A narrow graveled alley349

344 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 22. 345 Ibid., 26. 346 Ibid., 28. 347 Ibid., 48. 348 Ibid., 70. 349 Wan-gi Lee 이완기, “[Geonchukgwa doshi – Jeonjaenggwa Yeoseong Ingun Bakmulgwan] Chumoeui Byeok….Hosoeui Byeok…Wianbueui Apeum. Heemangeul Damda” [건축과 도시 – 전쟁과 여성 인권 박물관] 78

5. 2 Re-producing Memories of the Halmonis As a mechanism to allow people to understand the violence of the past and to reflect on what would be needed to remember the past in the present in order to imagine better futures, the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum has engaged visitors and audience in various activities. Re-visiting Young’s explanation about the “evolution in the memorial’s significance,” three factors, Peace Murals, “Butterfly Cards” activity, and the Memorial Hall, in the museum have encouraged visitors to invest and develop new meanings of the collective remembrance about the Halmonis.

Peace Murals By painting multiple objects and colors, such as butterflies and yellow, that symbolize solidarity for the issue, Peace Murals present the long journey of the Halmonis who were victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery, but became human rights activists later (see Figure XV).350 The 120 meter long Peace Murals drawn at the entry of the museum in 2014 had been recreated in 2017 to mark the 5th anniversary of the museum’s opening with the support from artists and approximately one hundred volunteers.351 As the volunteers painted objects and colors in the Peace Murals narrative about the Halmonis’ performances at the Wednesday Demonstrations, they could reflect on the movement itself and add their own interpretations as its parts. Thus, the museum utilizes participatory approaches to evoke varied interpretations of the past.

Figure XV. Peace Mural 352

추모의 벽…호소의 벽…위안부의 아픔.희망을 담다 [[Architecture and city – War and Women’s Human Rights] Memorial Wall….Wall of Appeal…Comfort Women’s Pain and Hope], Sedaily, June 30, 2017. 350 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 92. 351 Idem. 352 Idem. 79

Butterfly Cards While participation of painting Peace Murals was limited to a certain time period from April 23 to May 3, 2017, 353 “Butterfly Cards” activity invites any visitor to participate in the design of the museum by slightly transforming it with visitor’s own idea or message anytime. Yellow butterflies symbolize Halmonis and their wings mean freedom from the sufferings of the sexual violence that Halmonis experienced.354 After learning about the symbolic meaning of yellow butterflies, visitors are invited to write messages of their support and hope on yellow butterfly cards, and share the messages by putting them on the wall outside of the building at the end of their visits.355 Messages written by visitors include (see Figure XVI on page 79): “Thank you, Halmonis, for becoming light through darkness,” “I will remember Halmonis’ youth, which is like red flowers, with my tears,” “I will not forget what happened to you, Halmonis, and when I become a history teacher later, I will definitely teach this issue to children.”356 As these messages imply, visitors could express their gratitude to Halmonis who broke their silence and became human rights activists, visitors’ decision to remember Halmonis’ memories, and visitors’ dreams to become history teachers, human rights activists, or others to teach the “comfort women” issue to future generation. Also, through these public interactions, the cards that visitors put on immediately become parts of the museum displays. Thus, the “butterfly cards” activities encourage visitors to add their own visions and reflections on the issue to the design of the museum.

353 Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 92. 354 Idem. 355 Idem. 356 Original sentences in: “어둠을 지나가 빛이 되어주셔서 감사합니다,” “붉은 꽃임 같은 할머니의 청춘을 눈물로 기억하겠습니다,” “절대 이 일을 잊지 않겠습니다. 훗날 제가 역사교사가 된다면 꼭 아이들에게 이 일을 가르치겠습니다.” War_Women_museum, “The museum’s outside wall is filled with love through hopeful messages from visitors” “관람객들의 희망적인 메세지로 박물관길 벽이 사랑으로 채워지고 있습니다.” Instagram, June 24, 2017. Accessed June 17, 2019.// https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtuoT2gZiD/?igshid=1emgijadeg96q

80

Figure XVI. The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum from outside. There is a wall where visitors can put their butterfly cards on.357

Critically examining collective memory in relation to museums as ‘sites of memory,’ Tourism studies scholar Chaim Noy explains that the museum-audience interaction is a critical element in breaking institutional formats of the museum and establishing audiences’ own voices and subjectivity.358 Noy introduces re-citing as one of the audiences’ strategies to get engaged in interactions with museums.359 As participants in the museum narration, visitors add to its display doing so through volunteering for recreating Peace Murals or writing messages to support the Halmonis.360 These activities constantly enrich and update collective memory discourse of the Halmonis.

357 Wan-gi Lee, “[Architecture and city – War and Women’s Human Rights] Memorial Wall….Wall of Appeal…Comfort Women’s Pain and Hope,”; War_Women_museum, “The museum’s outside wall is filled with love through hopeful messages from visitors” Instagram, June 24, 2017. Accessed June 17, 2019.// https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtuoT2gZiD/?igshid=1emgijadeg96q 358 Chaim Chay, “Memory, Media, and Museum Audience’s Discourse of Remembering,” Critical Discourse Studies 15, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 1. 359 Ibid., 33-34. 360 Idem. 81

Memorial Hall Architects Jang Young-chul and Jeon Suk-hee designed Memorial Hall, situated on the second floor of the building, with black bricks by putting sparse gaps between them in order to allow light and wind to pass (see Figure XVII on page 81).361 Then, they designed that the names of 170 Halmonis who already passed away, pictures of their faces, and the date of their deaths are written on each black brick.362 Also, victims who could not leave their names or pictures of themselves, due to various reasons, are remembered and commemorated on blank black bricks.363 There, visitors may present flowers on bricks. At the same time, as they attempt to read the names of the Halmonis or look at blank bricks, they often find their reflections from them. Reflection of visitors’ faces on the bricks implies their confrontation of the Halmonis’ past. Additionally, the reflection implies constant changes of the image of the Memorial Hall through its interaction with visitors. Each time visitors enter the Memorial Hall, the image of the memorial changes through reflections of different visitors and their interactions with it either by looking at it or putting flowers on bricks. So, it creates diverse interpretations by visitors through this changing monument. Architect Maya Lin realized both preoccupation with and articulations of uncompensated loss and absence by designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) in a V- shape wall, where visitors can see their reflections through the memorial wall.364 In her original proposal, Maya Lin describes that the memorial “is composed not as an unchanging monument, but as a moving composition, to be understood as we move into and out of it.”365 Like Lin’s memorial, the design of the Memorial Hall also articulates a value of a moving composition as it invites visitors’ interaction with it. Neither one’s understanding nor one’s experience of the memorial is static here, each depending on one’s own movement into the wall.

361 Sang-joon Park, “House of Love and Desire, War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul.” 362 Idem. 363 Idem. 364 James Edward Young, The Stages of Memory: Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces between, (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2018), Introduction, Kindle. Introduction. 365 Idem. 82

Figure XVII. Memorial Hall.366 After a long journey of creating the museum, the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum opened on South Korean Children’s Day, May 5, 2012.367 The Korean Council decided to choose this day in order to heal the sufferings of Halmonis who were children during their time at “comfort stations” and to present the world of “peace” to children today.368 As this chapter explained, the museum has created a space for visitors to understand the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery from perspectives of victims through one of the five Halmonis’ stories on the tickets. Through learning about an individual story of one Halmoni, visitors understand the collective remembrance of the Halmonis’ journey. However, the collective remembrance redefined at the museum does not remain static. Like the Wednesday Demonstration and the Peace Monument, it has encouraged active participation of visitors through volunteering to paint Peace Murals, sharing their messages to Halmonis on Butterfly Cards, and reflecting on the collective remembrance by visiting the Memorial Hall. Not only do visitors learn about the sufferings of the Halmonis and their resilient journey to become human rights activists through the Wednesday Demonstration, but also they add or re-construct their collective remembrance through these active participations. As an increasingly vital element in the evolving collective remembrance of the Halmonis’ stories, the museum is a constantly changing space produced by diverse participation of visitors.

366 Picture taken by the writer; Sunshil Kim, Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, 67. 367 Ibid., 8. 368 Sang-joon Park, “House of Love and Desire, War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul.” 83

Conclusion The Halmonis’ Life Journeys of Translating Their Pains of Both Tremendous Physical and Mental Injuries into Power

“I am wearing a “butterfly” badge that you gave me. I really hope that you get better soon, Halmoni, because you are the pillar of my fight against wartime sexual violence. You are my hero, Halmoni” Tatiana, the survivor of sexual violence in conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the coordinator of the national movement of survivors in the DRC369

On November 20, 2018, at a small lobby of a hotel in Voorschoten, the Netherlands, I filmed a video of interviews of four women from Kosovo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda, to send a message to a 93-year-old woman in South Korea: Kim Bok-dong Halmoni.370 Kim Bok-dong Halmoni was once the former “comfort woman,” and later became one of the inspiring Korean human rights activist who was an active member of the Wednesday Demonstration, and also campaigned against wartime sexual violence.371 At the moment she was in her final stage of her cancer. She encouraged these women to speak up in the public by showing them her life journey of becoming a living witness and an empowered agent. Then, last year she received this powerful messages back from them who gathered together in solidarity to fight against conflict-related sexual violence at the retreat of the Global Network of Victims and Survivors to End Wartime Sexual Violence, organized by Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation.372 As Tatiana, the survivor of sexual violence in conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, emphasized with the “butterfly” badge that symbolizes the sufferings of Halmonis and their hope to continue their fight, the Halmonis’ Wednesday Demonstration has become a milestone for other survivors of conflict-related sexual violence who just began their journey that might take longer and harder than they expected.

369 Tatiana is not only a survivor of sexual violence in conflict but also the coordinator of the national movement of survivors in the DRC. From the video interview conducted by the writer. 370 The video interview was not an official interview designed to be released publicly; it was a video of the four survivors of wartime sexual violence sending an encouraging message to the Kim Bok-dong Halmoni. 371 Gil-ja Park, and Kim Minji, “Former sex slave and human rights activist Kim Bok-dong dies at 93,” KOREA.net. January 29, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. 372 SEMA “is the Global Network of Victims and Survivors to End Wartime Sexual Violence. SEMA literally means ‘Speak Out’ in Swahili.” There are survivors of wartime rape from 21 countries in Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Europe represented in the SEMA network. They represent 2000 survivors and 90 years of conflict. The Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation aims to end rape as a weapon of war by putting survivors of sexual violence in conflict at the core of its mission.” Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation, “SEMA” Accessed June 18, 2019. https://www.mukwegefoundation.org/sema/ 84

As the Japanese military deliberately institutionalized and developed the sexual slavery systems after the Rape of Nanking, approximately tens of thousands of Korean girls and women were forced into the system and became “comfort women” during World War II.373 The “comfort women” suffered both physically and mentally as the Japanese military dehumanized and objectified them.374 Even after the termination of the war, while some victims were swiftly killed by the Japanese military, very few who managed to return home with non-existent support system remained silent for fifty years. In other words, survivors faced another “comfort station,” where their sufferings were not accepted and included in the South Korean state narrative, due to several reasons, including military occupation in South Korea, the patriarchal culture of the postcolonial era that made the issue to be a taboo, and national division. However, through a slow but constant formation of willingness of both South Korean audience to listen and survivors to speak, Kim Hak-sun, the former “comfort woman,” broke the long silence in 1991. Then, 238 other women, including Kim Bok-dong, also shared their memories in the public. Similarly, Tatiana and other survivors followed Kim Bok-dong Halmoni’s life journey of translating the pain of both tremendous physical and mental injuries into power.375 Empowered to become agents of change within their own communities, they have attempted to add their voices to bring collective consciousness of deliberate and massive use of rape by perpetrators as a weapon of conflicts and mass violence.376 Thus, the Halmonis’ Wednesdays not only have taught these victims/survivors of conflict-related sexual violence to speak up to raise awarenesses to what happened to them. But, the Halmonis also encouraged them to become themselves at the core of the discussions about the issues by showing their visible presence at the 28 years of the Wednesday Demonstrations. So, what has the Wednesday Demonstration become into? How has it re-defined the identities of the victims? How exactly has it shifted the dynamics of understanding the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery? By raising these critical questions, I explored how the topic of the Japanese military’s forced sexual slavery has been continuously reimagined and performed by the victims and other participants at the Wednesday Demonstration as it has become a “platform for remembrance, solidarity, and education.” By dividing the 28 years of the Wednesday Demonstration into three

373 Chapter I. The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Tokyo 2000, para 189. 374 Idem. 375 Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation, “SEMA,” Accessed June 18, 2019. https://www.mukwegefoundation.org/sema/ 376 Idem. 85 distinct periods, I deliberately began referring to former “comfort women” as the term “Halmoni[s],” reflecting their re-defined identities as living witnesses and individual empowered agents. Particularly, I concentrated on the erection of the Peace Statue on December 14, 2011 as it has enabled more active engagement of audience in more diverse performances. So, the Peace Monument has become a symbolic embodiment of the remembrance of the Halmonis’ sufferings and their resilience. Meanwhile, the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum, as an increasingly vital element in the evolving collective remembrance of the Halmonis’ stories, has become a constantly changing space of education, reproduced by diverse participation of visitors. As I have shown throughout the discussion, the Wednesday gatherings in front of the Japanese Embassy have created a platform for victims, perpetrators, and other ordinary people to remember the past, redefine it through interactions, and to become “embodied reckonings.”377 It has not only shifted dynamics of autonomy in narratives about the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery but also produced diverse forms of solidarity. First, it has offered a platform for former “comfort women” not to remain themselves as passive victims, but also to re-define themselves as Halmonis, by reflecting perspectives of victims rather than those of perpetrators. Becoming independent from the limited term, “comfort women,” Halmonis have placed themselves at the center of the Wednesday Demonstrations both physically and symbolically, through the individual visibility in front of the demonstration. Equally importantly, the Wednesday Demonstration has produced various forms of solidarity. As the message of Tatiana and other three victims indicated, the Halmonis’ journey of translating the pain into power paved a significant way for other victims to learn from. Additionally, it has created reciprocal relationships between the Halmonis and multiple audience. The audience has not remained as passive spectators, but they have also become agents to engage in the Wednesday performances by proposing and designing the erection of the Peace Monument and by transforming the displays of the museum. Understanding repetition as a critical factor of the Halmonis’ Wednesday performances, explained by performance studies scholar Richard Schechner in Chapter III, paradoxically implies that the Wednesday Demonstration is always already an incomplete project. While some may interpret the incompleteness of the Halmonis’

377 It is the title of a book, by Historian Elizabeth Son; Elizabeth Son claims that understanding the work of survivors and activists to reckon with the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery requires attending to their embodied acts. Elizabeth W Son, Embodied Reckonings, Introduction, Kindle. 86 performance as the failure, it actually implies that it continuously invites audience to engage in performances, reproduces the evolving remembrance, and generates other possibilities for change. Thus, diverse and robust public engagements in the Wednesday Demonstration have provided a stronger, not a weaker, basis for mutual supports between Halmonis and multiple audience.

On January 28, 2019, the Halmoni, who was the symbol in the fight for justice to other victims/survivors from other countries in solidarity, passed away in a hospital in Seoul, South Korea.378 Revisiting the Mexican proverb, “They Wanted to bury us but they did not know we were seeds,” Kim Bok-dong Halmoni and other Halmonis planted “the seeds” at the Wednesday Demonstration. Throughout the discussion, I began the Halmonis’ long journey of becoming the living witnesses and the empowered agents with the story of Kang Duk-kyung Halmoni in the introduction and I conclude it with the story of Kim Bok-dong Halmoni. Like the mosaic of the flat gray granite stones, visualizing the silhouette of a seated Halmoni, on the Peace Monument, their individual stories are the pieces and the “seeds”of the Wednesday Demonstration. Invisibly etched in the collective memory of the Wednesday Demonstration, Kang Duk-kyung Halmoni and Kim Bok-dong Halmoni have invited ordinary people to subject their own views and memories about the issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery, by leaving more questions rather than offering concrete answers: How will you remember Kim Bok-dong Halmoni? And, how will you participate in the Halmonis’ Wednesdays?

378 Gil-ja Park, and Kim Minji, “Former sex slave and human rights activist Kim Bok-dong dies at 93,” KOREA.net. January 29, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019. 87

Figure XVIII. Kim Bok-dong Halmoni in April 2014 touches the Peace Monument at Seongnam City Hall’s Front Plaza in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do Province.379

You might be hearing [this issue of the Japanese military sexual slavery] for the first time. But for me, it is really painful to talk about it. Even at this age, when I should have forgotten it and be at peace…. the Japanese government has kept dragging out this issue so long. So, whenever I have to talk about this issue over and over, I am heartbroken beyond belief. Kim Bok-dong Halmoni380

379 Gil-ja Park, and Kim Minji, “Former sex slave and human rights activist Kim Bok-dong dies at 93,” KOREA.net. January 29, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019; “Sonyesanggwa Halmoni” 소녀상과 할머니 [A statue of a young girl and Halmoni]. Yonhap news 연합뉴스, April 15, 2014. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://n.news.naver.com/article/001/0006863388 380 Original sentences in: 듣는 사람은 처음이제. 하는 나는 괴롭다고..이 나이에. 잊어버릴 나이에.이것을 이때 까지 질질 끌어나가면서..여러분 앞에 이런 말을 할 때에는…진짜…가슴 아프다고… Asian Boss, “Life As A ‘Comfort Woman’: Story of Kim Bok-Dong,” Filmed [October 2018], YouTube video, 18:15.Posted [October 2018]. // https://youtu.be/qsT97ax_Xb0 88

Acknowledgement

First of all, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Nanci Adler, for your advice and support throughout this thesis work. I’ve had the privilege of learning about the topic of transitional justice from you, Dr. Nanci Adler. There is absolutely no way that I could have completed this thesis without your assistance, and encouragement. Also, I would like to express my gratitude to all the professors of the Holocaust and Genocide program. Thank you to my family and friends who have kept me lifted up. Also, I am so grateful to the staff members of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan for sharing your passion for social justice. Particularly, I would like to thank Kim Bok-dong Halmoni, Gil Won-ok Halmoni and other Halmonis for your journeys to break their long silence and to continue your fight for justice more than 25 years. Words cannot express how much your journeys at the Wednesday Demonstration mean to me. It was such honor meeting you, getting to know you, and being part of your journeys at the Wednesday Demonstration. I also want to thank Tatiana and Desanges from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Vasfije from Kosovo, and Sylvia from Uganda, whom I met at SEMA, the global network of survivors and victims to end wartime rape facilitated by the Mukwege Foundation. Your engagements in social movements to end sexual violence in armed conflict as you follow the journey of Kim Bok-dong Halmoni are inspiring, and you are also “the pillars” of my passion for transitional justice.

89

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Archival Sources Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, Seoul Kim, Sunshil. Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. Seoul:War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. 2017. Kim, Sunshil. Suyoil 12 si 수요일 12 시 [Wednesday, 12 PM]. Seoul: War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. 2017. Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Suyo Siwi,” n.d. Accessed July 10, 2019. https:// www.womenandwar.net/ contents/ general/ general.asp? page_str_menu = 020101 Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. “Objectives & Activities,” n.d. Accessed June 22, 2019. https:// www.womenandwar.net/ contents/ general/ general.asp? page_str_menu = 2101

Survivor Testimonies The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center 한국정신대문제대책협의회 그리고 정신대 연구소. Ganjaero Ggulryugan Joseonin Gunwiyabudeul I 강제로 끌려간 조선인 군위안부들 I [The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” I]. Gyeong-gido Paju: Hanwool, 1996, The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean “Jeongsindae” Research Center 한국정신대문제대책협의회 그리고 한국정신대 연구소. Ganjearo Ggulryugan Joseonin Gunwiyabudeul II 강제로 끌려간 조선인 군위안부들 II [The Joseon Women Who Were Forced to Become Japanese Military “Comfort Women” II]. Gyeong-gido Paju: Hanwool, 1997.

Memoirs Kawata, Fumiko. House with a Red Title Roof: The Story of a Military “Comfort Woman” from Korea, Trans. Han U-chong, Seoul: Macilkyonje Sinmunsa, 1992. Kim, Seo-kyung and Eun-sung Kim 김서경, 김은성. Bineuijaehseginayksok 빈의자에 새긴 약속[Promise Engraved on an Empty Chair]. Seoul: Mal, 2016. Yoon, Mi-Hyang 윤미향. 25nyeonganui Suyoil 25 년간의 수요일 [Twenty-Five Years of Wednesday]. Seoul: Sai Haengson, 2016.

UN and ‘Official’ documents/ Tribunals Erturk, Yakin. 15 Years of The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences (1994-2009)- A Critical Review (New York: UN Human Rights Council 2009), vol. 123456. 90

International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Bernard Victor Aloysius Roling, and C.F. Ruter. 1977. The Tokyo judgment: the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (I.M.T.F.E), 29 April 1946- 12 November 1948. Amsterdam: APA- University Press Amsterdam. Prosecutors and the Peoples of the Asia-Pacific Region v. Hirohito Emperor Showa, Ando Rikichi, Hata Shunroku, Itagaki Seishiro, Kobayashi Seizo, Masui Iwane, Umezu Yoshijiro, Terauchi Hisaichi, Tojo Hideki, Yamashita Tomoyuki, and the Government of Japan, Judgement, Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery, Case No. PT-2000-1-T, December 4, 2001. Prosecutor v Jean-Paul Akayesu. Trial Judgment, Case No. ICTR- 96-4-T, September 2, 1998.

Websites and News Articles: Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation. “SEMA.” Accessed June 18, 2019. https://www.mukwegefoundation.org/sema/ Gil, Yoon-hyung. 길윤형. “Wooriga e-jeobeorin choichoui wiyanbu jeongeunja….gu e-rum Bae Bong-gi” 우리가 잊어버린 최초의 위안부 증언자…그 이름 배봉기 [Bae Bong-gi: FirstWitness of the Comfort Women, Forgotten by Koreans]. Hankyoreh 한겨례. Published August 8, 2015. Accessed May 5, 2019. http://m.hani.co.kr/arti/international/japan/703614.html?_fr=gg#cb Goo, Bon-Joon. 구본준. “Byeokdol mada Wianbu Halmoni Yiyagi…Giyeokgwa Chumo, Chiyueui Jib” 벽돌마다 위안부 할머니 이야기….기억과 추모, 치유의 집 [Stories of ‘Comfort Women’ Halmonis on each brick…A House of Memory, Commemoration, and Healing]. Hangyoreh 한겨례. June 13, 2012. Accessed June 10, 2019. http://m.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/culture_general/537388.html?_fr=gg#cb Han, Sol and James Griffiths. “Why this statue of a young girl caused a diplomatic incident” CNN. February 10, 2017. Accessed May 23, 2019. https://edition-m.cnn.com/2017/02/05/asia/south-korea-comfort-women- statue/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.kr%2F&rm=1 Hyon-hee Shin, “‘Comfort women’: Living, harrowing mark on history,” The Korea Herald, August 17, 2014. Accessed June 1, 2019. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140817000197 Jo, He-rim “Sexual Slavery victim makes debut as singer.” The Korea Herald. August, 10, 2017. Accessed June 5, 2019. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170810000740 Khorsandi, Peyvand. "Kim Bok-dong: South Korean Survivor of Japan's 'comfort Women' Camps." The Independent. February 06, 2019. Accessed April 08, 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kim-bok-dong-dead-south-korean- survivor-japan-comfort-women-human-rights-wwii-a8764541.html. Kim, Dong-sun. 동선, 김. “[Wianbu Bogoseo 55]17. Wianbu Silsang Chuk Gobalja, Yun Jeon- ok Jeon Ewha Yeodae Gyosu” [위안부 보고서 55]17. 위안부 실상 첫 고발자, 윤정옥 전 이화여대 교수 [[“Comfort Women” Reports 55] 17. The First Accuser of the Issue 91

of the “Comfort Women,’ Yun Jeong-ok, the Former Professor at the Ewha Woman’s University]. Asia Economics. 아시아 경제. September 3, 2014. 2014 년 9 월 3 일. Accessed April 27, 2019. http://www.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?idxno=2014090310153546706 Kim, Seo-yeong.“Comfort Women Victim Gil Won-ok’s Shatter Dream to Become a Singer Comes True.” The Kyunghyang Shinmun. September 6, 2016. Accessed June 8, 2019. http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?code=710100&artid=201609051711057& medid=enkh Kim, Sunju. “Memory and Connection: Kim Dong Hee, Director of War and Women’s Human Rights Museum.” The SEOULive 18 (June 4, 2019): 52-57. Lee, Hayong 이하영. “Suyojiphuiwa hamkkyehan ‘yeongjeong’ woori gyuet ddeonan Kim Sun- ok Halmoni” 수요집회와 함께한 ‘영정’ 우리 곁 떠난 김순옥 할머니 [Portrait of the deceased that also attended the Wednesday Demontration]. Seoul Newspaper, December 6, 2018. Accessed January 14, 2019. https://m.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?cp=seoul&id=20181206008001#Redyho

Lee, Hyejin 이혜진. “Wianbu Piheaja Guak Ye-nam Halmoni Byeolsae….Seangjonja 22 myong” 위안부 피해자 곽예남 할머니 별세… 생존자 22 명 [Obituary of Guak Ye- nam Grandmother…Only 22 survivors are alive]. Financial News, 파이낸셜 뉴스, March 2, 2019. Accessed April 4, 2019. https://www.msn.com/ko-kr/news/national/위안부-피해자-곽예남-할머니- 별세…생존자-22 명종합/ar-BBUhc6o

Lee, Hyung Kyung, and Shu-Mei Huang. “The contested gazes of ‘Comfort Women’ statues in Korea and Taiwan.” Accessed June 7, 2019. https://www.heritage.arch.cam.ac.uk/publications/spotlight-on/comfort-women Lee, Wan-gi. 이완기. “[Geonchukgwa doshi – Jeonjaenggwa Yeoseong Ingun Bakmulgwan] Chumoeui Byeok….Hosoeui Byeok…Wianbueui Apeum. Heemangeul Damda” [건축과 도시 – 전쟁과 여성 인권 박물관] 추모의 벽…호소의 벽…위안부의 아픔.희망을 담다 [[Architecture and city – War and Women’s Human Rights] Memorial Wall….Wall of Appeal…Comfort Women’s Pain and Hope]. Sedaily. June 30, 2017. McCurry, Justin“’Comfort women’: anger as Japan paper alters description of WWII terms,” The Guardian, November 30, 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/30/japanese-paper-sparks-anger-as-it- ditches-ww2-forced-labour-term?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Ock, Hyun-ju. “Student sit-in shields ‘comfort woman statue,’” The Korea Herald, January 27, 2016. Accessed June 15, 2019. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160127000938 Park, Sang-joon. 박상준. “Jinhongwa Yeomwoneui Jib. Seoul Jeonjaenggwa Yeoseong Ingun 92

Bakmulgwang” 진혼과 염원의 집, 서울 전쟁과 여성 인권 박물관 [House of Love and Desire, War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul]. Korea Tourism Organization. 한국 관광 공사. Http://korean.visitkorea.or.kr. “South Korea’s top court orders Mitsubishi Heavy to pay compensation for wartime labor,” The Japan Times, November 29, 2018. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/29/national/crime-legal/south-koreas-top- court-orders-mitsubishi-heavy-pay-compensation-wartime-labor/ “Wiyanbu ingun bak-mulgan ol hae neun sea woah gil gga”‘위안부 인권 박물관’ 올해는 세워 질까 [Could ‘Comfort Women’ Human Rights Museum be Built This Year?] Yeonhap-News 연합뉴스. January 5, 2010. Accessed June 7, 2019. https://m.yna.co.kr/amp/view/AKR20100104229700004

Social Media Asian Boss, “Life As A ‘Comfort Woman’: Story of Kim Bok-Dong,” Filmed [October 2018], YouTube video, 18:15.Posted [October 2018]. // https://youtu.be/qsT97ax_Xb0 War_Women_museum, “The museum’s outside wall is filled with love through hopeful messages from visitors” “관람객들의 희망적인 메세지로 박물관길 벽이 사랑으로 채워지고 있습니다.” Instagram, June 24, 2017. Accessed June 17, 2019.// https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtuoT2gZiD/?igshid=1emgijadeg96q

93

Secondary Sources

Books Alexander, Jeffrey C. Trauma a Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity, 2013. Bernstein, Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights. New York: New York University Press, 2011. Bemporad, Elissa, and Joyce W. Warren. Women and Genocide: Survivors, Victims, Perpetrators. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018. Boal, Augusto. Theatre of the Oppressed. London: Pluto Press, 2008. Certeau, Michel De., Luce Giard, Pierre Mayol, Luce Giard, and Timothy J. Tomasik. The Practice of Everyday Life. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998. Deuchler, Martina. Confucian Transformation of Korea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992. Edkins, Jenny. Trauma and the Memory of Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Eng, David L., and David Kazanjian. Loss: The Politics of Mourning. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. Kimura, Maki. Unfolding the ‘Comfort Women’ Debates: Modernity, Violence, Women’s Voices. London, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, (Duke University Press, 2003), 335. Moon, Katharine H. S. Sex among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations. Brantford, Ont.: W. Ross MacDonald School, Resource Services Library, 2006. Reynolds, Daniel P. Postcards from Auschwitz : Holocaust Tourism and the Meaning of Remembrance. New York: New York University Press, 2018. Kindle edition. Sandel. Michael J. Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. Schechner, Richard. Between Theater Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. Soh, Chunghee Sarah. The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2009. Son, Elizabeth W. Embodied Reckonings: "Comfort Women", Performance, and Transpacific Redress. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018. Kindle edition. Yoshimi, Yoshiaki. Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Yoshida, Takashi. The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Young, James Edward. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 2000. Young, James Edward. The Stages of Memory: Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces between. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2018.

94

Chapter in Edited Books Campari, Irene. “Uncertain Boundaries in Urban Space.”In Geographic Objects with Indeterminate Boundaries, edited by Peter A. Burrough and Andrew U. Frank, London: Taylor and Francis, 1996. Copelon, Rhonda.“Gendered War Crimes: Reconceptualizing Rape in Time of War,” in Women’s Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives, edited by Julie Peters & Andrea Wolper, New York: Routledge, 1995. Kim, Elaine H. “Home Is Where the Han Is: A Korean-American Perspective on the Los Angeles Upheavals.” In Reading Rodney King/ Reading Urban Uprising, edited by Robert Gooding-Williams, 215–35. London: Routledge, 1993.

Lee, Na-Young. “The Korean Women’s Movement of Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’: Navigating between Nationalism and Feminism.” In Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspective, edited by Kim, Seung-Kyung, and Carole R. McCann, New York: Routledge, 2003.

Journal Articles Arkenberg, Rebecca. “Arirang: An Introduction to Korean Music and Culture.” American Recorder 50, no. 1 (January 1, 2009): 10–11. Askin, K. D. “Comfort women – Shifting shame and stigma from victims to victimizers.” International Criminal Law Review, no. 1 (2001): 5–32. Assmann, Aleida, and Anja Schwarz. “Memory, Migration, and Guilt.” Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture 4, no.1 (2013): 51-65. Barak, Adi. “Critical Consciousness in Critical Social Work: Learning from the Theatre of the Oppressed.” The British Journal of Social Work 46, Issue 6, September 2016, Pages 1776–1792. Ching, Yoon and Miriam Louie. "Minjung Feminism: Korean Women's Movement for Gender and Class Liberation." Women's Studies International Forum 18, no. 4 (1995): 417-30. Chung, Chien-peng. "Democratization in South Korea and Inter-Korean Relations." Pacific Affairs 76, no. 1 (2003): 9-35 Crysler, C. Greig. "Violence and Empathy: National Museums and the Spectacle of Society." Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 17, no. 2 (2006): 19-38. Destrooper, Tine. "Performative Justice? The Role of Theatre and Performance in Facilitating Transitional Justice." South African Theatre Journal, 2018, 1-16. Espindola, Juan. “An Apology for Public Apologies?: Transitional Justice and Respect in Germany.” German Studies Review 36, no. 2 (2013): 327-45. Gready, Paul, and Simon Robins. "From Transitional to Transformative Justice: A New Agenda for Practice." International Journal of Transitional Justice 8, no. 3 (2014): 339-61. Hamber, Brandon. “Conflict museums, nostalgia, and dreaming of never again.” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 18, no. 3 (2012): 265-281. Kazue, Muta. "The ‘comfort Women’ Issue and the Embedded Culture of Sexual Violence in Contemporary Japan." Current Sociology 64, no. 4 (2016): 620-36. Kim, Hong. “The Sato Government and the Politics of Okinawa Reversion.” Asian Survey 13. No. 11. (1973) :1021-1035. 95

Kim, Mikyoung. "Memorializing Comfort Women: Memory and Human Rights in Korea and Japan Relations." Asian Politics & Policy 6, no. 1 (2014): 83-96. MacKinnon, Catherine. “Rape, Genocide, and Women’s Human Rights,” Harvard Women’s Law Journal 17, no. 5 (1994). Mitchell, Karen S., and Jennifer L. Freitag. “Forum Theatre for Bystanders: A New Model for Gender Violence Prevention.” Violence Against Women 17, no. 8 (August 2011): 990– 1013. Norma, Caroline. "Demand from Abroad: Japanese Involvement in the 1970s’ Development of South Korea’s Sex Industry." Journal of Korean Studies 19, no. 2 (2014): 399-428. Noy, Chaim. “Memory, Media, and Museum Audience’s Discourse of Remembering.” Critical Discourse Studies 15, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 19–38. Opotow, Susan. “Historicizing Injustice: The Museum of Memory and Human Rights, Santiago, Chile.” Journal of Social Issues 71, no. 2 (June 2015): 229–243. Park, Jee Hoon, Kyongweon Lee, Michelle D. Hand, Keith A. Anderson, and Tess E. Schleitwiler. "Korean Survivors of the Japanese “Comfort Women” System: Understanding the Lifelong Consequences of Early Life Trauma." Journal of Gerontological Social Work 59, no. 4 (2016): 332-48. Purbrick, Louis. “Museums and the embodiment of human rights.” Museum and Society 9, no. 3 (2011): 166-189. Rhodes, Anna, “The dead dream of the resurrection of the living: coping with the legacy of sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide.” Master thesis in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Amsterdam: January 2018. Shim, Young-Hee. "Feminism and the Discourse of Sexuality in Korea: Continuities and Changes." Human Studies 24, no. 1 (2001): 133-48. Soh, Chunghee. “The Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Movement for Redress.” Asian Survey 36, no. 12 (December 1, 1996): 1226–1240. Svandra, Philippe. “The Notion of Care Between Ethics, Work, and Politics.” Recherche en soins infirmiers 122, no. 3 (October 8, 2015): 18–25. Ueno, Chizuko and Jordan Sand. "The Politics of Memory: Nation, Individual and Self." History & Memory 11, no. 2 (1999): 129-152. Ward, Thomas J., and William D. Lay. "The Comfort Women Controversy: Not Over Yet." East Asia 33, no. 4 (2016): 255-69. Weitsman, Patricia A. "The Politics of Identity and Sexual Violence: A Review of Bosnia and Rwanda." Human Rights Quarterly 30, no. 3 (2008): 561-78.

96

Images Introduction/ Chapter Two Kim, Sunshil. Suyoil 12 si 수요일 12 시 [Wednesday, 12 PM]. Seoul: War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. 2017.

Chapter Three Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, “Activities: Wednesday Demonstration,” n.d. Accessed July 10, 2019. https:// www.womenandwar.net/ contents/ general/ general.asp/? page_str_menu = 020101

Kim, Sunshil. Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. Seoul:War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. 2017.

Chapter Four Hyon-hee Shin, “‘Comfort women’: Living, harrowing mark on history,” The Korea Herald, August 17, 2014. Accessed June 1, 2019. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140817000197

Chapter Five Kim, Sunshil. Exhibition Catalogue of The War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. Seoul:War and Women’s Human Rights Museum. 2017.

Lee, Wan-gi. 이완기. “[Geonchukgwa doshi – Jeonjaenggwa Yeoseong Ingun Bakmulgwan] Chumoeui Byeok….Hosoeui Byeok…Wianbueui Apeum. Heemangeul Damda” [건축과 도시 – 전쟁과 여성 인권 박물관] 추모의 벽…호소의 벽…위안부의 아픔.희망을 담다 [[Architecture and city – War and Women’s Human Rights] Memorial Wall….Wall of Appeal…Comfort Women’s Pain and Hope]. Sedaily. June 30, 2017.

War_Women_museum, “The museum’s outside wall is filled with love through hopeful messages from visitors” “관람객들의 희망적인 메세지로 박물관길 벽이 사랑으로 채워지고 있습니다.” Instagram, June 24, 2017. Accessed June 17, 2019.// https://www.instagram.com/p/BVtuoT2gZiD/?igshid=1emgijadeg96q

Conclusion Gil-ja Park, and Kim Minji, “Former sex slave and human rights activist Kim Bok-dong dies at 93,” KOREA.net. January 29, 2019. Accessed June 19, 2019 “Sonyesanggwa Halmoni” 소녀상과 할머니 [A statue of a young girl and Halmoni]. Yonhap news 연합뉴스, April 15, 2014. Accessed June 19, 2019. https://n.news.naver.com/article/001/0006863388