A young, defenseless woman with her eyes and mouth wide open is being dragged away from her motherland by a soldier. It is a pitiful scene depicted in a painting titled, "Stolen Away."
It is one in a collection of about 90 paintings and drawings recently published in a book. The works were created during a period of seven years by six former Japanese military comfort women living at the "House of Sharing" in Kwangju, Kyonggi-do. Titled "Unblossomed Flower," the 200-page book has been printed in three languages — Korean, English and Japanese.
"Comfort women" is a euphemism for the sex slaves who were raped by Japanese soldiers at military camps during World War II. There were an estimated 50,000 to 300,000 comfort women.
They were young women, usually in their teens, some as young as twelve. A large number came from Korea, but others also came from other countries occupied by the Japanese army, such as China and the Philippines.
The women were forced to have sex with 10 to 30 soldiers a day. Many were tortured or killed in the Japanese military camps. Others caught venereal diseases or got pregnant.
Abandoned after the war, some comfort women were killed by the retreating Japanese military, while others committed suicide out of shame. Unable to make the return trip home, some women had to stay behind in a foreign country.
Those who did return home lived in poverty and deep shame, suffering from permanent physical and emotional scars that would never heal. Because of their painful past, many comfort women never married, and lived in solitude.
For decades, many women could not express their pain in words, as it would dishonor not only themselves, but also their families. It was not until the early 1990s that these women started to speak out and reveal their heart-wrenching stories about the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese army and the hardships they endured.
At age 67, the first former comfort woman to testify in public was Kim Hak-soon. She came forward in August 1991 and passed away in December 1997.
Former comfort women are often called "halmoni," an affectionate term meaning "grandmother" in Korean.
In 1992, several former comfort women moved in to the House of Sharing for shelter and support. Founded in 1992 with support from Buddhist and social organizations, it was originally situated in Sokyo-dong, Seoul. It moved to its current location in Kwangju-gun, Kyonggi-do in December 1995. Today 11 halmonis and a staff of seven reside at the shelter.
In February 1993, the halmonis living there started receiving art therapy to express their feelings. They learned how to paint under the instruction of artist, Lee Kyung-shin, who volunteered to teach them each week. For three years, the class focused on assuaging the wounds buried deep inside them and turning the pain and sorrow they had encountered as war victims into art.
Imbued with a disturbing, touching power, these paintings portray the testimony of the women. The sketches and paintings vividly convey their feelings of shame, anger and bitterness which remained bottled up till now as well as their quest for justice. Not only does their artwork help to heal their wounds, it plays a key role in publicizing their story as comfort women around the world.
The first exhibition of artwork done by former comfort women was held in 1995 in Tokyo and Nagoya and it evoked a huge response. In 1996, the exhibition toured several places in Korea, such as the Seoul Arts Center.
In 1997 and 1998, the artworks of the halmonis, entitled the "Grandmothers’ Painting Exhibition," were invited once more to Japan at the request of Japanese citizens’ organizations. The exhibition toured 28 different cities, such as Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
The exhibition helped the Japanese society become aware of this issue. After seeing the exhibition, many Japanese were struck by the pain suffered by the victims and became involved in their plight. About 150 Japanese visitors come to the House of Sharing every month with gifts and apologies, some even staying to cook and do housework.
At present, the exhibition is being shown in the U.S. and Canada for the first time. Since Sept. 22, the exhibition has toured Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and is currently on display in Philadelphia. Afterwards, it will head for Toronto and end its tour in San Francisco, where the exhibition will continue until Dec. 3.
The tour, titled the "Quest for Justice: The Story of Korean ‘Comfort Women’ as Told Through Their Art," was sponsored by the House of Sharing and the Historical Museum on Sexual Slavery by the Japanese Military.
"Silence Broken — Korean Comfort Women," a 57-minute documentary, is also shown along with the exhibition. The documentary discloses the harrowing testimony of what actually happened to Korean comfort women during the war.
Two former comfort women, Kim Soon-duk, a resident of the House of Sharing, and Hyejin, a 35-year-old Buddhist monk, who is also the executive director of the House of Sharing, are touring with the exhibition.
One third of the acrylic paintings on display are by Kim, who drew "Stolen Away." Simple and unaffected, yet poignant, her paintings show scenes of her life before and after she was forced into sexual slavery.
Now 80, Kim Soon-duk was recruited in 1937, at age 17, with other Korean girls for what she was told would be factory work in Japan.
For three years, Kim was raped by as many as 40 soldiers a day at her "comfort station" outside Shanghai, China. After a serious illness, she was allowed to return to Korea in 1940.
Too ashamed to go back home, Kim led a difficult life working as a housekeeper and running small businesses. For years, she told nobody about what had happened to her, including her mother, late husband and three children.
In 1992, she moved into the House of Sharing, where she keeps busy to block the memories of her past experiences. She is still haunted by nightmares and suffers mild internal bleeding from her injuries.
There were demonstrations in front of the Japanese consulates in the U.S. cities where the exhibitions were held in support of the "Weekly Wednesday Demonstrations" held in front of the Japanese Embassy in South Korea every Wednesday since 1992.
At the demonstration, protestors demand the Japanese government admit to their war crimes, offer an official apology and pay reparations to the victims. The Japanese government continues to deny the accusations and still has not offered an official apology.
In September, former comfort women visited Washington, D.C. to file a lawsuit in a federal court against the Japanese government for forcing women into sexual slavery. They demanded that the Japanese government be held legally responsible and be punished for their war crimes.
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