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Chongshindæ/Jūgunianfu

1991 — Testimony at the Council for the Issue of Comfort Stations of Korean Women’s Associations United, and at public forums held in several Japanese cities, sponsored by the Japanese Women’s Network Group

 

I do not understand why Japan is lying. I made my determination after watching the news. I was not asked to do it. I am doing this out of my own will. I am almost 70 years old, and I am not afraid of anything. I will say what I have to say.

I tried to escape, but I was caught soon and raped in tears. I was seventeen then. . . 

When I refused to have sex with soldiers, they said that they would kill me because I was under orders from the Emperor, the commanding officer, and the soldier himself, a soldier of the Japanese Army.

As a living witness, my blood boiled when I heard the Japanese government denying its role in the Chŏngshindæ system on the television newscast and their refusal to teach history correctly to younger generations.

My whole body and soul still shiver just thinking and talking about my experience as a former Chŏngshindæ woman, even when I saw the Japanese flag, the hinomaru, as I was boarding the Japan Airlines flight to come here.

 

 

Source: Kono han o kahu tame ni: Gen Jūgunianfu Kim Haksoon-san no hanashi o kiku atsumai o oete, 9 December 1991 [In order to resolve han: After the meeting to hear former Jūgunianfu Kim Haksoon’s story] (Tokyo: Jūgunianfu Mondai Uri-Yosong Network) 1992, pp. 5-10.

 

Also: “The Chongshindae Movement,” by Alice Yun Chai, Korean Studies, Vol. 17, (University of Hawai’I Press) 1993, p. 79.