Flowers falling off, The remaining 25 survivors

‘Japanese military sexual slavery grandmother passed away again’

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2019-01-09 - 2분 걸림 - 댓글 남기기

5th of last month(December), one of the Japanese military sexual slavery victims Kim sunok she passed away at the age of 97 years old. According to the House of sharing in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, she died at 9:05 a.m. on that day. due to her poor health.

She was born in Pyongyang in 1922, and was taken to Heilongjiang brothels in China at the age of 20, fooled by the Japanese army's promise to get her a job at a factory in 1940. Kim Soon-ok, who had a terrible experience in the brothels, couldn't return to Korea after marrying a Chinese for a living even after liberation. Then in 2005, due to the help of The Ministry of Gender Equality and Korea chongshindae (comfort women, the group of young women taken to Japanese rape camps during World War Ⅱ)’s institute, she could gain South Korean nationality and could live in the house of sharing.

She had participated in the weekly demonstrations and engaged in many testimony activities so made many efforts to resolve the Japanese military sexual slavery problem. In addition, as her extraordinary efforts to get honor for the sexual slavery victims are known, many feel more sorry about her death.

And the same month 14th, one of the Japanese military sexual slavery victims, kwinyeo Lee passed away aged 92, at about 8:00 a.m. She was taken to the Chinese zenith when she was 17 in 1943 and suffered hardship until liberation in 1945. She was also unable to return to her home country after liberation, but returned to Korea in 2011 after recovering her nationality, and was registered as a target of life-safety support, which she can live in her home country. Last year, grandmother of eight of Japanese military sexual slavery victims, including two mentioned above, died and Japanese military sexual slavery victims registered on the government are reduced to 25 survivors. Many people lament their death and the fact that they passed away without hearing proper apology to their indelible scars.

Japanese military sexual slavery problem is still ‘hot potato’ since August 14, 1991, Kim Hak Soon’s courageous first public testimony. As the saying goes, “There is no future for a nation that has forgotten history,” we should not forget the painful history of the past for the sake of the future as well as the falling flowers. We will demand sincere apology and reflection ceaselessly.