One Comfort Girl’s Chilling Account of Abuse

She was a comfort girl.

Her story is one of perhaps hundreds of thousands that speaks of the pain and humiliation felt at the hands of Japanese soldiers during World War II, when women from Japan’s colonies were abducted and raped by the Imperial Army.

Kim Hyung-soon, 68, is from Sokri Mountain in Korea’s northern Choongchung province. She was interviewed at her home in February by retired university professor Lee Hyo Chae, who is chairwoman of the Coalition for Women Drafted into Sexual Service by Japan.

The following is a narrative of Kim’s experience as a comfort girl, as told to Lee Hyo Chae:

She was born into a landowner family, the oldest daughter among five boys and girls.

Her good looks attracted matchmaking offers early.

As Japanese soldiers began rousting neighbors’ homes, Kim’s parents worried that their daughter would be abducted. They arranged Kim’s engagement as a means of protection.

Despite her engagement, Japanese police came to Kim’s home and took her by force. By Kim’s recollection, it was close to the Lunar New Year in the winter of 1941. She was 17.

Packed onto a truck with policemen and soldiers, they drove through the night, picking up other women as they went.

By morning, she was at a large storehouse full of other women.

From the warehouse, the abductors loaded 30 of the prettier women, including Kim, onto a ship. After several days, they arrived in Nagasaki. They were taken to a building basement and taught proper Japanese etiquette.

Then they were confined to a small partitioned room on the third floor of a large building.

When the women were first forced to have sex with soldiers, they resisted. Those who tried to flee were returned to the basement and forced to watch as one woman was seriously cut with a knife.

Kim once tried to leave the confines through a bathroom window. She was caught and forced to inhale water as torture, she said.

While she was unconscious, soldiers seared both of her shoulders with a hot iron. She still bears the scars.

In the warehouse halls, comfort girls were barred from meeting one another.

She became pregnant when she was 19. She did not know about her pregnancy until she became big with child. She gave birth to a son, and the infant was taken away. Without explanation after the birth, soldiers began giving her single bills.

The bombing of Nagaski became fiercer, and people fled. To survive, Kim was reduced to rummaging in garbage bins. She used all her money for boat fare home.

She came to her hometown. Villagers said her parents and extended family had gone to Manchuria.