Conference to Focus on Plight of Wartime ‘Comfort Women’ : Japan: Activists say victims used as sex slaves in World War II should be compensated by the government that forcibly recruited them.

In response to the reopening of a brutal chapter in Asia’s colonial past, a group of local academics, clergy and activists has launched a campaign to bring to light Japan’s role in forcing women, most of them Korean, to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

A conference today at Young Nak Presbyterian Church near downtown is intended to educate younger Asian-Americans and others about “comfort women,” the Japanese euphemism used to describe women forced to have sex with soldiers during the war.

The Coalition Against Military Slavery by Japan, which works closely with similar organizations in Asia, said the Japanese government forcibly recruited women from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan for army brothels. From 80,000 to 200,000 women, known as chongsindae in Korean, were enslaved from 1937 to 1945, according to the coalition.

“When you read the testimonies of the victims they are so simple and touching,” said Jeannie Sung Eun Cho, a Korean graduate student at UCLA who is writing her master’s thesis on the subject. “They don’t know about politics, they only know what happened to them. They all say they don’t want this to happen again ever.”

Cho talked about one 72-year-old Korean woman who called a hot line set up for survivors. In 1938, the woman, then 17, was taken to China, where she was kept in a house with 30 other Korean girls. She said that for seven years she was raped nearly every night by 20 to 30 soldiers.

When the war ended, the woman returned home, but could not bear to tell her family what had happened to her. She moved away, underwent a hysterectomy and needs medication every night to sleep, Cho said.

“The Japanese treated these women as commodities, shipping them back and forth as if they were military supplies,” said Oaksook Chun Kim, director of UCLA’s Korea program and co-chair of the coalition, which has about 40 members.

The coalition has launched a petition campaign to demand reparations from Japan and full disclosure of its government’s conduct. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights is expected to release a report on the issue in August.

One panelist taking part in today’s conference, the Rev. Louis Chase of the Lynwood United Methodist Church, said that as an Afro-Caribbean who has lived in Europe he is acutely aware of the historical legacy of colonialism. He said his interest in the chongsindae issue stems from his desire to understand “the points of hurt in our multicultural community.”

“We need to understand the hurt the Korean people experience as a consequence of colonialism because that is an experience that is not left behind in Korea, but comes with them when they come here,” Chase said.

About 220 survivors in South and North Korea and dozens more in other countries have come forward in the last year to talk about their experiences. Most are in their 70s and in poor health, Kim said.

In July, bowing to domestic and international pressure, Japan admitted that its military had recruited women to have sex with Japanese soldiers in brothels across Asia, reversing years of official denials.

Koichi Kato, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, offered “the sincere apology and remorse of the government of Japan to all those, irrespective of nationality or place of origin, who endured indescribable pain and suffering as comfort women. . . . My heart really aches when I listen to those who speak of this matter.”

But participants in today’s conference say Japan’s apologies are hollow because the government will not admit that the women were coerced into sexual slavery and refuses to pay reparations.

Won Soon Park, a Korean human rights lawyer and visiting fellow at Harvard Law School, dismissed Japan’s argument that its 1965 normalization treaty with South Korea settled all claims stemming from 35 years of harsh colonial rule in the Korean peninsula.

Park, who will participate in the conference, said the chongsindae were not discussed during the treaty negotiations, in part because some South Korean authorities at the time feared it might raise questions about their collaboration with Japan during the colonial period from 1910 to 1945.

As important as reparations, however, is disclosure of all documents related to the women’s recruitment and treatment, a public apology from the government and the emperor to the survivors, and inclusion of this information in Japanese textbooks and school curricula, Park said.

The Japanese government released some documents last year after a Japanese researcher uncovered official military records on the recruitment of women for army brothels. More information could be released as the government continues its investigation, said Koichi Ai, a press officer at the Japanese Embassy in Washington.

Korean activists say that crucial documents from the colonial police and several government ministries have not been released and that accounts by the women, soldiers and other investigators have been ignored.

The shame of their experiences, compounded by the weak political and social status of women in Korean society, prevented the women from speaking out for decades, said Michael Robinson, professor of Korean history at USC.

But changes in South Korea’s political climate during the late 1980s, led by a determined democratic movement, made it possible for female activists to raise the chongsindae issue, Robinson said.

In August, 1991, Kim Hak Sun was believed to be the first survivor to go public. Her testimony “galvanized a wound of denial and silence and galvanized the women’s movement in South Korea,” Robinson said. “Now it’s an explosive and emotional issue that won’t go away.”

Korean activists say the issue is not merely a historical one, but is linked to contemporary concerns, such as the alleged systematic rape of thousands of woman in Bosnia and prostitution linked to overseas U.S. military bases.

“We have to educate everyone about this issue so that our daughters and sisters, regardless of their nationality or status, will never be subjected to such atrocities,” Kim said. “It’s a human rights issue and an issue of dignity.”

BACKGROUND

The International Conference on Chongsindae-- Military Sexual Slavery by Japan will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at Young Nak Presbyterian Church, 1721 N. Broadway. Presentations and a panel discussion in English will be held from 9 a.m. to noon. The Korean-language session will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Admission is free.