The Struggle of Korea's Comfort Women

Intro

“We want an apology, not compensation. If we sought money, 300M won, let alone 100M won, will not be enough.” These words from survivor Lee Ok-Seon carry the weight of a pain that money can’t heal. A demand not just for reparations, but for justice and acknowledgement. 

In 1910, Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910, taking full control and turning it into a colony which lasted for 35 years. During this period, the Japanese stripped Korea of their rights, language and freedom. Turning it into a country containing cheap labor and military control. Even the resources from Korea were taken to support Japan. As World War 2 began, Japan also invaded other countries like China, Phillipines, and Southeast Asia.

This article focuses on the tragic stories of South Korea’s “comfort women”, girls and young women taken during the Japanese occupation and forced into sexual slavery. Survivors like Kim Bok-dong and Lee Ok-seon broke decades of silence to speak about the abuse they endured, and the lasting impact it had on their lives. By hearing their stories, this piece shows not just the war crimes committed, but the effects it has on its victims even long after the war ends.

History of the Comfort Stations

After the Battle of Nanjing, for 6 weeks the Japanese troops massacred the city of Nanjing (Nanjing Massacre). Death tolls ranging from 40,000-340,000 and rape tolls ranging from 20,000-80,000. It horrified the world, and Emperor Hirohito was concerned on Japan’s image. So the Imperial Japanese Army created ‘comfort stations’. They were military-run brothels with females ranging from 14-25 years old from the colonized countries like Korea, were forced or tricked into sexual slavery. Their justification was that it was to prevent future mass rapes that can cause international criticism, to “protect the morals” and discipline of Japanese troops and to prevent soldiers from assaulting local civilians (in places like China, the Phillipines, and Indonesia). But this just shifted the violence onto specific women, it didn’t end the violence.

Testimony: Kim Bok-dong

During the war, all of the Korean men were sent to serve in the war. So when the Koreans were under Japanese rule, the Korean women and children were vulnerable. When she was taken away from her family, Kim Bok-dong asked her mom where she’d go, which was replied with “They’re short-staffed in a factory that made soldiers’ uniforms”. Japanese soldiers promised her mom that she’d be returned once old enough to marry. Kim Bok-dong was 15 years old, and saying “no” would lead to blackmail with their belongings being confiscated and exiled from Korea. 

She was taken to Guangdong province China in a big school/factory with dorms. The first time, she got dragged into a room and beaten up before being sexually assaulted. 2 girls and Kim Bok-dong after experiencing it for the first time thought ‘they were much better off dead’. The girls tried to commit suicide by drinking a whole bottle of alcohol but were revived by the medics. That action caused permanent damage to Kim Bok-dong until her old age later on.

She also got stationed in different places such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore. After the Japanese lost the war, they tried to cover up the existence of the comfort stations by making them nurses at army hospitals. She stayed there for a year before the hospital closed and refugee boats came and she returned to Korea after being away from her family for 8 years. Growing older she refused to get married and said “Given all the abuse done to my body, I didn’t want to screw up another man’s life. It should just be my problem.”

Kim Bok-dong spoke out when she turned 60. Remembering what happened still made her feel angry. She believed that telling the truth would fix things, but even now, nothing has changed. Despite all that, she said she was willing to forgive. She believed in “hating the sin, not the sinner,” and knew it wasn’t something Prime Minister Abe did, but the responsibility of the former emperor. “At my age, when I should be at peace, Japan keeps dragging this out. Having to talk about it again and again breaks my heart.”

Testimony: Lee Ok-Seon

From a young age, Lee Ok-seon dreamed of going to school,  but her family was too poor. Her mother told her she could study if she was adopted by a family who owned an udon restaurant in Busan. Instead of schooling, she was made to do chores and serve alcohol to customers. She ran away several times but was always caught, and eventually the restaurant owner sold her to an inn in Ulsan. One day, while running an errand, two large men kidnapped her and took her to a Japanese military “comfort station” in Yanji, China. She later reflected that her dream had been to go to school, not to end up in such a place. She was 14 years old when this happened.

One of the threats given if the ‘comfort women’ refused to accept them was that their bodies (‘comfort women’) would be cut up with military swords. After the war ended, the victims were abandoned in the mountains by the owner of the ‘comfort stations’

Even after the war ended, she couldn’t return to South Korea so instead lived in Yanbian, China. She didn’t have the courage to return home, so her family believed she had died and officially registered her as dead. She finally returned to Korea after 60 years in China. It took a year to confirm her identity, and now she lives in the House of Sharing, a nursing home for surviving comfort women.

She visited the U.S. in July 2014 on a media tour to recount her experiences and pressure Japan to apologize. She talked about how she wanted to resolve this issue with all the power she had but she couldn’t so that’s why she went to the U.S. to get some help. She said, “I was taken when I was 15 years old and now I am 87 years old, how much longer can I wait for an apology?”

The silencing of their stories

Korean government = After Japan’s rule ended in 1945, South Korea went silent about the issue and focused on rebuilding its economy and political system. Talking about the comfort women didn’t fit the image of a strong, rising nation. The government also avoided the issue to keep good relations with Japan, especially after a 1965 treaty that gave economic aid but ignored personal war crimes. Survivors didn’t gain any medical or financial support. Real support only started in the 1990s, thanks to the survivors speaking out and the pressure it put that came with it.

Korean families = In traditional Korean culture, a woman’s sexuality was seen as something private and tied to family honor. If a girl was sexually assaulted, people often saw her as “spoiled” or shameful. Families worried about losing respect, marriage chances, or their reputation. Many survivors were told to stay silent, as if hiding it would protect the family. Many were disowned by families, avoided by neighbors, and couldn’t marry or find work.This left women like Lee Ok-seon and Kim Bok-dong feeling deeply alone, staying quiet for decades and more.

Korean textbooks = For years, South Korean textbooks focused on male heroes like independence fighters, not on women who had been forced into sexual slavery. Publishers and teachers often avoided the topic, thinking it was too shameful or controversial. Thanks to survivors and activists, textbooks started including it in the late 1990s, but how much they cover still differs today.

Legacy of speaking out

For Kim Bok-dong, she started in the 1990s, giving public testimony about her experiences. She traveled internationally to speak at the UN and other tribunals, co-founded the Butterfly Fund in 2012 to support wartime sexual violence victims, and regularly joined the Wednesday Demonstrations in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

Meanwhile for Lee Ok-seon, she was one of the 12 women who took legal action against the Japanese government, asking for 100 million won each. But she said, “We want an apology, not money. Even 300 million won wouldn’t be enough.” They eventually won the case.

She became publicly active in the 1990s, lived at the House of Sharing with other survivors, and spoke out to students and the media. She joined the weekly Wednesday protests and gave testimony in several countries to demand justice. Even into her 90s, she continued her activism.

A well-known symbol of the comfort women’s fight for justice is the bronze “Statue of Peace,” first placed in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011. It shows a young girl in traditional Korean dress with an empty chair beside her, representing the victims’ lost youth and inviting people to remember them. Since then, similar statues have been set up around the world, turning the survivors’ stories into a global reminder for justice.

Japan’s Accountability

During March 1, 2007, Abe claimed “there is no evidence to prove there was coercion.” Backlash came such as when U.S. lawmakers responded with outrage: “I rise today in shock and disappointment at recent news from Japan, where it was reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has denied the historical fact that the Japanese Imperial Army forced as many as 200,000 women into sex slavery during the Second World War, and publicly stated that Japan will not issue an apology, even if a resolution is passed in the United States House of Representatives.” Then during March 26, Abe stated “I am apologising now as the Prime Minister.… This has been stated in the Kono statement” but it was an expression of sympathy, not a new apology.

During 2015, Japan and South Korea issued a joint agreement aiming to resolve the comfort women issue “finally and irreversibly.” 3 weeks after the agreement, Abe told the Japanese National Assembly, “There was no document found that comfort women were forcibly taken away.” This went against the agreement’s aim of “recovering the honor and dignity and healing the psychological wounds” of the victims. It also drew international criticism, especially from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The committee responded strongly, saying it is “not precluded ratione temporis from addressing such violations,” meaning they can still deal with these abuses despite how long ago they happened. They urged Japan to stop making harmful remarks that hurt survivors again, and stressed that victims have the right to truth, justice, and proper compensation.Then 9 months later South Korea then asked Abe to “send a letter of apology directly to the former comfort women.” which he refused, saying, “I have no intention of apologizing again.” 

Not only Shinzo Abe, but Mayor of Osaka Tori Hashimoto at 13 May 2013, said that “In the circumstances in which bullets are flying like rain and wind, the soldiers are running around at the risk of losing their lives… if you want them to have a rest in such a situation, a comfort women system is necessary. Anyone can understand that.” The U.S. State Department called his remarks “outrageous and offensive,” and overseas protests followed.

Japan often argues that deals like the San Francisco Peace Treaty (1951) and the 1965 Japan-Korea Normalization Treaty already settled all wartime issues, including the comfort women. Because of this, Japan says it has no further legal duty to pay compensation to individuals. Meanwhile legal experts and human rights groups stress moral responsibility. They say treaties might settle legal issues, but they don’t erase the moral duty or the need to face historical truth. Japan also hesitates to fully admit responsibility because: admitting legal guilt could bring endless claims and financial costs, a full admission might hurt ties with nearby countries and force Japan to keep paying reparations. It was also seen as a threat to Japan’s pride.

Conclusion

The issue of comfort women remains unresolved not because of a lack of evidence, but the lack of accountability and justice the victims got in return after their experience, despite the rest of the world acknowledging that the comfort women system was a war crime that Japan did. Japan’s reluctance to accept responsibility reflects not only legal and political restraints but struggles like national memory and pride. Meanwhile for South Korea the demand for recognition embodies a need for justice that surpasses treaties.

This controversy shows that reconciliation cannot be achieved through economic compensation and compromise alone but requires moral accountability and honest engagement with the past. The comfort women debate isn’t just about the legacy of the Second World War, but about how societies remember, acknowledge, and learn from historical injustice.

The comfort women issue also reflects a larger problem many countries face: deciding whether to openly confront past wrongs as a shared human responsibility, or to hide them in order to protect national pride. This struggle lies at the center of how history is remembered and how justice for past crimes is pursued.