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| The Korean Women's Association United hosted the weekly rally to highlight the Japanese military sexual slavery issue ― also known as the comfort women issue ― in front of the Japanese Embassy in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Feb. 1. / Korea Times file |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Campaigners will focus on "comfort women" victims on the day that commemorates Korea's 1919 street demonstration that demanded liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
A civic group supporting victims and their families ― the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan ― expects an extra 1,000 people to join its weekly anti-Japan rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Jongno-gu, central Seoul, on the Independence Movement Day holiday today. The rally is the group's 1,272nd demonstration since January 1992.
"We prepared for the holiday rally just like any other rallies we have been holding," the group's secretary general Yang Noh-ja told Yonhap News Agency.
"The national interest on the comfort women issue and bronze girl statues symbolizing it has earned huge leverage from growing young adults. Many elderly people will also join the movement as the cold winter is fading."
The group planned a march from the embassy to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a few minutes away on foot, but it did not get approval.
The group has been holding the rallies to pressure the Japanese government to release a "sincerer" apology and pay restitution to Korea and the victims. Although the countries reached an agreement to seal the sexual slavery dispute in December 2015 ― with Japan paying Korea 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) ― grassroots organizations questioned the deal's legitimacy and continued criticizing Japan.
"Since 2012, we have been conducting a signature campaign, seeking 100 million signatures from those agreeing that Japan should give a sincerer apology on the issue and more understandable legal compensation," said Yang, 48. She is a third-generation descendant of a Korean-Japanese family and moved to Korea in 2004 to study. She said the group has gathered over two million signatures.
Civic groups from Dobong-gu, northern Seoul, proclaimed the holiday as "day one" of their campaign to erect bronze girl statues that symbolize victims.
The groups, comprising students from extracurricular activity clubs in schools, including Nogok Middle School and Duksung Women's University, will launch the event in the district's official "cultural street" in the Chang-dong area. Alongside photos provided by Yang's protest group and musical performances, a poll will be held in the busy street to select the site for a new statue.
District mayor Lee Dong-jin encouraged people to "come out and support the students' efforts for the good cause and cast a ballot."
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| Kim Sae-ron, left, and Kim Hyang-gi in a scene from 'Snowy Road' |
Theaters on the holiday will show new Korean history film "Snowy Road," a portrayal of two Korean girls from the Japanese colonial period bonding as they find themselves as sex slaves for the Japanese military.
Kim Sae-ron, who earned fame as a child actress, plays a young student from a wealthy family who is lured to study in Japan and encounters the horrible reality of a comfort woman. Kim Hyang-gi plays the other girl who is raised in a poor family, abducted by Japanese soldiers and thrown onto a train carrying other unfortunate girls with the same destiny.
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