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Book detailing experiences of 'comfort women' published
By Kim Se-jeong
Cover of “Can You Hear Us?: The Untold Narratives of Comfort Women”
By Kim Se-jeong
An English-language book containing accounts from 12 victims of sexual slavery by the Japanese military before and during World War II was published Monday.
A government commission looking into their experiences published “Can You Hear Us?: The Untold Narratives of Comfort Women,” and the first 20,000 copies will now be distributed, mainly in the United States.
“Copies of the book will be provided to politicians, newspapers and public libraries in the United States for their understanding of what exactly happened to sex slavery victims,” the commission said.
The panel, affiliated with the Prime Minister’s Office, was established in 2004 and researched the extent of forced mobilization by Japan during the occupation (1910-1945). The commission identified victims of sexual slavery and conducted in-depth interviews with them, before creating an archive of their experiences.
In addition to sexual slaves, the commission also studied victims of forced labor during the period. The English release comes almost one year after the Korean version was published. Translation was done by Media Joha, a media firm based in New Jersey, which is responsible for the book’s promotion and distribution. The book will also be available online.
One of the extracts contains the story of activist Kim Moon-sook. She is from the Busan branch of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, and has worked tirelessly to raise awareness on the issue.
The Japanese military took sexual slaves before and during the Second World War for its soldiers on the ground. Most women came from Korea and China, followed by the Philippines, Indonesia and others. The precise number affected is unavailable, but estimates say that at least 200,000 women were forced into servitude.
The Japanese government has in recent years been denying the military’s involvement in recruitment, saying the women chose to join brothels themselves to earn money. The victims’ accounts denounce this argument. The issue is slowly gaining attention around the world thanks to local NGOs dedicated to publicizing sexual slavery in Asia. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is currently drawing up a white paper on the topic, and is funding research to collect evidence to enlist it on UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ program.