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Former sex slave calls for Park to press Abe
Kang Il-chul, one of the women forced to serve as a sex slave for Japanese soldiers, urged President Park Geun-hye to keep pressuring Japan for an apology and compensation.
By Kim Se-jeong
By Kim Se-jeong
GWANGJU ― Kang Il-chul, 87, one of the women forced to serve as a sex slave for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II, urged President Park Geun-hye to keep pressuring Japan for an apology and compensation.
“I want her to stand firm and clear about an apology and compensation. Unless we demand it strongly and consistently, Japan will never do so,” she told a group of journalists who visited her at a home in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, Monday.
Leaders of China, Korea and Japan will hold a summit this year ― either in late October or early November. Park and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are likely to meet separately during this.
The Japanese military forced almost 200,000 women into sexual slavery during the World War II. Most of the victims were Korean, along with Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian and Dutch. Abe has been denying the accusation, saying the women joined the brothels voluntarily to make money.
Kang is one of 47 Korean survivors, and is now living at the House of Sharing. She lives with nine other survivors, whose average age is 89. Another shelter in Seoul, run by a local NGO, hosts three women, and others are scattered around Korea.
Born in 1928, in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, Kang was forced into slavery from her hometown at the age of 16. She was sent to brothels in Changchun and Mudanjiang, China.
After the war, she settled in Jilin in northeastern China. She married a Chinese man, and moved to Korea permanently in 2000 with her three children.
Kang looks healthy and is outspoken about her plight. She constantly reminds people of one thing: “My tragedy happened because I didn’t have my country. I want young people to be mindful of that tragic time in history and to protect their freedom and sovereignty as Koreans.”
The memory of her years in sexual slavery continues to haunt her, even in her sleep, she said.
“I sometimes see myself weeping in my dreams. It wakes me up, and I can’t get back to sleep,” Kang said. “I tell myself in the dream that it’s worse than killing myself.”
She has seen many of her friends at the shelter pass away and that depresses her. “This is why I take a walk every day. I remember them and pray for them.”
The 87-year-old has spread the word about her plight and the Japanese atrocity throughout Korea and around the world. In August, she flew to the United States where she shored up support to erect a statue commemorating the victims in the state of New York. During her previous trip last December, she met U.S. Rep. Mike Honda of California's 17th District of the Democratic Party, asking for help in getting an apology from Japan.
When not traveling, she spends her time sharing her experiences with visitors to the House of Sharing, who come all year around. According to the shelter, more than 10,000 people have visited the shelter since its opening in 1998.