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| People look at comic strips featuring women forced into wartime sex slavery by Japan during World War II at the Angouleme Theatre during the Angouleme International Comics Festival in France, Saturday. In the right photo, Minister of Gender Equality and Family Cho Yoon-sun speaks at the opening ceremony of the wartime sex slavery exhibition under the title "Flowers That Never Fade." / Courtesy of Ministry of Gender Equality and Family |
By Kang Hyun-kyung
A special exhibition about Korean women forced into sexual slavery during World War II attracted nearly 17,000 visitors during the four-day Angouleme International Comics Festival in France.
On Sunday, Minister of Gender Equality and Family Cho Yoon-sun welcomed the event for helping raise international awareness of the tragedy of wartime victims.
"The power of art is enormous. I feel vindicated that the wartime sex slavery issue has become a universal wartime human rights issue through the art of comics at this festival," Cho was quoted by the ministry as saying.
The minister promised that she would continue to try and raise the issue at the international level through diverse forms of art.
Korean artists displayed some 20 comic strips, cartoons and video clips under the title "Flowers That Never Fade" at the world's largest cartoon festival that ran from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2.
According to the ministry, Japan put pressure on the organizing committee to scrap the special exhibition featuring "comfort women," the ephemeral expression for sex slaves.
Conservative Japanese people also attempted to set up a booth nearby to counter Korean victims' testimony regarding their sufferings.
However, the festival authorities didn't heed the Japanese call to scrap the comfort women exhibition and also removed the right-wing Japanese booth Wednesday, a day before the opening of the festival.
Frank Bondoux, chairman of the festival, and Philippe Lavard, mayor of Angouleme City, participated in the opening ceremony of the comfort women exhibition.
During a press briefing, Bondoux confirmed the Japanese attempt to disrupt the comfort women exhibition.
"Despite the mounting pressure we, the organizing committee of the festival, decided to hold the special exhibition mainly because the goal of the comfort women exhibition is for peace," he was quoted as saying by the ministry.
"I hope that this exhibition can help those who are responsible for the wartime crime repent for their past misdeeds, and that it can help end violence against women."
Bondoux noted that France, along with the rest of Europe, consider World War I and II to be the worst conflicts ever in history and therefore maintain a critical stance toward them.
Nicolas Finet, the editorial manager and Asia coordinator of the Angouleme festival, refuted the allegation that the comfort women exhibition was politically motivated.
"Raising awareness of a particular historical fact which has yet to be known to the public is not a politically motivated act. But, such an attempt aimed at distorting history is political," he said.
Since last year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has pushed for the comfort women exhibition at the renowned festival, as Angouleme was prepared to highlight the cruelty of war on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the outbreak of World War I.
Cho is the first cabinet member to attend the four-day festival.
She stepped up efforts to raise the international community's awareness of Japan's wartime crimes through the event.
During her visit to France, she met French Sen. Michele Andre, who is familiar with the comfort women issue, on Wednesday to ask for her cooperation to raise international awareness about the matter.
Andre has been active in the fight against violence toward women.
The French lawmaker promised to discuss the comfort women issue with her colleagues and fight for wartime women's rights.
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