By Maija Rhee Devine
The final scene of "The Apology" (director: Tiffany Hsiung, 2016) about three former comfort women ends with a drum beat of determination. On a bus, Grandma Gil of S. Korea and her activist/caretaker returning from an overseas mission of demanding an apology and compensation from Japan, belt out "Live Like a Rock!"
"Let's stand against windstorms
that whip and slash . . .
and become the foundation stone. . . .
Let's live like a rock!"
In contrast, immediately before this scene, the activist (from The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan) is seen sobbing. We see her hands pressed against her eyes. Before this meltdown, she admitted:
"I feel guilty. Maybe, we shouldn't have driven Grandma Gil and other comfort women grandmas, pushing them through alien airports, watching them toss on strange beds,serving them hard-to-digest foods, and keeping them on schedules that daunt even young people. . . . The grandmas suffered plenty and earned respect for what they already endured. We should've left them alone. Instead, here we are, dragging them for years through Japan, the U.S., Geneva, all over. Maybe, this is wrong, especially when the trips have ended in one failure after another."
The honesty needles hearts. But has activism failed? Even a casual glance at the chronology of the events since 1991—when former Korean Comfort Woman Kim Hak-soon burst onto the world stage with her story as one of the Comfort Women of WWII—yields examples of impressive successes. True. Sweat and tears have poured into the activism's gains. And urgent work still piles, including the all-important task of assuring all victim nations and Japan teach future generations accurately about this chapter of WWII history.
Random samples of their coups include:
*Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono's admission of the Japanese military's use of "coercion in recruitment" of women forced to work in military brothels (1993).
*The International Commission of Jurists' statement that the Japanese military's acts constituted war crimes, crimes against humanity, slavery and the trafficking in women and children" (1994).
*The Japanese Federation of Bar Association's recommendation that Japanese government pay individual compensation to victims (1995).
*The U.N. Commission on Human Rights' recommendation to Japan that "victims of Japan of WWII be compensated." (2001).
*The California State Board of Education's vote to include the history of World War II sexual slaves from Asian countries in the state's 10th-grade curriculums. (2016).
*The U.N. Committee Against Torture's suggestions that the December 2015 Park-Abe agreement needed to be revised, and that the Comfort Women were "sex slaves." (2016).
Setbacks, however, vie with successes. Japanese nationalists, outspoken against "anything Korean" (The National Interest, 6/11/17), demand the apologies already expressed by Japanese high-ranking officials be revoked. The passage on the Japanese military's use of sex slaves fell into a black hole from Japanese middle school textbooks 1997-2001.Shying away from "renegotiation" of the 2015 Park-Abe Agreement of an apology and compensation, the new S. Korean Moon administration proposes a "fresh bilateral effort," a potential setback. However, the Korean activists, who saw the Agreement as a slap across comfort women's faces in the first place, may consider a fresh start as a coup, rather than a failure.
The activist's tears enunciate that she and her fellow advocates believe only a completely satisfactory apology (an on-the-knees atonement) and a Japanese-government-appropriated compensation can finally heal all sorrows, stop the flow of what Koreans call "blood tears" of victims and open up channels of reconciliation and cooperation.
Both sides have miles on moonless roads to go.
The author of an autobiographical novel about Korea, "The Voices of Heaven," and a poetry book, "Long Walks on Short Days," Maija Rhee Devine is working on her next books ― a nonfiction book and a novel about comfort women of WWII. Contact: www.MaijaRheeDevine.com or maijadevine@gmail.com.
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"Let's stand against windstorms
that whip and slash . . .
and become the foundation stone. . . .
Let's live like a rock!"
In contrast, immediately before this scene, the activist (from The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan) is seen sobbing. We see her hands pressed against her eyes. Before this meltdown, she admitted:
"I feel guilty. Maybe, we shouldn't have driven Grandma Gil and other comfort women grandmas, pushing them through alien airports, watching them toss on strange beds,serving them hard-to-digest foods, and keeping them on schedules that daunt even young people. . . . The grandmas suffered plenty and earned respect for what they already endured. We should've left them alone. Instead, here we are, dragging them for years through Japan, the U.S., Geneva, all over. Maybe, this is wrong, especially when the trips have ended in one failure after another."
The honesty needles hearts. But has activism failed? Even a casual glance at the chronology of the events since 1991—when former Korean Comfort Woman Kim Hak-soon burst onto the world stage with her story as one of the Comfort Women of WWII—yields examples of impressive successes. True. Sweat and tears have poured into the activism's gains. And urgent work still piles, including the all-important task of assuring all victim nations and Japan teach future generations accurately about this chapter of WWII history.
Random samples of their coups include:
*Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono's admission of the Japanese military's use of "coercion in recruitment" of women forced to work in military brothels (1993).
*The International Commission of Jurists' statement that the Japanese military's acts constituted war crimes, crimes against humanity, slavery and the trafficking in women and children" (1994).
*The Japanese Federation of Bar Association's recommendation that Japanese government pay individual compensation to victims (1995).
*The U.N. Commission on Human Rights' recommendation to Japan that "victims of Japan of WWII be compensated." (2001).
*The California State Board of Education's vote to include the history of World War II sexual slaves from Asian countries in the state's 10th-grade curriculums. (2016).
*The U.N. Committee Against Torture's suggestions that the December 2015 Park-Abe agreement needed to be revised, and that the Comfort Women were "sex slaves." (2016).
Setbacks, however, vie with successes. Japanese nationalists, outspoken against "anything Korean" (The National Interest, 6/11/17), demand the apologies already expressed by Japanese high-ranking officials be revoked. The passage on the Japanese military's use of sex slaves fell into a black hole from Japanese middle school textbooks 1997-2001.Shying away from "renegotiation" of the 2015 Park-Abe Agreement of an apology and compensation, the new S. Korean Moon administration proposes a "fresh bilateral effort," a potential setback. However, the Korean activists, who saw the Agreement as a slap across comfort women's faces in the first place, may consider a fresh start as a coup, rather than a failure.
The activist's tears enunciate that she and her fellow advocates believe only a completely satisfactory apology (an on-the-knees atonement) and a Japanese-government-appropriated compensation can finally heal all sorrows, stop the flow of what Koreans call "blood tears" of victims and open up channels of reconciliation and cooperation.
Both sides have miles on moonless roads to go.
The author of an autobiographical novel about Korea, "The Voices of Heaven," and a poetry book, "Long Walks on Short Days," Maija Rhee Devine is working on her next books ― a nonfiction book and a novel about comfort women of WWII. Contact: www.MaijaRheeDevine.com or maijadevine@gmail.com.
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