Looking Back at 10 Years of the “Comfort Women” Movement in the U.S.

When Kim Hak-sun, a survivor of the Japanese military sexual slavery system, broke her silence in 1991 and spoke to the media about the terrible experiences she and other women went through under the Japanese military during World War II, it encouraged many other women to break their own silence and start a movement to recover their honor and dignity, and moved the world to recognize that “Rape during war is a crime against humanity.” Soon after Kim’s press conference, support groups and advocacy organizations in other Asian countries where women had been victimized by the Japanese military during the Asian-Pacific War and World War II formed an international solidarity network, led by the Korean Grandmas (Korean survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery are commonly referred to as “comfort women victim grandmothers” in South Korea, but I will use the term “Korean Grandmas” in this chapter) and The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for the Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (hereafter, The Korean Council). The Korean Grandmas, who bravely came out and registered with the South Korean government as victims of the “comfort women” system, began a weekly demonstration every Wednesday, which is still ongoing—the world’s longest running demonstration in the Guinness Book of World Records—in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul since early 1992. Soon after the groundbreaking testimony by Kim, the Japanese government conducted an investigation and issued the Kōno Statement, a landmark apology announced by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Kōno Yōhei in 1993. Although Mr. Kōno acknowledged the Japanese military’s involvement in the “comfort women” atrocity and expressed apology for it, the statement stopped short of acknowledging the Japanese government’s responsibility for creating and operating the system of military sexual slavery, and the apology was neither ratified by the Japanese Diet nor was it an official Cabinet decision. Following the Kōno Statement, the Japanese government set up a charity foundation called the Asian Women’s Fund in 1995, which collected donations from private Japanese citizens and corporations and dubbed it “atonement money.” The Japanese government made sure this money was not a legal compensation, which would signify the government’s acceptance of legal responsibility for this war crime. Many victims rejected the money, saying that this hush money was only an insult. In 2000,