A little while back Helen invited me along on a tour group she'd signed up for.
The
House of Sharing is southeeast of Seoul in Gyeonggi province. The establishment has had a troubled history in Seoul and had to move several times before they gathered funds to build the current complex they use in the countryside in 1995. Along with residences, there is a museum, several art installations, memorials,
a reconstruction of a comfort station (a much more spacious, well lit and hygienic one according to the survivors who viewed it) and meeting rooms. Due to the age of the residences it is a lot like a nursing home but what it specifically is, is a safehouse for former comfort women.
I had heard the term 'comfort woman' before but I misunderstood the details. I thought it was simply a euphemism for prostitute coined during the Second World War but it's actually more complex and bluntly horrible.
A
'comfort woman' is a female (A large percent could not really be called adults) who were abducted and/or tricked to leave home for work before being forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military in 'Comfort Stations'. They were held as prisoners mostly in tiny dark little cells, abused, assaulted and many of them simply died.
Many of the specifics are now lost ot us for several reasons.
The first, is that when the war began to draw to a close the official in charge did what many were doing at the time and destroyed the paper trail. (Putting aside the fact that a paper trail existed for military brothels filled with slaves for the moment.)
The next is that a great many of these women disappeared. Some died of disease or the primitive forced abortions. Others were absorbed into the country where they had been transported. Some have been discovered, unable to speak their mother tongue after more than sixty years elsewhere isolated from their country.
It seems to have been determined that this official sanctioned version of rape began in 1932 in response to reports of Japanes soldiers raping women. In my opinion such logic can only be obscene arrogance or complete insanity.
It may be a mixture of both. As of now, the Japanese government refuses to issue an official apology or acknowledgement. [I'm glad to note that the Irish government gave one to the victims of the
Magdalene Laundries. See, Japan. Is that so hard?]
Every Wednesday at 12:00pm since January 8th 1992 the survivors and their supporters gather outside the embassy to protest. Their response is to close all the doors, windows and blinds to block out the elderly Korean ladies. (It is officially the longest running protest in the world.)
We were brought by bus out to the house. The group watched a video, had a discussion and went to the museum. One of the main guides was an American girl. She could be a bit leading attempting to get her audience to give her specific answers, especially considering that the group was composed of intelligent adults that came there willingly. The evidence speaks for itself so it was a bit unnecessary. However she was very passionate and outraged about her cause.
We saw maps of movements (most women to transported to different countries to help prevent escape), reconstructions of 'comfort stations' and much of artwork (
Art Therapy is big here) before talking to the survivors. There were also 'relics' from deceased survivors.
Very few of these women have families of any sort, those opportunities having being robbed from them. They are addressed by the respectful 'Halmoni' which means Grandmother
The truth is that many of these women understandably did not wish to speak out about their experiences. It take a certain kind of spine to out yourself through more heartache and suffering. They felt, naturally enough, ashamed and traumatised. Talking to one of the residents, it seemed to me that she only 'came out' as a survivor because she had no choice. She was getting too old and sick to live alone and had to deal with both the government and her church trying to find a relative to live with or else why she seemed to have none.
Helen felt embarrassed when she asked the Halmoni what she did for Seollnal and got the response 'Nothing. Everyone went home so we were alone.'
I had to point out that she had beat me to the punch as I was about to ask that. 'What did you do last weekend?' is a simple enough question afterall.
We weren't actually allowed, and we were warned pretty strictly about this, to ask them anything about their experiences and you know what that's fine. Why would they want to talk about those things with every gawker passing through especially when we'd already been given a pretty thorough rundown a half hour before.
That being said I nearly leaned over to give the guy next to me a clip around the ear when he did just that. (There were a good few stupid questions that day.) The Halmoni did give an answer as well as a deflection. She said she didn't like Japanese and didn't want to talk about them. Who can blame her?
Of the survivors that have come out with their stories only about half a dozen remain. (It's undeniable that the Japanese government is simply waiting for these elderly ladies to die.) There are those biding their time and then there are assholes like
Toru Hashimoto. Way to go Toru, way to make your country proud.
The House of Sharing continues their weekly protests and accepts visitors year round.
