The Forgotten Sex Slaves
At the age of “over the hill”, The women who were forced into sexual slavery to serve Japanese military during World War II are struggling to survive alone with no family, no homeland and no money.
The forgotten sexual slaves
Since 2001, South Korean photographer Ahn Sehong, 42, started his trip to remote villages in China to learn about the lives of those unfortunate women. They are people who had been forced into sexually serving Japanese soldiers during the World War II and were trapped in China after the war.
In the picture is Sun-ok Kim, born in 1922, arrested to military service in 1942, at Shimenzi, China. She has attempted in many ways to make her roots not fade away. She wore hanboks, spoke Korean and sang Arirang, a traditional folk song of Korea.
Mr. Ahn has followed 13 of these women. They are now in their 80’s, 90’s. ALso they have been living away from home for too long and some people are no longer able to speak Korean natively. In the picture: Mrs. Lee Su-dan was also born in 1922 and was arrested to Shimenzi military service in 1940.
In 1970, around 30 years away from her homeland, Ms. Lee received a family photo sent from Pyongyang, North Korea. She has lost contact with her family for a long time. These women had been lured to China by the invitation to work “voluntarily” for Japanese troops. They were raped even before arriving at China, where they were forced to have sex with 10 men a day.
Ms. Park Dae-im, born in 1912, went for military service in 1934 and taken to a brothel in Mukden, now Shenyang City, China. She has been granted a residence permit for foreigners. This is the only one certificate that Mrs. Park has so she kept it very carefully.
When being sent to China, she had an 8-month-old son. She took the boy with her to go along the duration of sexual slavery.
Ms. Park had an aspiration which was to be buried in her hometown. She was lying back on Chinese soil, at the age of 101.
Ms. Bae Sam-yeop was born in 1925 and captured to go into military service in 1937 in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China. Her virginity was lost from the age of 13 by a Japanese senior officer.
Sexual slavery is one of the most sensitive issues in relevance to North Korea, South Korea and Japan. Indignation about the fate of these people erupted recently when a Japanese politicians have stated that military brothels intended for Japanese soldiers are necessary.
Having been abandoned in the countryside when the World War II ended, those sexual slaves became isolated after the Korean War, when China had no diplomatic relations with South Korea.
The Korean government has given some support for their civil rights but these activities ended in the 1980s. Very few of them want to go to North Korea because the living conditions there even more difficult for them to adapt to.
Ms. Lee and Ms. Kim are holding their hands walking the land which once housed the Shimenzi brothel, where their youths was eternally buried.
Last March, Ahn Sehong opened an exhibition of black and white photos in New Jersey, USA. The show attracted a large audience, mostly Koreans, to see and explore a part of the national history. Ahn said of 9 women in photographs showed in this exhibition, only 3 are still alive. He hopes his project will help raise awareness of women’s right and support for women who have been neglected.
“We did not pay due attention to them after the war. But now we have enough money and power to help them. ” He said “Korea’s rapid growth makes people forget about the war memories so easily”.