Here we go again. A new movie about the trials and tribulations of Korean comfort women has just come out. And on and on go the expats on expat sites in Korea debating about the whole thing. One girl posts, "Every time this issue comes up, people mention that Korea has had their own comfort women and haven't apologized or made reparation payments. Like that totally negates the suffering of these poor women!" Then goes on to make the all too common giant leap to the Nazis saying that if the Jews mistreated people, that wouldn't discount the whole holocaust. Reasoning that, let's be Frank, (Frank is very honest), may be the purpose of the endless reminders there are about the comfort women. Koreans want fellow Koreans to espouse the suffering and personalize it before it disappears. "Let's suffer along with the comfort women!" is the message I can't seem to avoid.
There are 46 of them left. Whether they are the genuine article or not, is moot. They're food for worms. Soon-to-be cabbage fertilizer. And maybe this is why the apparent urgency. I've heard more recently about this issue than ever before.
Before I go much deeper, I'll sum up the issue for those outside Korea who aren't bombarded with reminders about comfort women and Dokdo on a daily basis. During Japanese occupation in Korea there were an estimated 200,000 women who were forced into positions in which they provided sexual services for Japanese men. Not all of these were Korean. Lots were from the Philippines, Indonesia (Dutch East Indies back then), China, Burma, Thailand, Viet Nam, Malaysia, Taiwan, East Timor and other Japanese occupied territories. This is something a lot of people don't really mention, if they even know it, when they're bringing up that number of 200k. This statue 100 feet from the Japanese embassy in Seoul doesn't say that all 200,000 were Korean but it would be SO much better for the cause if that's what people were led to believe, wouldn't it?
The story goes that the women were mistreated, raped, beaten and so on. And if you know the Japanese record of human rights violations and atrocities during war time, this isn't hard to believe. HERE'S the part that's hard to believe: After the end of WWII, when Japan left Korea for good, none of the women said anything. The theory is that they were embarrassed by their ordeals, deeply truamatized into silence. From 1945 until 1991, nobody heard of any 'comfort women." It wasn't even a thing. For 46 years, almost to the day, they were all silent about this? Korean women? Missing a golden opportunity to complain about mistreatment? To whine, cry and moan? Maybe they were different back then, but I can't see it. Here in Korea, the older a woman gets, the more pride she takes in this skill. Ajummas are spectacular weepers and whingers and moaners! If you are having a funeral, you can HIRE one, that's right, PAY an ajumma to cry and moan at the funeral! I'm not making this up! It's not something unique to Korea, but in this country of professional mourners, a few hundred of them just kept silent for half a decade? Kept silent about rape, beatings, and who knows what? I'm sorry, but it's hard for me to swallow.
What makes it worse is what has happened SINCE 1991 in the way of comfort women demands. The old joke always comes to mind for me: How do you make a hormone? You don't pay her." (Whore moan) Ar ar.
Correct me if I'm wrong but comfort women demanding reparation payments is moaning over unpaid sex. At its essence. Probably not the best way to make their case as innocent, pure victims of the evil Japanese war machine. Just my opinion. And when I hear words that legitimately appear to be coming from the mouth of one of the few surviving comfort women, THEY are not the ones asking for the money. They ask for apologies and promises that this stuff won't happen again.
Anyway, Kim Hak Sun came out and told her story. Since then over two hundred more have identified themselves as former comfort women. Or at least, and this is my skeptical side coming out, the organization or organizations to which they had become affiliated registered them for their shares in the huge profits to come. The Korean Council for Women Drafted Into Sexual Slavery by Japan, and some other non government organizations, like the DDR rooms that sprang up when that game was popular, like the PC rooms that filled every available commercial site in Korea at the height of Starcraft's popularity, like the singing rooms that are STILL everywhere taking advantage of the most enduring trend to hit Korea, some people saw a notorious Korean wave and they paddled for it. Do you have to be a genius to see the anti-foreigner sentiment and take monetary advantage of it? I don't think so. And it has paid off, I have no doubt. Not just from the eventual reparation payments the Japanese have made. Those are probably pretty measley in comparison to public support and donations from Korean people.
Have you ever met a Korean woman who doesn't LIKE to haggle? No you haven't. One who isn't ready to go down with the ship in a heated negotiation over a 500 won piece of fruit? This is a skill that FAR eclipses their mourning abilities and it is impossible to find a Korean girl who doesn't possess it. I admit to taking full advantage of it too! If I want a good price on a big purchase like a movie camera, I'll bring a female Korean friend camera shopping with me.
So if you're saying to yourself, why was that movie made? In every war EVER there are "comfort women." What makes Korea so special? Or as my favourite blogger worded it, "Pillage doesn't happen without rape." And if you're thinking that the Korean comfort women who were the worst treated are most likely all dead by now largely because of that treatment. The ones who remain are in all liklihood some of the Korean gals who saw the Japanese soldiers carrying more money in their wallets than they'd ever see in a lifetime and decided to raise themselves out of poverty by the only means available to them. If they were embarrassed about anything for a half century, THAT was what it was. And if these women spent their earnings wisely, they have been very well off since the end of WWII and still are. So they don't need the money from Japanese reparation payments. And I've read that very little of the Japanese money actually went to the comfort women, but ended up furthering the comfort women organizations. Most, if not all of this is just speculation.
There's no way we will ever know the truth. And if there is, and I am wrong, I'm an asshole. But I believe that this is the more realistic way of viewing the whole comfort woman situation.
Either way, I'm sure it'll be an entertaining movie. Moreso if you believe it's a documentary and not a work of fiction. I don't happen to think that way. And finally, in response to that expat gal above, I think there were Korean comfort women. I believe there was mistreatment, rape and such. It shouldn't be ignored, but I have a hard time with people who are trying to inspire new anger, hatred and discrimination from it, especially in this country where all of that is on the rise. The Korean victims of this tragedy are mostly dead, and can't really be helped. Korea, despite this sad history, did the identical things to other comfort women from other countries such as Viet Nam. This doesn't negate the Korean victims, it just makes Korea look incredibly hypocritical. Especially since a lot of the Vietnamese victims of Korean atrocities are still alive and could be helped. This certainly detracts from any belief or support I could have in the Korean comfort woman cause, though I agree it shouldn't detract from the sorrow felt for legitimate Korean victims.
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