‘Comfort Woman’ Tells Audience of Horrors

Well over 150 people crowded into Boylston Hall’s Fong Auditorium last night to listen to Geum Joo Hwang’s graphic tale of her time as a “comfort woman” to Japanese soldiers during World War II.

The event, presented by the Harvard University Korean Association, was part of a national college tour by Hwang to “recognize the sufferings and therein commemorate the lives of all 200,000 comfort women of WWII.”

Korean “comfort women” were forcibly imprisoned during World War II and required to perform sexual acts for Japanese soldiers.

Last night, the audience reacted visibly to the survivor’s remarks, laughing at her feisty jokes and visibly cringing at her more graphic descriptions.

“I didn’t know where I was. I had no clothing, no money. I didn’t know the language. I had no shoes,” the 80-year-old Korean told the audience through an interpreter, recalling her time in China after being freed from the Japanese. “For the next several months, I lived like a beggar.”

Hwang also described being raped numerous times by Japanese soldiers, and recounted the murders of fellow comfort women.

The audience gasped audibly when Hwang lifted up the gown she was wearing and exposed a deep, ghastly scar running down her belly which she said was from a crudely performed surgery during her time in captivity. She also took out her false teeth, and said that her real ones had been lost because Japanese soldiers punched her repeatedly in the mouth.

The event’s organizers said last night that the Japanese government has never formally apologized for the treatment of comfort women.

In recent years, Hwang has undertaken a campaign to compel the Japanese government, via legal action, to admit wrongdoing. A video preceding last night’s speech detailed a class-action lawsuit filed against Japan in U.S. Federal Court by Hwang and 14 other survivors.

Hwang also exhorted the students in attendance to aid her cause.

“Nobody has more power than students when they get together,” she told the audience. “I urge you to fight so that this doesn’t happen to your children.”

Hwang frequently rose from her seat, used emphatic hand gestures to emphasize certain points and occasionally raised her voice to the point of yelling.

“It was really powerful,” said Amy Y. Cho, a sophomore at Wellesley. “I guess that the most horrifying thing was that I wasn’t aware of this until recently.”

After Hwang spoke, the coordinators of the event presented her with flowers, an umbrella, and a Harvard sweatshirt, all of which she accepted with a wide smile.

Envelopes and loose-leaf paper were passed out to the audience at the end of the event so that they could write letters to their congressional representatives, urging them to support Rep. Lane Evans’ ( D- Ill.) House resolution calling for Japan to issue an apology for crimes committed against comfort women.

“It’s really tragic and disturbing. It’s sad to think that so many people are lost like that,” said Aram Yang ’02, president of the Harvard University Korean Association.

“It’s really moving and I hope people take action.”

A Korean news station, YTN, also filmed the talk.