Kangjero kkŭllyŏgan Chosŏnin kun wianbudŭl : chŭngŏnjip
[True stories of the Korean comfort women], vol. 3 / Han’guk Chŏngsindae Munje
Taech‘aek Hyŏbŭihoe, Han’guk Chŏngsindae Yŏn’guhoe p‘yŏn. (Sŏul-si : Hanul,
1999)
The women who were drafted for military sexual slavery by Japan during World War II are known as
‘comfort women’, translated from the Korean wianbu, or
chŏngsindae. About 200,000 Korean women, mainly between sixteen
and seventeen years old but some as young as twelve, were tricked, defrauded
or even kidnapped into joining the Japanese military brothels. They were
located on Japanese military bases, usually in occupied areas in mainland
China and Southeast Asia. The number of Korean ‘comfort women’ victims was estimated
at between 80,000 and 200,000. Many of them were killed as part of an attempt
to cover up the crime. The Japanese government denied that they ran any such
system until 1991 when Kim Hak-sun came out and revealed the Japanese
atrocities to the world. On 10 August 2005, former comfort women and activists demonstrated in Seoul and
other cities around the world, demanding that Japan do more to compensate the
former comfort women before the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War
II.
