Uncertain Times III
6x18”Mixed media
2022
Comfort Women – 1932-1945
LEFT
The Japanese invasion took advantage of the Korean women slaves for the soldiers that had returned from war. In brothels that had little to no sanitation, the women, also known as comfort women, were taken against their own will and were raped by the Japanese. Women as young as minors experienced excruciating physical pain, pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases that led to casualties. Those that had tried to escape would be killed or taken to perform more painful sexual discourse.
RIGHT
Not until the 1980s, women had become outcasts and stayed low to forget the past. However, Japanese officials hid the truth of the enslavement of women even to the point of denying that the “comfort stations” had truly existed. Therefore, women like Kim Soon Duk would speak up and share their stories to the public. In 2015, the Japanese government had given reparations to the surviving Korean “comfort women”, but they never gave a full, strong apology. The statue next to the figure, Kim Soon Duk (activist and artist), is the “Statue of Peace”, and the bronze piece currently stands in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea.
