Webzine-KYEOL │ Research Institute on Japanese Military Sexsual Slavery (RIMSS)

“Comfort Girls”: The Forgotten Tragedy of Child Exploitation

The “Comfort Women” system was not only a violation of women’s rights, but also a grave infringement of children’s rights. In this article, Professor Ñusta Carranza Ko examines how imperial Japanese authorities systematically violated the rights of underage girls, in direct contravention of international conventions of the time, reframing the issue as a case of child rights violations.

Ñusta Carranza Ko

[사진 3] 청팍옌 박사 가족이 소유했던 자란 주롱 케칠의 상가 건물은 일부가 과거 위안소로 사용되었다는 이유로 처음으로 보존 대상으로 선정됐다. (사진 제공:케빈 블랙번)

Characteristics of the Issue of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery in Singapore

Until 2022, when the book The Comfort Women of Singapore in History and Memory was published, it was widely thought in Singapore that there were no Singaporean "Comfort Women" who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military.

Kevin Blackburn

The Meaning of “Using Comfort Stations” for Japanese Soldiers

The role and function of “comfort stations” as revealed in numerous memoirs written by Japanese soldiers

Aya Furuhashi (古橋綾)

[사진 2] 통곡의 벽 서쪽에 마련된 희생자 묘지에는 다양한 집단의 희생자를 기억하는 추모비들 이 서있다. 사진은 성 강제노동 희생자 추모비이다.

Visiting the Memorial Museum Ravensbrück, the Site of the Largest Women’s Concentration Camp under Nazi Germany

The irony is that Germany, which is often hailed as a “model” country for past liquidation by providing compensation to victims of wartime forced labor through government-industry collaboration, did not even include women forced into sexual slavery in the category of victims entitled to such compensation and still does not recognize their legal victim status.

Jung Yong Suk

The rooms of the surviving “Comfort Women” - Kang Il-chul’s room

What kind of everyday life do the surviving “Comfort Women” victims residing in the leads? the Webzine has arranged an essay series to look at daily life of those who live at the , centering upon the space of the “room.” The fourth protagonist is Kang Il-chul.

Kim Dae-wol

The Story of Bae Bong-gi – “We luckily managed to survive amid that war.”

In her book which was translated into Korean in 2014, Kawata Fumiko vividly yet calmly unraveled the testimony of Bae Bong-gi, one of the Korean "Comfort Women" who was taken to Okinawa. Based on the testimonies and data collected from Okinawa residents, Japanese soldiers, as well as Bae Bong-gi, this article describes the detailed circumstances experienced by Bae Bong-gi and the “Comfort Women” surrounding the U.S. military’s air raids that took place on the Kerama Islands, Okinawa.

Kawata Fumiko (川田文子)

The rooms of the surviving “Comfort Women” - Lee Ok-sun’s room

The traces and history of the surviving “Comfort Women” fill all corners of the but are most visible inside the rooms of the surviving “Comfort Women”.

Kim Dae-wol

U.S. Office of War Information Report No. 49: A report reflecting the author’s subjective bias

Byeongju Hwang

얀 루프-오헤른 Jan Ruff-O' Herne, 『나는 일본군 성노예였다: 네덜란드 여성이 증언하는 일본군 ‘위안소’』 (삼천리, 2018)

I was a sex slave for the Japanese Army: The Japanese Army's 'comfort stations' testified by a Dutch woman

Written by Choi Jae-in (The translator of 『Fifty Years of Silence』 by Jan Ruff O'Herne)

Choi Jae-in

Remembering Bae Bong-gi

she said, with tears streaming down her cheeks, when a Japanese journalist suggested they go back and visit her old home together. Away for so long from her hometown in South Chungcheong Province – a place which she could now only dream about.

Park-Kim Wooki (朴金優綺)

Historical Memory