‘Comfort woman’ for Japanese became a campaigner for her fellow sufferers

As a teenager during World War II in Korea, Kim Bok-dong was conscripted by imperial Japanese soldiers to become a worker. Not in a garment factory, as she said she had thought, but as a ‘‘comfort woman’’, the euphemistic name given to the tens of thousands of women forced to work in Japanese brothels. ‘‘On weekdays I had to take 15 soldiers a day,’’ she later recalled. ‘‘On Saturdays and Sundays it was more than 50. We were treated worse than beasts.’’

Articulate and outspoken, with bright eyes behind her thick-rimmed glasses, Kim became, in the 1990s, one of the most vocal campaigners in South Korea for the women who had suffered like her. Some historians have estimated as many as 200,000 women were affected, many of whom died during the war or contracted sexually transmitted diseases.

Described by a fellow campaigner as a heavy drinker and chain-smoker with an aura of sadness, she never married or had children. ‘‘I have never known love in my life,’’ she once said. Her body ‘‘was ruined’’.

Kim Bok-dong was born in Yangsan, a small Korean town, in 1926, the fourth of six daughters. At the time, Japan ruled Korea as a colony. She said that she came from a farming family, but when World War II broke out she was conscripted by the Japanese army and told she was being sent to work in a factory.

Instead, she found herself forced into having sex with soldiers in a series of military brothels. ‘‘At that time I had no choice but to go,’’ she said. ‘‘It was sexual slavery, there’s no other word for it.’’

Kim said that she and other girls were taken to ‘‘comfort stations’’ in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. While ‘‘working’’ from morning till evening, she had little contact with the other women. ‘‘Even for meals we were kept apart . . . There was no contact between us.’’

She returned to South Korea at the age of 22, eight years after she had been taken away. She lied to her family about what had happened, but eventually confessed to her mother after she realised that she could never face marriage. ‘‘I was born a woman, but I never lived as a woman,’’ she said. She became the owner of a fish restaurant.

She remained silent about her experiences in the war until 1992, when several other ‘‘comfort women’’ began to speak about their ordeal. Eventually, 239 women decided to testify; more than 20 are still alive.

In the 1990s Kim moved into the ‘‘House of Sharing’’, a shelter and museum built by a Buddhist foundation to provide sanctuary for the women in their old age and where she drew and painted images of her experiences.

Another survivor recalled: ‘‘When I was 17 years old the Japanese soldiers came along in a truck, beat us, and then dragged us into the

campaigner b April 19, 1926 d January 28, 2019 ‘‘At that time I had no choice but to go. It was sexual slavery, there’s no other word for it.’’

Kim Bok-dong Contact us back. I was told if I were drafted, I could earn lots of money in a textile factory . . . The first day I was raped and the rapes never stopped . . . I feel sick when I come close to a man. Not just Japanese men, but all men, even my own husband, who saved me from the brothel. I shiver whenever I see a Japanese flag . . . Why should I feel ashamed? I don’t have to feel ashamed.’’

Over the years, the issue of the ‘‘comfort women’’ caused controversy in South Korea, where it became a nationalist cause. Some historical accounts claimed that Korean men had colluded with the Japanese in setting up brothels and some women went willingly. After Tokyo apologised to the victims and gave one billion yen (about NZ$13 million) in 2015 to a fund in Seoul to help them, Kim continued her campaign, saying the apology was not sincere because some Japanese leaders continued to deny the women were forced to work in brothels.

‘‘They’re still saying we went there because we wanted to,’’ Kim said in September 2016. ‘‘The reason we have been fighting all these years is not for money. What we want is a sincere apology and legal reparations from Japan that would help restore our honour.’’

A diplomat who met Kim described her as ‘‘clever and unwavering under any circumstances’’. Kim was even given an audience with Pope Francis in 2014 during his visit to South Korea. She told him that she wished for ‘‘a world without war’’ and asked him to urge the Japanese government to apologise, adding: ‘‘And then I will fly like a butterfly.’’ She gave him a gold-coloured metal butterfly pin. ‘‘We as activists would like the victims to be free from their hurtful past, like a butterfly that has just come out of its cocoon,’’ Kim said about the symbol.

On a visit to a school, Kim once told children to ‘‘study hard, and stand firm in life’’. She left her money – along with any reparations she might receive posthumously from Japan – to a fund for women who suffered sexual violence during war. According to Yoon Mi-hyang, president of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance, who was with her when she died, the ‘‘last audible word she uttered . . . was actually a swearword that expressed her strong anger at the Japanese government’’. – The Times

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