ECHOES OF WAR AND TRAUMA: OUR YOUTH’S ROLE IN REVOLUTIONARY ACTION AND ANTI-IMPERIALIST WORK + INTERVIEW WITH YOUTH ORGANIZATION, 반일행동
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WRITTEN BY EXECUTIVE JOURNALIST: 유채은 / YOO CHAEEUN
LEAD INTERVIEWER: 김상용 / KIM SANG-YONG
INTERVIEW TRANSLATOR: 유예은 / YOO YEEUN
THIS ESSAY CONTAINS IMAGES AND ISSUES REGARDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE, RAPE, SUICIDE, HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION, CHILD SEX-TRAFFICKING, WARTIME SEX-TRAFFICKING SYSTEM, COLONIZATION, IMPERIALISM, AND BRUTALITY.
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GLOSSARY:
BIPARTISAN POLITICS / WHEN TWO PARTIES WITH OPPOSING IDEOLOGICAL BELIEFS AND PRACTICES MUTUALLY AGREE TO COMPROMISE ON A ‘SOLUTION’ OR BILL.
BOURGEOISIE / THE CORRUPTING CLASS THAT EXPLOITS THE WORKING-CLASS. THEIR ATTITUDES ARE DEFINED BY OWNERSHIP AND PRIVATE PROPERTY.
CAPITALIST GLOBALIZATION / THE INTERNATIONAL, ECONOMIC, IDEOLOGICAL, AND SOCIO-CULTURAL EXPANSION IN WHICH CAPITALISM DICTATES THE CUSTOMS/SYSTEMS OF HOW PRODUCTS ARE DISPERSED AND PRODUCED. THE ‘GLOBAL NORTH’ AND HEGEMONIC STATES DISTRIBUTE WEALTH ACCORDING TO THEIR PROFIT SOCIALLY, POLITICALLY, AND ECONOMICALLY–MEANING THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD ARE FORCED TO EXHAUST THEMSELVES DUE TO THEIR CONTROL.
ECOCIDE / THE HUMAN IMPACT ON THE DEGRADATION OF NATURE AND ANIMALS. THIS BRUTALLY AFFECTS COMMUNITIES MOST SUBJECTED TO SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE.
EXPANSIONISM / SYSTEMS OF POLICIES AND PRACTICES ENACTED TO EXPAND A STATE’S TERRITORY FOR FURTHER DOMINATION.
EXTRACTIVISM / THE PROCESS IN WHICH INSTITUTIONS (RUN OR SUPPORTS THE GOVERNMENT) EXTRACT NATURAL RESOURCES TO SELL AND PROFIT OFF OF THE CAPITALIST, GLOBAL MARKET. THIS DESTROYS THE LAND AND PERPETUATES INTERGENERATIONAL EFFECTS ON THE COMMUNITIES THAT DIRECTLY LIVE ON THE EXTRACTED LAND.
HEGEMONY / THE DOMINANCE OF A STATE, USUALLY IN THE ‘GLOBAL NORTH,’ OVER COUNTRIES UNDER THEIR RULING THROUGH COLONIZATION, MILITARY INTERVENING-VIOLENCE, AND/OR IMPERIALISM.
IMPERIALISM / A CAPITALIST STATE IMPOSING ITS OWN POLITICAL DICTATION ONTO ‘SUBORDINATE,’ SUBJECTED COUNTRIES FOR SELF BENEFIT AND ECONOMIC CONTROL. EXTENDING ITS AUTHORITY AND VIOLENT MILITARY REGIMES OVER ANOTHER COUNTRY.
MILITARISM / THE METHODOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY THAT A STATE MUST MAINTAIN ITS HEGEMONIC MILITARY TO REMAIN POWERFUL. THEY EXECUTE HEAVY MILITARIZATION ONTO WORKING PEOPLE AND COLONIZED COUNTRIES. THE MILITARY, TO THEM, MUST DOMINATE AND CONTROL ALL ASPECTS OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ATTITUDES. THIS HAS CAUSED INTER-IMPERIALIST WARS, SUCH AS WW1, DUE TO ‘NAVAL RIVALRY’ AND WEAPONS RACE.
WESTERN BARBARISM / THE WEST HAS CONTINUOUSLY EXERCISED STRUCTURES OF VIOLENCE ONTO COLONIZED COUNTRIES IN THE ‘GLOBAL SOUTH’ AND HAS CLAIMED (POLITICALLY AND CULTURALLY) THAT A ‘CIVILIZED’ COUNTRY IS INHERENTLY WHITE, RICH, AND IN POWER. WITH THIS, THE WEST HAS ACTED WITH FULL CRUELTY AND DESTRUCTION.
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INTRODUCTION
AS KOREANS HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO JAPAN’S COLONIAL HEGEMONY AND ‘U.S.’ IMPERIALISM, THEY HAVE ORGANIZED MILITANT REVOLTS, UPRISINGS, PROTESTS, AND MUTUAL AID EFFORTS TO RESIST COMPLIANCE AND BUILD COMMUNITY. FROM ENRAGED STUDENTS TO EXASPERATED ELDERLY WORKERS, THE FIGHT FOR LIBERATION HAS BEEN AN ONGOING STRUGGLE AS GOVERNMENTAL AUSTERITY AND CAPITALIST VIOLENCE’S INVASIVE NETWORKS INFILTRATE INTO THEIR DAILY LIVES.
BUT WHERE DOES THE YOUTH FIT INTO THE ‘AGENDA OF ACTION’ IN TODAY’S TIMES? FOR THEM, IS REVOLUTIONIZING JUST A ‘HOBBY’ OR A PERPETUAL LIFE PRACTICE? IS IT APPROPRIATE TO GROUP ALL OF YOUTH AS ‘NEGLIGENT’ AND ‘INDIFFERENT’ TO THESE GENERATIONAL, EVOLVING INJUSTICES?
우리의 이야기 / OUR IYAGI WAS ABLE TO INTERVIEW 이수민 (LEE SU-MIN), AN ORGANIZER OF THE STUDENT-LED MOVEMENT GROUP, 반일행동 (ANTI-JAPAN ACTION). 반일행동 (ANTI-JAPAN ACTION) IS A YOUTH COMMUNITY THAT ORGANIZES FOR THE EXPOSURE AND JUSTICE OF ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ IN AND BEYOND THE ASIA PACIFIC, SPECIFICALLY KOREA. WE WERE ABLE TO DISSECT THE FUNDAMENTALS REGARDING KOREAN YOUTH’S ROLE IN ANTI-IMPERIALIST WORK AND EXPOSE THE PRISMS OF HOW CAPITALIST GLOBALIZATION GENERATES TREACHEROUS ILLUSIONS OF LIBERTY AND ACHIEVEMENT.
THE ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ OF THE ASIA PACIFIC AND BEYOND
ALTHOUGH THESE ENSLAVED WOMEN ARE MOST WIDELY KNOWN AS ‘COMFORT WOMEN,’ THE ‘CORRECT’ TERM IS: SEXUALLY-ENSLAVED WOMEN. HOWEVER, MANY OF THESE SURVIVORS ARE CALLED ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ DUE TO THE TRAUMA OF SOLELY BEING IDENTIFIED AS A “SEX SLAVE” THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES.
SEXUAL, MILITARY SLAVERY, DURING THE LATE 1930S TO 1940S (WW2), BRUTALIZE/D KOREAN, CHINESE, FILIPINO, INDONESIAN, RYŪKYŪAN, VIETNAMESE, MALAY, CHAMORU, DUTCH, THAI, EURASIAN, NATIONS IN MYANMAR, TIMORESE, AND JAPANESE PEOPLE– MAJORITY BEING OF KOREAN DESCENT. ETHNIC MAJORITY VS ETHNIC MINORITY, IN THE ‘DISCUSSION’ OF ‘COMFORT WOMEN,’ SHOULD NOT ISSUE A SYSTEM OF MEASUREMENT OF EACH ETHNIC GROUP’S HISTORY OF TRAUMA TO ANOTHER. IT SHOULD ONLY UNCOVER THE TRUTH OF JAPAN’S GEOPOLITICAL TARGETS AND THEIR MEANS FOR FURTHER ‘DOMINANCE.’ (FOR INSTANCE, JAPAN ENABLING 10 TO 100 SEX-TRAFFICKERS TO BE ‘SERVED’ IN THE STATIONS DAILY.)
JAPAN’S MILITARY ‘COMFORT STATIONS’ WERE CONSTRUCTED AS A SITE OF THE RULING CLASS’S ORDER TO VICTIMIZE AND NEFARIOUSLY EXPLOIT POOR, WORKING-CLASS GIRLS. BEING ‘PROMISED’ A ‘BETTER LIFE,’ THEY WERE STOLEN IN THE MEANS OF ‘PROVIDING’ MILITARY MEN’S ‘COMFORT’ AND ‘PLEASURE.’ MANY WERE GIVEN AN INCENTIVE THAT THEY WOULD HELP EARN MONEY AND SUPPORT THEIR REPRESSED FAMILIES BY WORKING AWAY FROM THEIR HOMES. HOWEVER, THEIR INFLICTORS, JAPANESE MEN, WERE BOMBING VILLAGES AND DISPLACING THEIR FAMILIES AS THEY WERE BEING SEIZED INTO THE MILITARIZED, SEX-TRAFFICKING NETWORK. MOST SURVIVORS WERE LEFT WITH NO PLACE TO GO BACK TO – NOT KNOWING WHERE THEIR FRIENDS WERE LOCATED OR FEARING THEY WOULD BE SEEN AS A ‘BURDEN’ OR AN ‘IMPURE DISHONOR’ TO THEIR FAMILY. ONLY INCONCEIVABLE, TERRORIZING REMINDERS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF LOSS, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ABUSE, SEXUAL ‘RANKINGS,’ ABDUCTION, FORCED STERILIZATION, AND COLONIAL DISPLACEMENT/EXPANSION WERE STAINED IN THEIR MEMORIES ‘AFTER’ THE WAR.
THE CAPITALIST GOVERNMENT CONSTRUCTS CODIFICATIONS OF NEW AND PRE-EXISTING LAWS THAT ABIDE BY THEIR SYSTEM OF ‘ETERNAL’ ABUSE. SUCH INJUSTICES ENACTED AND PERPETUATED BY GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEMS WILL NOT BE LEGALLY RECOGNIZED AS AN INFRINGEMENT OF PEOPLE’S RIGHTS BECAUSE THOSE EXACT INJUSTICES WERE CREATED TO BE AN OPPRESSIVE, FUNDAMENTAL FOUNDATION OF THEIR LAWS AND INSTITUTIONAL ORDER. THEREFORE, THESE (MAJORITY CISHET, MALE) POLITICIANS AND MILITARY PERSONNEL’S VIEW OF ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ BEING MERELY ‘PUPPETS’ FOR ‘DISPOSABLE PURITY’ EXPOSES THEIR VIEW ON SEEING WOMEN AS COMMODITIES AND THEIR OBSESSION WITH YOUNG GIRLS’ ‘DESTRUCTIBLE CHASTITY.’
THESE WOMEN ARE NOT OBTAINING TRUE, REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE FOR THEIR RELENTLESS MILITANCY AND EXPOSURE OF JAPAN’S HEINOUS WAR CRIMES. HOLLOWED PROMISES AND CARELESS MONETARY PAYMENTS ARE GIVEN AS A “KEEP QUIET AND BE GRATEFUL WE ARE ACKNOWLEDGING YOU” APPROACH FOR ‘COMFORT WOMEN.’
(AN ANIMATED IMAGE POSTER OF PETER ONEDERA’S PLAY CALLED, “AL HAGÅ-HU.” THE PLAY WAS BASED OFF OF REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCES OF A CHAMORU ‘COMFORT WOMAN.’ ONEDERA IS A STORYTELLER AND ADVOCATE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE CHAMORU LANGUAGE AND HISTORY. [ID: THERE IS A RISING SUN FLAG BEHIND THE WOMAN. ON THE RIGHT, HER HAIR IS HELD UP WHEREAS THE LEFT-SIDE IS LET DOWN. SHE IS HOLDING AN ORANGE FAN WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF TREES AND A SUN. A JAPANESE SOLDIER IS STARING AT HER ON HER LEFT. THERE ARE TWO RED ROSES AND A SWORD AS WELL.])
(THE WAR AND WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM –
IMAGE OF YOO YEEUN WEARING A WHITE T-SHIRT AND PLACING A YELLOW FLOWER ONTO THE WALL OF KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ WHO HAVE PASSED AWAY.)
(PHOTOGRAPH OF REMEDIOS DAYALINO ALONG WITH FELLOW FILIPINO ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ PROTESTING IN FRONT OF MANILA’S JAPANESE EMBASSY. THEY ARE HOLDING UP WHITE POSTERS ALONG WITH NAVY BLUE SIGNS STATING, “NO TO US-JAPAN MILITARY ALLIANCE!” AND “NO TO US-JAPAN MILITARISM IN ASIA-PACIFIC!!”
[CREDIT: UNKNOWN])
KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN,’ AND THE MYTH OF ‘POST-WAR’ KOREA (ONE NATION, TWO STATES)
IT IS OFTEN MISTAKEN THAT ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ (IN KOREA) SOLELY EXIST IN THE ‘SOUTH.’ WHETHER IT IS FROM NATIONAL HEADLINES TO WHITE SAVIOR, CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS ‘HELPING’ THESE WOMEN, THE WEST FREQUENTLY SEEKS TO DIVIDE THE KOREAN STRUGGLE, PAIN, HISTORY, TRAUMA, AND CONNECTION. THE ‘NORTH,’ ONCE AGAIN, IS DEMONIZED AND VILIFIED IN WESTERN, SENSATIONALIST NEWS-PRESS. THE SUBJECT OR IDEA THAT ‘SOUTH’ KOREA, (LET ALONE ‘NORTH’ KOREA), ENDURE/D THE SHACKLES OF ‘US’-JAPANESE ALLIED HEGEMONY IS ABSURD. BECAUSE TO THEM, ESSENTIALLY, THE COLD WAR IS A ‘FAR-GONE’ PIECE OF HISTORY SIMPLY TO REMEMBER OR ‘MEMORIALIZE.’
AND WITH ONLY A FEW SURVIVING ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ (PUBLICLY KNOWN) IN THE SOUTHERN HALF OF KOREA, IT IS VITAL FOR THESE WOMEN TO BE ENSURED A FUTURE WITH THE RE/UNIFICATION OF THEIR HOME AND THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL SEX-TRAFFICKING SYSTEMS.
‘COMFORT WOMEN’ HAVE RELENTLESSLY ADVOCATED FOR THE PEACE AND JUSTICE OF ALL ‘STOLEN BODIES’ AND WOMEN. THEIR UNABATING, REVOLUTIONARY ACTS OF RESISTANCE AND RAGE HAVE HELPED STIMULATE CITIZENS TO GATHER INTO MASSES FIGHTING TO OVERTHROW AUTHORITATIVE REGIMES AND JURISDICTIONS OF POWER.
THE EXISTENCE OF FOREIGN, CAPITALIST-IMPERIALIST NETWORKS ON SUPPOSED ‘SOVEREIGN’ LAND, SUCH AS THAAD AND THE ‘US’ MILITARY, HINDERS THE UNEXPLAINABLE BEAUTY AND CONNECTION KOREANS HOLD WITH THEIR COUNTRY.
THE SOIL WHICH GROUNDS THEIR LAND. AND THE TREES THAT BLANKET THEIR MOUNTAINS. THE WAR FOR KOREANS HAS NEVER ENDED. THESE WOMEN SEEK TO LIVE IN A LIBERATED KOREA, ONE THAT DOES NOT NEED TO BE PERPETUALLY PROVEN AS THEIRS.
(“‘THE STATUE OF PEACE TOWARD THE REUNIFICATION OF KOREA’” — ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ OF TONGIL CITY. [ID: GOLDEN FRAMES NEXT TO THE STATUE OF PEACE IN PAJU CITY. THERE ARE KOREAN, ENGLISH, MANDARIN, AND JAPANESE TEXT/TRANSLATIONS.]
THE FRAME STATES, “THESE TWO STATUES OF PEACE DEPICT THE VICTIMS OF SEXUAL SLAVERY WHO WERE FORCEFULLY MOBILIZED BY JAPANESE MILITARY DURING THE ASIA-PACIFIC WAR. ONE OF THEM EXPRESSES THE ASPIRATION OF THOSE WHO WERE NOT ABLE TO RETURN HOME IN THE NORTH DUE TO THE NATIONAL DIVISION AND WISH TO GO HOME AFTER THE REUNIFICATION. THESE WERE ESTABLISHED IN APRIL 27, 2019, ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE PANMUNJOM DECLARATION, THANKS TO THE EFFORTS OF CITIZENS OF PAJU CITY AND THE PEOPLE’S SOLIDARITY FOR STATUE OF PEACE.”)
(PHOTOGRAPH OF PAJU CITY’S STATUE OF PEACE. [ID: A CLOSE-UP OF THE YOUNG GIRL’S FACE. SHE HAS SHORT HAIR AND IS WEARING A HANBOK. THERE IS A SMALL BIRD RESTING ON HER LEFT SHOULDER.])
(“INTERROGATION REPORT OF A KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN.’” PHOTO TAKEN IN THE WAR AND WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM)
(A DAMAGED, BEIGE BRICK WALL IN THE WAR AND WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM. THE BRICK STATES, “HOW BITTER A LIFE I SHALL LIVE! BRING MY YOUTH BACK!”)
(THE WAR AND WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM HAD MANY ARCHIVES OF JAPANESE NEWSPAPERS DURING WARTIMES. OUR IYAGI WAS ABLE TO FIRST-HANDEDLY SEE THE DESTRUCTION JAPAN HAS INFLICTED THROUGH THESE ARCHIVES.
[ID: A SPIRAL NOTEBOOK CONTAINING JAPANESE NEWSPAPERS IN BLACK AND WHITE.])
(THE WAR AND WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM – 김은례 (KIM EUN-RYE)’S MEDICAL CERTIFICATION. [ID: THIS SHOWS THREE IMAGES OF PHYSICAL WOUNDS AND SCARS ALL AROUND HER STOMACH, BACK, AND SHOULDERS–FROM JAPANESE SOLDIERS.])
(TWO ARCHIVES OF ‘COMFORT STATIONS’ AND MILITARY SOLDIERS BOTH JAPANESE AND ‘AMERICAN.’)
(AN IMAGE SHOWING WHAT EACH SYMBOL OF THE STATUE OF PEACE REPRESENTS.)
IMPLICATIONS OF WAR AND ‘U.S.’ INVOLVEMENT
NATIONALISTIC MILITARISM IS ONE OF THE FRONT FACES OF ‘US’-JAPANESE ALLIANCE. THEIR CONSTRUCTS OF DOMINATION DISAGGREGATES THE SYSTEMIC VIEW OF COLONIZATION AND INTER-IMPERIALIST WAR AS MERE DEFENSIVE, NATIONAL MEASURES. THEY PRACTICE SUCH VIOLENCE TO ENSURE THEIR TITLE AS ‘POST-INDUSTRIALIZED,’ WEALTHY STATES.
THE IDEOLOGY THAT HEGEMONIC STATES START ‘DEFENSIVE WARS’ AS A NECESSITY IS A WHITE SUPREMACIST LIE FABRICATED TO DESTROY EXPLOITED COUNTRIES AND ITS CIVILIANS. AND WITH THE ‘US’ GLORIFICATION OF SHINZO ABE (AND JAPAN’S GOVERNMENT ITSELF), WESTERNERS SEEK TO PURSUE A STORY IN WHICH WESTERN BARBARISM AND COLONIZATION IS A FORM OF HELPLESS EXPANSIONISM AND THAT THEY ARE THE ONES SUBJECTED TO VICTIMIZATION.
THE ‘US’ HAS CONTINUOUSLY MADE EFFORTS TO CENSOR, DENY, AND SUPPORT JAPAN’S HEINOUS, WAR-TIME VIOLENCE;
SPEAKING SPECIFICALLY ON THE GOVERNMENTALLY CENSORED TAFT-KATSURA AGREEMENT OF 1905, THE ‘US’ RATIFIED AND AFFIRMED THE JAPANESE COLONIAL SUBJUGATION OF KOREA, SO JAPAN WOULD LEGALLY ACKNOWLEDGE “NORTH AMERICA’S” IMPERIAL POWER OVER THE PHILIPPINES. THIS AGREEMENT WAS PRIVATIZED AND HELD IN SECRET BETWEEN ‘US’ SECRETARY WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT AND PRIME MINISTER KATSURA TARŌ SHORTLY AFTER JAPAN’S ‘VICTORY’ IN THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR. THEY WERE ALLYING AS AN EFFORT TO MUTUALLY COLONIZE AND DESTROY – A PRIME EXAMPLE OF HOW COLONIAL STATES STRATEGIZE AND IMPERIALIZE OTHER COUNTRIES. THEIR CONSENTED CLAIMS TO BOTH THE PHILIPPINES AND KOREA WOULD BE LATER TAKEN INTO EFFECT. THE ‘US,’ IN SHORT TERMS, ENABLED JAPAN’S COLONIZATION OF KOREA FROM 1910 TO 1945. THE TAFT-KATSURA AGREEMENT SOON LED TO THE EULSA TREATY (ALSO KNOWN AS THE JAPAN-KOREA TREATY OF 1905). THIS TREATY DEPRIVED KOREA OF ITS POLITICAL AUTONOMY AND SOVEREIGNTY, MEANING IMPERIAL JAPAN WAS IN FULL CONTROL OF THEIR LAND AND PEOPLE. THIS TREATY (FOR BRUTAL COLONIZATION) WAS THEN GRANTED APPROVAL BY GREAT BRITAIN DUE TO THE MYTH THAT KOREA WAS A ‘PROTECTORATE’ OF JAPAN (AND WAS ‘SECURED/SAFE’ BY JAPANESE COLONIAL FORCES.)
YI GEUN-TAEK, YI JI-YONG, PAK CHESOON, AND GWON JUNG-HYEON, ALSO KNOWN AS 을사오적 (THE FIVE
EULSA TRAITORS OF KOREA), WERE THE MINISTERS/OFFICIALS UNDER EMPEROR GOJONG. THEY EACH SIGNED THE EULSA TREATY, APPROVING JAPAN’S COLONIZATION OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE.
(ARCHIVED PORTRAIT OF 이완용 [LEE WAN-YONG])
(ARCHIVED PORTRAIT OF 이지용 [LEE JI-YONG])
(ARCHIVED PORTRAIT OF 권중현 [GWON JUNG-HYEON])
(ARCHIVED PORTRAIT OF 이근택 [LEE GEUN-TAEK])
(ARCHIVED PORTRAIT OF 박제순 [PARK CHE-SOON])
AND TO EXPAND ON ‘US’-JAPANESE ALLIANCE, GENERAL MACARTHUR WAS SENT BY THE ‘US’ GOVERNMENT TO COLLECT INFORMATION REGARDING JAPAN’S USE OF BIOLOGICAL WARFARE, MEANING ALL THE DATA WAS GATHERED THROUGH UNIT 731 (AUTHORIZED BY SHIRŌ ISHII). PEOPLE ACROSS ASIA, PRIMARILY EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA, WERE STOLEN AND HELD AS PRISONERS TO BE LATER ‘USED’ AS HUMAN EXPERIMENTS. THEY WERE CALLED AND TREATED AS, “MARUTAS,” MEANING “LOGS” IN JAPANESE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION. THE ‘US’ PAID AROUND 150,000-200,000 YEN (NOWADAYS 20-40 MILLION YEN) AND ENSURED ‘POLITICAL IMPUNITY’ TO POWERFUL, EXPLOITATIVE JAPANESE OFFICIALS AS A WAY TO GRANT ACCESS TO THOSE “HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION” FILES.
COLONIZERS WORK TOGETHER TO DESTROY AND BECOME A LARGER FOUNDATION OF HEGEMONY.
WHITE SAVIOR-SHIP, SETTLER COLONIALISM, AND ANTI-COMMUNIST MILITARIZATION BEFORE + DURING THE KOREAN WAR INDOCTRINATES PEOPLE TO BELIEVE WESTERN COUNTRIES WERE THE LIBERATING GRACES.
A COLONIZED NATION, IN THE WESTERN VIEW, SEEMS TO ONLY HAVE BEEN ‘LIBERATED’ IF A DOMINATING, ‘SUPERIOR’ COUNTRY ‘SAVES’ THEM THROUGH ANTI-COMMUNIST WARS AND ‘TREATIES.’ BUT STATES, SUCH AS ‘NORTH’ KOREA, WHO DO NOT IDOLIZE WESTERN IMPERIALISM AND SAVIOR-SHIP, BECOME VILIFIED AND DISPARAGED. THEREFORE, SANCTIONS AND HEAVY MILITARIZATION ARE PUT FORTH ONTO OR AGAINST THOSE COUNTRIES.
‘THE ABUSER AND THE ABUSED’ RELATIONSHIP IN IMPERIALISM AND COLONIZATION DEMONSTRATES HOW THOSE IN POWER SUBJECT A WHOLE COUNTRY INTO THEIR ‘DOMINION.’
(TAFT-KATSURA AGREEMENT IN 1905 RECORDS/ARCHIVE)
(AN ARCHIVED, KOREAN ILLUSTRATION REGARDING THE ‘US’ AND GREAT BRITAIN OFFERING FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND BAGS OF MONEY FOR JAPANESE COLONIZATION AND IMPERIALISM OF KOREA.)
(AN ARCHIVED PHOTOGRAPH FROM JILIN PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES SHOWING THREE JAPANESE HUMAN EXPERIMENTERS COVERED FULLY IN MEDICAL GARMENTS AND LONG, DARK BOOTS. THEY ARE SPRAYING AN UNKNOWN CHEMICAL LIQUID ONTO A CHILD VICTIM.)
SOUTH KOREAN HYPOCRISY AND NEOLIBERALISM
KOREANS WERE KILLED, WEAPONIZED, AND ABUSED BY WESTERNERS’ ANTI-COMMUNIST MILITARY AND GOVERNMENTAL BODIES, SO WHY IS ‘SOUTH’ KOREA MIMICKING ITS OPPRESSORS?
THE FOUNDATION OF ANTI-COMMUNISM IN THE ‘US’ HAS SEEPED INTO THE SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT AND ITS POLICIES. AND THE UNDENIABLE EFFECTS OF IMPERIALISM AND WHITE SAVIOR-SHIP HAS TURNED ‘SOUTH’ KOREA INTO A CAPITALIST, HYPOCRITICAL STATE.
THE ‘US,’ ADDITIONALLY, CREATED A STRONG SENSE OF PRIDEFUL ‘MASCULINITY’ IN THE KOREAN MILITARY ‘AFTER’ THE WAR. THEY CREATE FILTERED ALLIANCES TO FURTHER PERPETUATE DESTRUCTION ONTO EXPLOITED COUNTRIES. NOT ONLY HAVE SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIALS REPRESS/ED ITS CITIZENS, BUT THEY HAVE DISPLACED AND BRUTALIZED VIETNAMESE CIVILIANS FOR FURTHER CONNECTION WITH ‘NORTH AMERICA.’ THIS IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE ‘US’ LOOKED TO THEM FOR MILITARY ASSISTANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR ‘FOREIGN, DEVELOPMENTAL AID.’ IN OTHER WORDS, THE ‘US,’ A SETTLER STATE IN THE GLOBAL NORTH, EXPLOITED ECONOMICALLY POOR SOUTH KOREA INTO ACCEPTING THEIR FACADE OF “WE WILL HELP YOU BECOME ‘MORE DEVELOPED’ BECAUSE WE ARE SO GENEROUS.” THEY SIMPLY WANTED TO TURN SOUTH KOREA INTO AN EXPLOITING, CAPITALIST STATE AND UTILIZE THEM AS AN ALLY AGAINST THEIR COMMUNIST ENEMY, NORTH KOREA, FOR FURTHER MILITARY CONTROL. THUS, INFLICTING MORE HORRID VIOLENCE AND MURDERS ONTO THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE.
THE ROK ARMY SENT OVER 300,000 TROOPS TO VIETNAM AND COMMITTED HEINOUS VIOLENCE AGAINST CIVILIANS AND YOUNG CHILDREN. VIETNAMESE PEOPLE HAVE ENDURED MASS MURDERS, SUCH AS THE MỸ LAI VILLAGE MASSACRES, AND RAPE UNDER THE ‘US’ AND SOUTH KOREAN MILITARY.
FROM IMPOSING STRONGER MILITARIZATION AGAINST THE ‘NORTH’ TO MAKING INDIFFERENT, NEOLIBERAL ‘APOLOGIES’ REGARDING THE DESTRUCTION THEY HAVE INFLICTED ON VIETNAMESE ‘COMFORT WOMEN,’ SOUTH KOREAN HYPOCRISY LIES DEEPER THAN JUST ‘US’ IMPERIALISM. THE RAPE OF VIETNAMESE WOMEN AND THE MURDERS OF WORKING-CLASS PEOPLE ARE EITHER NEGLECTED OR MINIMIZED TO LEGISLATIVE POLITICS AS THEY FIGHT FOR THE EXPOSURE OF THEIR GENERATIONAL TRAUMAS.
VIETNAM AND KOREA’S SHARED HISTORIES OF JAPANESE COLONIZATION AND ‘US’ IMPERIALISM STAIN THE LIVES OF THESE NATIONS. ‘SOUTH’ KOREANS WHO DEMAND REUNIFICATION AND THE ERADICATION OF SEX-TRAFFICKING NETWORKS BUT REFUSE TO ACCOUNT FOR THEIR HEAVY MILITARIZATION ‘AFTER’ THE WAR, THEIR RESPONSIBILITY IN VIETNAMESE MASSACRES, AND THEIR CORRUPT ‘ALLY-SHIP’ WITH THEIR IMPERIALIST DESTROYER ARE PERFORMATIVE THEORISTS WHO SOLELY DESIRE THE IDEA OF LIBERATION FOR THEMSELVES.
(THE WAR AND WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM –
AN IMAGE OF VIETNAM PIETA CREATED BY KIM SEO-GYEONG AND KIM WOON-SEONG. IT DEPICTS A MOTHER AND HER PASSED BABY AS S. KOREAN FORCES MURDER THEIR VILLAGES. THIS WAS FIRST RAISED IN JEJU-DO– KNOWN AS “THE ISLAND OF PEACE.” THIS IS NOT A MARK OF JUSTICE — ONLY A REMINDER OF THE GENERATIONAL PAIN AND NEED FOR MASS MOBILIZATION AND ORGANIZING.
(A PHOTOGRAPH OF NGUYEN THI BAY AND HER TESTIMONIAL OF S. KOREAN MILITARY VIOLENCE DURING THE WAR.)
(ARCHIVES OF THE MASSACRES COMMITTED AT MỸ LAI. THERE ARE VILLAGES TORN APART AND TERRIFIED CHILDREN GRABBING ONTO THEIR HORRIFIED GUARDIANS. 1968)
INTERVIEW WITH 반일행동 AND THE FIGHT FOR OUR GRANDMOTHERS
(INTERVIEWED IN KOREAN; TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY YOO YEEUN.
ANSWERS IN ORDER FROM WHEN THEY WERE ASKED.)
ON MAY 28, 2022, OUR IYAGI WAS ABLE TO INTERVIEW 이수민 (LEE SU-MIN) AND ATTEND 반일행동 (ANTI-JAPAN ACTION) YOUTH ORGANIZATION’S SATURDAY STRUGGLE. ANTI-JAPAN ACTION ORGANIZES ON THE SIDEWALKS/STREETS OF 종로 (JONG-NO). THEY HOLD WEEKLY (12-1PM) WEDNESDAY ACTIONS AND (5PM) SATURDAY STUDENT 투쟁 (STRUGGLE) FOR ANYONE (ESPECIALLY YOUTH) TO JOIN IN THEIR DEMAND FOR REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE OF ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ AND JAPANESE RESPONSIBILITY.
AS WE WERE ABLE TO CONVERSE WITH LEE SU-MIN (WHILE THEY WERE SITTING IN FOR A LIVESTREAM THAT RECORDS THE STATUE OF PEACE DAILY), THEY WERE ABLE TO GIVE US AN INSIGHT INTO WHAT ANTI-JAPAN ACTION DOES AND HOW THEY PERSONALLY VIEW KOREAN YOUTH’S ROLE IN SOCIO-POLITICAL WORK.
TO BEGIN, OUR IYAGI’S INTERVIEWER, KIM SANG-YONG, WANTED TO BRIEFLY KNOW LEE SU-MIN’S PERSPECTIVE ON JAPANESE-KOREAN RELATIONS UNDER 박근혜 (PARK GEUN HYE)— THE FORMER AND IMPEACHED PRESIDENT OF SOUTH KOREA WHO COMPLETELY DENIED S. KOREA’S RESPONSIBILITY IN THE RAPE OF VIETNAMESE ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ WITH THE ‘US. LEE STARTED BY EXPRESSING THEIR GRIEF AND DISDAIN FOR THE CONTINUOUS HARM PARK GEUN HYE HAS INFLICTED ONTO HER OWN PEOPLE. IT WAS APPARENT DURING HER PRESIDENCY THAT SHE SOLELY ‘CARED’ FOR JAPAN’S ‘RESPONSIBILITY,’ NOT S. KOREA’S.
WE THEN ASKED ABOUT WHERE AND HOW THEY CONTINUE WITH THEIR REVOLUTIONARY POWER AND RAGE FOR ‘COMFORT WOMEN.’
“우리가 아니면 누가 할까.”
“IF WE DON’T FIGHT, THEN WHO WILL?”
THEY THEN WENT ON TO EXPLAIN HOW IT IS NOT ONLY VITAL BUT AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY TO FURTHER EXPOSE AND EDUCATE THE YOUTH ON WHAT JAPAN HAS DONE AND CONTINUES TO DO TO COUNTRIES ONCE SUBJECTED BY THEIR RULE.
“IT TRULY IS ORDINARY CITIZENS WHO EXPRESS MUTUAL, PERPETUAL RAGE THAT FURTHER HELPS OUR ORGANIZATION CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR JUSTICE. I THINK ANGER IS WHAT FUELS ME MOST,” LEE ADDS ON.
“IS THERE A SPECIFIC DEMOGRAPHIC OF SUPPORTERS FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION?” KIM QUESTIONS.
“NOT EXACTLY. THE ISSUE OF JAPAN’S BRUTALITY IN THEIR WARTIME SEXUAL-SLAVERY IS A UNIVERSAL AND INTERGENERATIONAL MOVEMENT AND STRUGGLE.”
“SINCE WE KNOW ONLY OF 11 (PUBLICLY KNOWN) SURVIVING KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN,’ WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU HAVE FOR THE KOREAN YOUTH AND NEXT GENERATIONS?”
LEE CAREFULLY THINKS AND SOON RESPONDS, “THIS ISSUE IS STILL AND WILL ALWAYS BE PERSISTENT, SO IT WILL UNDENIABLY AFFECT US EVERYDAY. WE TRULY HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO KEEP FIGHTING. ALTHOUGH MANY MAY FEEL DISCONNECTED FROM THAT SPECIFIC TIME PERIOD (WW2), IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT WE ARE STILL BEING SUBJECTED TO JAPAN’S VIOLENCE. YOU NEED TO RELENTLESSLY ORGANIZE.”
“AND WHAT KEEPS YOU CONTINUING WITH THIS HOPE?”
“KOREAN HISTORY IS A HISTORY OF HOPE AND THAT HOPE WE MUST CONTINUE TO DISPLAY AND ACT ON.” LEE CONTINUES, “WE ALSO WANT MORE PEOPLE TO BECOME AWARE BECAUSE IT IS SOMETHING THE PUBLIC MUST BE ATTENTIVE TO. HAVING MORE PEOPLE REVOLUTIONIZE AND HAVE HOPE IS VITAL.”
“DO YOU HAVE ANY PRO-JAPANESE PROTESTORS THAT COME HERE? AND IF SO, HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THEM?”
“YES, EVERY WEDNESDAY THEY COME AND FIGHT AGAINST OUR PROTESTS. THEY USE THE SAME WORDS OF JAPANESE OFFICIALS AND DO SO IN FRONT OF THE STATUE OF PEACE WITH A MIC. BUT WE CHOOSE TO SIMPLY PROTECT THE STATUE (NO MATTER WHAT) AND RELY ON THE CITIZENS WHO ARE AGAINST JAPANESE VIOLENCE TO PROTEST AND FIGHT RIGHT BACK.”
“ARE THERE ANY SPECIFIC INSTANCES OF KOREAN RESISTANCE TO JAPAN AND HOW IT’S WORKED?”
“PEOPLE HAVE ACTUALLY STOPPED THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE JAPANESE EMBASSY DUE TO KOREAN PROTESTORS. THE OFFICIALS QUESTION HOW LONG WE WILL PROTEST.”
“HOW HAVE PEOPLE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES NOT DIRECTLY AFFECTED BY JAPANESE SEXUAL-SLAVERY SHOWN ‘SOLIDARITY?’”
“THEY FIGHT ALONGSIDE US! BUT THEY MAINLY USE SNS (SOCIAL MEDIA) TO TRY AND SPREAD THE MESSAGE AND ‘ISSUE’ FURTHER.”
WE CONTINUED TO ASK QUESTIONS REGARDING THE ROLE IN YOUTH AND KOREAN RELATIONS WITH JAPAN.
“HOW ACTIVE ARE KOREAN YOUTH? HONESTLY?”
“IN MY PERSONAL OPINION, THE LIFE OF KOREAN YOUTH AND THEIR FOCUS IS ELSEWHERE. MANY SEEM TO FEEL AS IF THEY ‘DON’T HAVE TIME’ TO ACT OR EVEN CARE. DUE TO SEOUL’S EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE LIFESTYLE, I THINK THAT THEY OFTEN PRIORITIZE THEMSELVES BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. IT’S ALWAYS A ‘ME BEFORE YOU.’”
“WHAT JUSTICE DO YOU ENVISION?”
“I PERSONALLY BELIEVE IT DEALS WITH 양심 (MENTAL WILL AND COURAGE). TO BE HONEST, US PROTESTING AND YELLING IS NOT GOING TO CREATE THE BIGGEST CHANGE ALL AT ONCE OR EVEN ENTIRELY DIRECT THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE AND LIBERATION OUR HALMONIS (GRANDMAS) NEED. BUT BY DOING THIS WORK, IT ALLOWS PEOPLE TO FEEL CONNECTED AND REALIZE THAT WE MUST CONTINUE THIS FIGHT. IT WILL OPEN DOORS FOR STRONGER MASS MOBILIZATION AND ORGANIZING. EVEN FOR OUR GRANDMOTHERS, IN THEIR OLD AGE, THEY CONTINUE BECAUSE THEY DO NOT WANT ANY YOUNG CHILDREN TO HAVE TO ENDURE SUCH BRUTALITY AND VIOLENCE AGAIN. AND TO PREVENT THIS VIOLENCE, OUR VOICES MUST CONTINUE TO RISE.”
“FOR MANY YOUNG PEOPLE, THEY MIGHT BE EMBARRASSED TO SIT AND WATCH THE STATUE FOR HOURS ON END, HOW DO YOU PERSONALLY CONTINUE THIS WORK?”
“AT FIRST I DID FEEL A LITTLE AWKWARD HAVING TO SIT ALONE; I HAD TO ‘GIVE UP’ MY ENGAGEMENTS WITH SOME FRIENDS. BUT SINCE I HAVE NOW BEEN DOING THIS FOR 2 YEARS, I DEFINITELY HAVE GOTTEN MORE PRACTICE AND HOLD EVEN FIRMER HOPE IN OUR ORGANIZATION.” LEE THEN EXPLAINS, “I USED TO HOLD THIS MENTALITY OF ‘SOMEONE WILL DO SOMETHING’ BUT REALIZED THAT I HAD TO STEP UP. I HAVE TO BE A VOICE SO MORE VOICES CAN FIGHT TOGETHER.”
“WHAT HAS DISAPPOINTED YOU MOST WITH THIS MOVEMENT?”
“INDIFFERENCE. IT IS WHEN PEOPLE SIMPLY DO NOT ACT EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE SO MANY ACCESSIBLE OPPORTUNITIES AND WAYS TO DO SO. BUT IT IS JUST THE INDIVIDUAL WHO CHOOSES NOT TO.”
“DO NON-KOREANS COME TO FIGHT ALONG WITH THIS ORGANIZATION?”
“YES! EVEN SOME JAPANESE PEOPLE HAVE COME TO SAY ‘SORRY.’ THEY WILL KNEEL DOWN IN FRONT OF THE STATUE OF PEACE AND REPEATEDLY APOLOGIZE.”
“WITH S. KOREA’S NEW PRESIDENT, 윤석열 (YOON SEOK-YOUL), WHAT IS THIS COUNTRY’S FUTURE WITH JAPAN?”
“HE IS LOOKING FOR RELIEVED RELATIONS WITH JAPAN. AND WE ARE COMPLETELY AGAINST THAT. THEY WILL JUST CONTINUE TO IGNORE THEIR PAST.”
AND OUR LAST QUESTION FOR LEE SU-MIN WAS, “WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON S. KOREAN-’US’ RELATIONS?”
“I KNOW THAT BIDEN WANTS A THREESOME ALLIANCE BETWEEN S. KOREA, JAPAN, AND THE ‘UNITED STATES.’ THE ‘US’ WANTS TO RUSH THE SOLUTION AND SUDDENLY BREAK KOREA AND JAPAN’S ‘TENSION’ SIMPLY FOR THEM TO TRY AND ‘SOFTEN’ THEIR OWN RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA AND CHINA GEOPOLITICALLY. IT’S ALL A SELFISH FACADE.”
OUR IYAGI, AS WELL AS OTHER KOREANS, WERE THEN ABLE TO JOIN THEIR 5PM SATURDAY STUDENT STRUGGLE. LEE SU-MIN, ALONG WITH SEVERAL OTHER MEMBERS OF ANTI-JAPAN ACTION, GAVE SPEECHES, SANG SONGS, DANCED, AND PROTESTED (LIKE THE GENERATIONS OF KOREAN REVOLUTIONARIES BEFORE THEM). WE COULD HEAR OTHER PROTESTORS FROM THE KOREAN METAL WORKERS’ UNION CHANTING AND MARCHING THE STREETS ON STRIKE.
AND AS CARS WERE STOPPED BY TRAFFIC, SOME CARS BEGAN HONKING AS MEANS TO DISRUPT THE SATURDAY STRUGGLE. REGARDLESS, EACH MEMBER PERSISTED TO SPEAK DILIGENTLY AND PASSIONATELY, EXPRESSING THEIR RAGE AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR YOUTH AND THE JUSTICE FOR ALL ‘COMFORT WOMEN.’
WE ENDED WITH WARM SMILES AND GOODBYES AS WE BECAME MUTUALS WORKING MILITANTLY FOR THE EXPOSURE OF ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ ACROSS AND BEYOND THE ASIA-PACIFIC.
(PHOTO OF LEE SU-MIN GIVING A SPEECH ON THE NEED FOR TRUE, REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE AND THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE WITH BECOMING AN ACTIVE ORGANIZER. “I CANNOT DREAM (OF JOBS OR COMFORTABILITY) BECAUSE MY ANGER TO ENACT ACTION IS BIGGER THAN ALL ELSE.”)
(IMAGE OF UNNAMED ANTI-JAPAN ACTION GROUP ORGANIZER. [ID: THEY ARE GIVING A SPEECH IN A YELLOW JACKET THAT STATES THEIR ORGANIZATION TITLE.]
(PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ORGANIZERS, OUR IYAGI, AND SEVERAL OTHER STUDENTS WHO JOINED THEIR SATURDAY STUDENT STRUGGLE. [ID: EVERYONE’S FIST IS UP, ALL MASKED, AND STANDING/SITTING NEXT TO THE STATUE OF PEACE.])
(THE STATUE OF PEACE LOCATED WHERE ANTI-JAPAN ACTION ORGANIZES.)
VITALITY IN THE YOUTH ORGANIZING
WHEN PEOPLE SHARE COMMUNITY POWER, IT RENDERS THE OPPORTUNITY TO ORGANIZE INCLUSIVELY IN A FASCIST STATE. ANTI-COLONIAL COMMUNISM IS ROOTED IN ACTS OF PRACTICE WHICH ARE THEN APPLIED TO ALL ASPECTS OF LIVING. AND AS THE MEDIA GLAMORIZES THE ACT AND PRACTICE OF ORGANIZING AND REVOLUTIONIZING, IT IS VITAL THAT ALL PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY THE YOUTH, REJECT CENTERING THEORY OVER PRAXIS (SAYING OVER DOING) FOR A ‘RADICAL’ ONLINE PERSONA. IT IS ONLY WHEN THE MASSES ORGANIZE, MOBILIZE, DEMONSTRATE ACTIVE CARE, AND ENACT MILITANT, REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE (INCLUSIVELY AND ACCESSIBLY FOR ALL) WHERE PEOPLE WILL OVERTHROW ALL CAPITALIST, COLONIAL DOMINATION.
THE INTERNATIONAL SEX-TRAFFICKING SYSTEM INFLICTS ABUSE TO ALL PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD, SPECIFICALLY YOUNG BLACK AND AFRO-INDIGENOUS/INDIGENOUS FOLKS; COLONIZED PEOPLES; MIGRANT WORKERS, LOW INCOME, DISABLED PEOPLE; 2SLGBTQIA+ COMMUNITIES; AND WOMEN. THESE BOURGEOIS, SOCIO-POLITICAL HIERARCHIES DICTATE WHO THE MOST ‘VULNERABLE’ ARE FOR PROFIT. THE OBSESSIVE, ECONOMIC DOCTRINES AND LABORIOUS FRAMEWORKS MAKE UP CAPITALIST STATES AND THEREFORE, SEXUALIZE YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN INTO SUPPLYING ‘PLEASURE’ OR GAINING NET INTEREST.
NEOLIBERALS BELIEVE POLITICIANS CAN PROPOSE NEW BILLS TO ‘MINIMIZE’ THE DESTRUCTION THESE SEX-TRAFFICKING FOUNDATIONS INFLICT. BIPARTISAN, BLACK AND WHITE POLITICS CONTINUE TO DISMISS THE ELECTORAL VIOLENCE ENACTED BY THE LAWS AND INSTITUTIONS THEY UPHOLD. THE METHODOLOGY THAT VOTING IN NATIONAL, LEGISLATIVE POLITICS/ELECTIONS (IN TODAY’S SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FORMATIONS) WILL HELP REPRESENT ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLES; GRANT ANTIQUATED, ‘RADICAL’ BILLS/TREATIES; OR ABOLISH ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THE COMMERCIAL SEX-INDUSTRY – IS A MIRAGE TO GET CITIZENS TO SETTLE AND RELINQUISH THEIR REVOLUTIONARY RAGE AND OPTIMISM TO SHEER REFORMATION AND/OR PATERNALISM. SO, WHEN CITIZENS COMPLY WITH BOURGEOIS-CENTERED POLITICS, IT REPRESSES THE FUTURE OF LIBERATION AND CULTURAL REVITALIZATION.
THUS, PEOPLE CANNOT DISMANTLE A ‘SINGLE’ SYSTEM WITHOUT OVERTHROWING THE DOMINATING POWERS THAT CONTROL ALL THE FRAMEWORKS OF OPPRESSION.
(THE 1020TH WEDNESDAY PROTEST ON MAY 2, 2012. A YOUNG, SMILING TODDLER IS PHOTOGRAPHED [BY CONSENT] REACHING OUT TO THE ‘COMFORT WOMEN.’ OUR HALMONIES’ HOPE IN THE YOUTH IS WHAT MUST KEEP US GOING. CREDIT: THE KOREAN COUNCIL)
(ANTI-JAPAN ACTION PERFORMING AS SONGS OF PROTESTS PLAYS.)
JAPANESE DENIALISM AND HISTORY OF REVISIONISM
JAPANESE DENIALISM AND REVISIONIST HISTORY IS UNDENIABLY AND FUNDAMENTALLY INGRAINED IN THEIR GEOPOLITICAL PERSPECTIVE AND hegemonic ALLY-SHIP WITH THE ‘US.’ FROM CURRENT AND FORMER PRIME MINISTERS TO THE VERY TEXTBOOKS JAPAN USES TO TEACH, THEIR HISTORY OF COLONIZATION, WARTIME SEX-SLAVERY, CULTURAL DISPOSSESSION OF INDIGENOUS RYŪKYŪAN AND AINU PEOPLE, AND THEIR APPROVAL OF 74% OF ALL ‘AMERICAN’ MILITARY BASES, (SPECIFICALLY THE ‘US’ MARINE CORPS), TO BE LOCATED ON RYŪKYŪAN LAND ARE CENSORED. THEREFORE, THEIR REVISIONIST INSTITUTIONS INDISPUTABLY AFFECT THE KNOWLEDGE OF IMPRESSIONABLE STUDENTS AND FURTHER INDOCTRINATES THEM INTO NATIONALIST, COMPLICIT CITIZENS.
‘COMFORT WOMEN’ ARE SEEN AS A MERE ISSUE OF AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENTAL TERMS. IN FACT, IN 2015, SOUTH KOREAN AND JAPANESE OFFICIALS WENT FORTH ON AN ‘AGREEMENT’ REGARDING KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN.’ JAPAN EXPRESSED THEIR ‘SORROWS’ AND ‘REMORSE’ FOR THEIR ACTION IN CAUSING PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WOUNDS TOWARD YOUNG KOREAN GIRLS (EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE BEEN DENYING IT SINCE THE WAR.) YET, A FEW WEEKS AFTER THE AGREED ‘APOLOGY,’ SHINZO ABE SPOKE TO THE JAPANESE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. HE STATED THAT THERE WAS NO SIGN OF ANY RECORDS THAT ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ WERE STOLEN AWAY BY JAPANESE SOLDIERS. AND SEVERAL MONTHS AFTER THE ‘AGREEMENT,’ ABE EXPRESSED THAT HE WOULD NEVER APOLOGIZE AGAIN AFTER THE PUBLIC URGED HIM TO SEND LETTERS DIRECTLY TO THE WOMEN. AFTER THAT, MORE VIOLENT DENIALISM AND RETRACTIONS CAME FORTH FROM THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT.
(TWO TEXTBOOKS. DIFFERENT HISTORIES. THE LEFT TEXTBOOK IS TAUGHT IN KOREA WHEREAS THE RIGHT IN JAPAN. THERE IS CLEAR CENSORSHIP IN THE JAPANESE TEXTBOOK’S HISTORY AND TRAUMA OF ‘COMFORT WOMEN.’)
SYSTEMIC ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IS A CONCEPT IN WHICH SATISFIED NEOLIBERALS DESIRE. TO BE SPECIFIC, SETTLER STATES, SUCH AS THE ‘US,’ COINCIDE FEDERAL ‘ACKNOWLEDGEMENT’ OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES WITH STRUCTURAL GENOCIDE. THEY ‘ACKNOWLEDGE’ INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ EXISTENCE AND THEREFORE, ‘REWARD’ THEM (SO GRACIOUSLY) WITH SYSTEMS OF PRIVATE PROPERTY, RESERVATIONS, EXTRACTIVISM, ECOCIDE, PIPELINES, DISPOSSESSION, RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ASSIMILATION, AND FORCED CITIZENSHIP ON THEIR LAND. AFRO-INDIGENOUS AND/OR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES UNDERSTAND THE FACADE OF GOVERNMENTAL ‘AID’ AND RELIANCE. SO, FOR REVOLUTIONARIES AND ‘COMFORT WOMEN,’ THEY ORGANIZE TO EXPOSE AND OVERTHROW THE RULING CLASS’S POLITICAL DICTATION AND REVISIONIST, ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURES.
(JAPANESE REVISIONIST, NATIONALIST GROUP ‘DRESSED UP’ AS KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN.’ THEY ARE GRINNING AT THE CAMERA, ATTEMPTING TO IMITATE THE STATUE OF PEACE.)
(A JAPANESE NATIONALIST INFLATING A KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ BALLOON UNTIL IT EXPLODES. CARELESS ABOUT THEIR COMPLETE DISRESPECT AND MOCKERY OF KOREAN “COMFORT WOMEN’S” PAIN AND TORMENT.)
‘JAPANESE TEARS’
FROM THREATENING THE EXISTENCE OF THE ZAINICHI COMMUNITY AND ENCLAVES TO THE DEADLY SANCTIONS IMPOSED ON ‘NORTH’ KOREA, JAPAN HAS RESISTED ALL ASPECTS OF RESPONSIBILITY.
DURING THE 1960S, MANY JAPANESE CITIZENS VIEWED ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ AS MERE ‘OLD’ HISTORY RATHER THAN WOMEN ENDURING THE ONGOING TRAUMA OF INTER-IMPERIALIST WAR. EVEN KOREA IN THE 1940S MADE IT A TABOO TO EXPOSE JAPAN’S WARTIME, SEX-TRAFFICKING SYSTEM AND WHAT KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ SUFFERED. IT WAS ONLY UNTIL THE LATE 1980S WHERE ARTICLES BEGAN DISCUSSING THE ‘ISSUE’ FURTHER. TRUE FACTS, INFORMATION, AND KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ WAS EXTREMELY LIMITED TO THE PUBLIC DUE TO JAPAN’S INVASIVE CENSORSHIP AND DENIAL.
HOWEVER, ON AUGUST 14, 1991, 김학순 (KIM HAK-SOON) FACED THE PUBLIC TO BE THE FIRST TO EXPOSE THE BRUTAL TRUTH REGARDING THE RAPE AND VIOLENCE SHE ENDURED AT BARELY 17 YEARS OLD. SHE REVEALED HOW EACH GIRL, USUALLY IN HER TEENAGE YEARS, WOULD BE FORCED TO ‘SERVE’ AROUND THREE TO FOUR JAPANESE “SOLDIERS ON REGULAR DAYS” BUT “SEVEN TO EIGHT SOLDIERS AFTER BATTLES” (김학순 [KIM HAK-SOON] TESTIMONY TRANSLATED). SHE CONTINUED UNCOVERING HOW MANY DIED OR HAD STDS (SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES). (THERE WERE ALSO ENFORCED DOUBLE SUICIDES WHICH WAS PRACTICED BY JAPANESE SOLDIERS. AFTER THEY MURDERED THEIR ‘FAVORITE’ GIRL, THE SOLDIERS WOULD THEN LATER COMMIT SUICIDE.) SHE MADE IT EVIDENT THAT SHE WAS NOT SPEAKING OUT TO ATTAIN REPARATIONS OR APOLOGIES BUT TO EXPOSE THE REALITIES JAPAN HAD BEEN CENSORING FOR DECADES. 김학순 (KIM HAK-SOON) PASSED JUST SIX YEARS AFTER HER PUBLIC TESTIMONY IN 1997. SHE WAS 73 YEARS OLD.
HER AND ALL “COMFORT WOMEN’S” LIVES OF UNEXPLAINABLE TRAUMA AND HORROR UNCOVERS THE ONGOING NECESSITY FOR PEOPLE TO CONTINUE TO UNLEASH THE TRUTH AND WORK AGAINST JAPANESE, NATIONALISTIC DENIALISM.
THE YOUTH, THE OLDER, AND THE ELDERLY MUST RESIST HEGEMONIC, JAPANESE-APOLOGIST PROPAGANDA AND RELENTLESSLY FIGHT. FIGHT FOR ALL THE AGED ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ THAT HAVE BEEN DEMANDING ACTION FOR DECADES AND FOR ALL THE YOUNG GIRLS WHO ONCE DESIRED A FUTURE OF FREEDOM BEFORE THEY WERE SCAPEGOATED AND BRUTALIZED BY THE JAPANESE.
(PHOTO OF 김학순 (KIM HAK-SOON) FACING THE PUBLIC WHILE TESTIFYING HER ACCOUNTS OF HORROR. PHOTOGRAPHER: UNKNOWN
THESE WOMEN DESERVE BEYOND ANY FORM OR SYSTEM OF REFORMATION. THEY DO NOT SEEK GOVERNMENTALLY-SPONSORED, INSTITUTIONALIZED ‘REPARATIONS’ OR ABIDE BY DECEPTIVE ILLUSIONS OF ‘LIBERATING’ MONETARY GRANTS AND AGREEMENTS.)
(ARCHIVED PHOTOGRAPH OF KIM HAK-SOON.)
(MOST SURVIVING ‘SOUTH’ KOREAN ‘COMFORT WOMEN’ LIVE IN THE HOUSE OF SHARING, FUNDED BY BUDDHIST AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS. SOME DO NOT DUE TO PERSONAL REASONS SUCH AS VIEWING THE HOME AS A REMINDER OF VIOLENCE AND HORROR.)
(ARCHIVED PHOTOS OF KIM HAK-SOON.)
(KIM HAK-SOON’S LAST PAINTING SHE VOWED TO CREATE BEFORE HER PASSING.
TITLE: “PUNISH THOSE RESPONSIBLE.”
[ID: A BROWN TREE WITH BARE BRANCHES EXTENDING THE PAINTING. THERE ARE WHITE DOVES SOARING ACROSS THE RED SKY/BACKGROUND. THERE ARE HANDS AIMING GUNS AT A JAPANESE SOLDIER WHOSE EYES ARE COVERED WITH A WHITE SHEET AND IS TIED TO THE TREE.])
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A DEDICATED THANK YOU TO THE YOUTH-LED ORGANIZATION, 반일행동 (ANTI-JAPAN ACTION), FOR BEING SO WELCOMING, KIND, AND ACTIVE IN WORKING TOGETHER WITH KOREAN YOUTH TO EXPRESS REVOLUTIONARY RAGE IN THEIR PRACTICES AND ACTIONS.
REACH OUT AND ORGANIZE WITH 반일행동 / ANTI-JAPAN ACTION:
YOUTUBE- 희망나비 – HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/CHANNEL/UCDMK4MEUZYSIRPZKELCQQHG
FACEBOOK- HTTPS://KO-KR.FACEBOOK.COM/SONYEOSANG1230/
INSTAGRAM- PEACE_GIRLSTATUE – INSTAGRAM.COM/PEACE_GIRLSTATUE
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SOURCES AND ARTICLES:
HTTP://MAYWESPEAK.COM/SEXUAL-VIOLENCE-JAPAN/
CLICK TO ACCESS INTRODUCTORY-ESSAYS.PDF
https://WWW.AWF.OR.JP/E2/SURVEY.HTML
07.18.22)
우리의 이야기. | our iyagi. 