War and Women's Human Rights Museum - International Outreach Team

We miss you Lee Oksun

*Name Lee Oksun

*Year of Birth 1927

*Drafted Year 1942(aged 15)

*Comfort Station China(Jirin)

*Year of Return 2000(after she had lived in China)

*Present in 2016 At the House of Sharing

I was born on October 10th, 1927. I was the second child of six children. I had an older brother, two younger brothers, and two sisters. My older brother` name was Bongjo, and the sisters`names were Okju and Oki, but I can`t remember the names of my younger brothers. My family was very poor. My father was a laborer, but he didn`t earn enough money. Moreover, he drank a lot, so my mother had a very hard time. My mother did everything she could to make money. She cleaned bean sprouts in the market, sewed, sold vegetables and morning drinks in the streets. I remember that we didn`t have anything to eat, so my mother brought bean sprout roots, which were thrown away in the market, and cooked them for us.

One day when I was fifteen, my mother said to me “There is a noodle restaurant in Busan, and the owners want to adopt a daughter. Do you want to go there?” I said, “Will they let me go to school?” and she said they would make me study and give me a lot of food. So I said yes and was adopted. But far from making me go to school, they made me do all the chores and wait on the tables in the restaurant. I told my foster parents that I had to earn money to study, but they didn`t listen. So I ran away twice, but I was caught every time and was beaten.

I tried to run away a lot, so they sold me to an inn in Ulsan after a few months. I couldn`t even drop by home. I also had to work until midnight. It was so hard that once I wet the bed.

One day, I came out to run some errands in the late afternoon, and two men caught me in the street. They were big men in their forties, and they held my wrists from behind. They said “Let`s go,”and I protested saying “Where are you taking me?” They covered my mouth, saying “Be quiet and let`s go,” and I was dragged away even without a scream. The place they took me was far away from the station. Ulsan was a rural town, and there were a lot of trees, so there were no people who could see me when I was kidnapped. They took me to Ulsan station on a truck and left. There were several other kidnapped girls at the station. Five girls including me were made to get on the train. There were some civilians and soldiers. We were put into a freight compartment, so we couldn`t see or talk to anyone. We couldn`t do anything.

There were fifteen girls on the train. One of them was fourteen, and another was the same age as me. We talked about killing ourselves by jumping off the train, but we couldn`t carry out the plan. After two days, we arrived at a town called Tumen in China. I arrived there in pigtail and traditional Korean clothes I was wearing when I had been kidnapped. I was taken to China at fourteen in July 1942, less than one year after I was sold to the inn.

It was dark when we arrived at Tumen station. I don`t know how many of us got off. Five of us including me were locked up near the station. We spent the night there, and I was the only one who was locked up alone. I still don`t know why they separated me from the rest. They didn`t ask us any personal questions. The Korean men who took us there didn`t sleep at the same place with us, and I didn`t know where they spent the night. They still didn`t give us any food.

The next morning, we got on a train again, and we arrived at an airfield in Yanji. There was a Japanese squadron. I can`t remember the name of it. They took us to a building. It was a tile roof house with mud-plastered wall. It used to be a military quarter. The soldiers moved out to other place and they gave it to us. The ten of us had to use it together, but the house was too small for us. Two or three girls used one room together.

Not long after, they built a new brick house, and they gave each of us one room.

The manager of the comfort station was a Japanese couple, and they wore civilian clothes. They told us to call them Obasan (aunt) and Okasan. There was a Japanese woman among us. She voluntarily came from Japan to earn money. We called them Nesan (older sister). The managers weren`t harsh on her, so she had more freedom than us, and only served soldiers.

They changed my name to Domiko in Japanese. The other women were kidnapped from various parts of Korea, and their names were all changed to Japanese ones such as Gachumaru or Gumeko. At first, we did chores like cleaning the yard and picking weeds. One day, soldiers came in and r***d us like animals in front of other soldiers. They took turns in ra**ng us in the rooms I just wanted to die at that time. At first they didn`t even use condoms, and we didn`t get health checkups.

After that, they came regularly. We began to have checkups not long after. The doctors came from the military hospital once a week. Soldiers were required by law to use condoms at all times, but some of them didn`t follow the rule. When I asked them to use it, sometimes a quarrel broke out, and I was beaten a lot. When they came into the room, they never talked about their military unit.

They were from a squadron, so they carried out sorties. We couldn`t go near the airfield, so we didn`t know how many planes were there, or how many of them flew a day. I just saw them taking off and landing. I couldn`t go anywhere near the planes. I got to take a close look at an airplane for the first time when I was going to Korea. It was my first time on a plane.

We didn`t have any decent clothes or food. We just wore something the soldiers gave to us, and ate a piece of Chinese bread a day. The food was distributed according to class, and the Japanese were the first class, the Koreans second, and the Chinese third. So we couldn`t eat decent food and were always hungry. I can`t even talk about all the horrors I went through in that place. I saw many girls who died of hunger or illness.

I tried to escape, but it was difficult because we couldn`t get out of the house. The managers watched us all the time. Even though there were no guards at the gate, there were soldiers everywhere, so we couldn`t run away. There was a Korean cook. We didn`t cook or make a fire in the kitchen. Even after we had been there for a long time, the food was horrible. They gave us steamed kaoliang, cooked millet, kimchi, radish leaves, and cabbages. We also ate plants that were used to feed pigs. We steamed them, and ate them with soybean paste. We were under so much tribulation. We also had to get clothes and underwear on our own.

There was a girl from Jeolla-do, and she said she had been sold there. Her behavior was bad. She stole things and sold us her clothes for money. If we needed clothes, we asked her for help. She sold us socks or underwear. They were expensive. Because I didn`t bring anything, I had to buy clothes from her. I fell into debt, so it became even harder for me.

I started menstruating when I was in China. I was sixteen, and I didn`t know what it was at first. I was very scared. I thought I got sick because I served too many soldiers. My friends in the house told me I was having my first period. I didn`t have any money, so I couldn`t get any cloth for my period. My friends lent me theirs. I went through so much trouble every month when I had my period.

The rule stated that we couldn`t serve soldiers when we were on period, but the manager didn`t let us take a rest. She stuffed us with cotton and made us serve soldiers. The doctor who came in once a week didn`t stop us either. There were Korean and Chinese men besides the Japanese soldiers working in the airfield as laborers. There were hundreds of them, and most of them were Koreans. I got to know a Korean man who was a platoon leader. We accidentally got to know and like each other. The laborers couldn`t come to our place, but his friends helped him to meet me secretly.

I had stayed in the comfort station in the airfield for less than a year when I was moved to Yanji in the spring of 1943. At that time, there were not a lot of houses in Yanji. There was a Japanese police station, a new school, and a lot of trees. There was a Japanese military base near the train station, and many other bases nearby. The comfort station was far away from the base. I didn`t know if there were any other comfort stations other than ours. There were nineteen women in our station.

What was the name of the house? We just called it “comfort station,” and the soldiers called us “comfort women.” There were a big gate and a corridor at the station. Rooms were lined on both sides along the corridor. They were Korean style underfloor heating rooms. The soldiers took their shoes off in the corridor before entering the rooms. When you walked into the station, there were many wooden name plates on the wall. Written on them were the names of the comfort women. There were no numbers or name plates on the doors. If there was a girl with a venereal disease, the manager turned over her name plate.

The soldiers bought tickets from the manager. We had to get the tickets to prove that we served. Sometimes the women directly received money from them and took it to the manager to exchange it with tickets. I served from ten to thirty, forty soldiers a day. I had to serve more of them than when I was in the airfield. There were not a lot of soldiers on weekdays. Sometimes there were only one or two. There were a lot of them on Sundays. They finished quickly, so they didn`t have to wait in long lines.

The price was the same for the rank and file and the officers. Sometimes the officers slept over, but they didn`t have to pay extra money to sleep over. Rich officers gave us some extra money. When there were no soldiers, we sat outside and talked.

Once I got syphilis. I couldn`t serve soldiers, so I went to the military hospital. I was injected with No. 606, but I didn`t get better. The doctor gave the manager mercury for my treatment. He boiled it, and made me steam myself with it. He made me take off my underwear and steam my va**na with the mercury v***r. The syphilis was cured after a while, but I became barren because of the treatment. I still feel grudge and frustration. I couldn`t bear children because of the Japanese. What should I protest to?

I was beaten by a lot the managers. If I didn`t obey them or the soldiers, and rejected them, I was severely beaten. The managers didn`t hit us. They brought the military police to beat us. We couldn`t even try to stop them when they beat us. They beat us everywhere with leather belts.

Once I was beaten until my nose bled, I rolled over on the floor because of the pain. I was out of favor of the managers, so I was beaten a lot. Once, the manager made me run some errands. I went to a store next to the comfort station, and there was a Japanese police officer of Korean origin. He asked me in Japanese, “Where are you from?” I answered in Japanese, “I am from that house.” He asked, “Where is your hometown?”and I said, “osu-jung, Busan-bu, Gyeongnam.” And then he started to beat me terribly. I still clearly remember my hometown address because I was beaten so much for saying it.

He hit my ear very hard at that time, so I still can`t hear with that ear. It would have been better if I had been treated, but it was impossible. They only treated us for venereal diseases and nothing else. We just couldn`t bear it. A young fourteen year old girl came to the station in 1942 or 1943. She ran away. She didn`t serve soldiers in the station. She only served the old commander. A soldier brought her to him. She was also a Korean. Her appearance was just plain. I can`t remember her name. She ran away once and was caught, and ran away again. They couldn`t catch her that second time. The whole unit looked for her but couldn`t find her. After she ran away, everything was restricted for us, and the monitoring became stricter. So no one could even think about running away.

The station was moved near Yanbian hospital because the old house was too small. The new place was also a brick house and was bigger than the last one. The war ended when we were there. I arrived in China in July 1942, and the war ended in August 1945. I was a comfort woman for three years.

It is with great sadness we report the passing of Lee Oksun halmoni. May she rest in peace.

[부고]

2025년 5월 11일 오후 7시 7분 이옥선 할머니께서 별세하셨습니다.

이옥선 할머니는 1927년 부산에서 태어나셨습니다. 6남매 중 둘째였습니다. 할머니는 어릴 때부터 공부 욕심이 많았습니다. 일곱 살 때부터 공부시켜 달라고 부모님을 졸랐습니다. 하지만 집안 형편 때문에 공부할 수 없었고 집안일을 하며 동생들 돌보는 일을 했습니다. 열다섯 살이 될 때까지 내내 할머니는 공부시켜 달라고 조르고 울었습니다. 열다섯 살 때 밥도 많이 먹을 수 있고 공부도 시켜 준다고 하여 부산 어느 집으로 양딸로 들어갔습니다. 그러나 그 집에서는 학교를 보내 주기는커녕 온갖 허드렛일을 시켰습니다.

어느 날 어둑어둑할 때 심부름을 나갔는데 건장한 남자 두 명이 와서 무작정 할머니를 끌고 갔습니다. 어디로 가냐고 물어도 잔말 말고 가자며 끌고 가서는 울산역에 놓고 가버렸습니다. 거기는 다른 여자아이들도 몇 명 와 있었습니다. 열다섯 명이 창문도 없는 기차를 타고 어디론가 끌려갔고 이틀 정도 걸려 중국의 도문이라는 곳에 도착했습니다. 그때가 1942년 7월이었습니다. 도문역에서 기차를 타고 연길에 있는 동비행장에 갔습니다. 거기에는 일본군 비행부대가 있었습니다. 그곳에서 할머니는 일본군성노예제 피해를 당하셨습니다. 도망가려고 계획도 해보았지만 사방천지가 군인이고 나다니지 못하니 도망칠 수도 없었습니다. 43년 봄에는 연길 근처 위안소로 옮겨가 성노예 생활을 해야 했습니다.

1945년 해방되기 얼마 전 폭격이 심하고 어수선했습니다. 해방된 줄 모르고 거기서 며칠을 있는데 한 조선족 농민이 앞을 지나가 해방되었다고 알려주었습니다. 연길 시내로 와 먹을 것이 없어 구걸을 하며 살았습니다.

이옥선 할머니는 고국에 돌아오지 못한 채 중국에서 사시다가 2000년 6월에 한국으로 영주 귀국을 하셨습니다. “내가 1996년에 고향의 가족을 찾아서 잠시 한국에 다니러 왔을 때, 몸 불편한 아바이가, 나 한국에 영영 가버릴까 봐 며칠을 울며 붙잡았더랬어요. 그래서 고향이 그리워도 돌아올 수 없었디요. 그 아바이도 저 세상 갔고 나도 살 날이 얼마 안 남았으니 반평생 동안 꿈에도 그리던 고향 땅에 돌아와 살고 싶었습니다.”

할머니는 2001년 정부에 일본군‘위안부’ 피해자로 등록되셨습니다. 수요시위, 해외 증언 등 일본군성노예제 문제해결을 위한 활동을 적극적으로 하셨습니다. 건강이 좋지 않아 누워 계실 때도 수요시위에 나가고 싶다는 말을 자주 하셨습니다. 그러나 결국 다시 수요시위에 나오지 못하시고, 1700차 수요시위를 며칠 앞두고 세상을 떠나셨습니다. 그토록 열심히 외치셨던 일본정부의 공식 사죄, 법적 배상도 받지 못하셨습니다.

할머니 고통 없는 곳에서 편안하세요. 할머니의 명복을 빕니다.

장례식장은 아직 정해지지 않았습니다. 정해지는 대로 공지하겠습니다.

'Don’t wait until we are all gone': Former s*x slaves demand justice now - The Korea Times With only seven known survivors of Japan’s wartime s*x slavery still alive in Korea, the urgency to resolve the issue is mounting. For 97-year-old Lee Young-soo, one of the most vocal advocates among...

Return home brought no relief for former s*x slaves - The Korea Times During World War II, tens of thousands of young women were forcibly taken to serve as s*x slaves for the Japanese military's frontline troops. Many were lured with false promises of jobs or education,...

Girl statue removed from German university to be reinstalled on Women's Day A girl statue symbolizing victims of Japan's wartime s*xual slavery will be installed at a church in Germany next week, two years after it was removed from the nearby University of Kassel, where it was first erected, a civic organization said Saturday.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Grandma Gil Won-Ok. May she find peace.

Gil Won-ok
1924 – Present

My name is Gil Won-ok, and I am 88 years old. I am among the youngest ‘comfort women’ victims who are still alive. I am living with other victims at “Our House”, a shelter which ‘The Korean Council’ has been operating in Seoul.

I was 13 years old when I followed someone who told me I could have job training while working in a factory. When I got there, there were only soldiers seen at the site. I couldn’t see any factory buildings or ordinary people working. When I entered the place, what I heard was “You will get beaten if you say anything, or talk to anyone!” or “You will be dead if you scream!”. I was so terrified that I couldn’t help but cry. It was when all the beating started. I got beaten and kicked, not just slapped. I was just a 13 year old girl…

Then I was pushed to a group of soldiers… How could a 13 year old girl stay calm and quiet when she got r***d? I screamed, cried and physically resisted…. Then I got more yelling and beatings. Eventually, all of them r***d me, but they were not done with me. After the r**e, they reported to the manager that I was not obedient. As a result, the manager got mad and came to grab me by my hair, pulled me out of the place and kept beating me hard.

I can’t remember how long I was living there in such a condition. I was just a 13 year old girl who was brutally treated as a s*x slave like that for a while, until I contracted a s*xually transmitted disease called “Yokone”. I couldn’t serve soldiers anymore as blisters appeared in the ge***al area. When they learned about my disease, they started beating me again, and giving me little food. When my disease didn’t show any improvements over time, I was told to have a surgery in a hospital. What actually happened was that not only the STD was medically treated, but also my ovaries were removed so that I couldn’t get pregnant. Even after the medical treatment, the STD symptoms didn’t disappear. After all, I was sent home with a guard. I was so happy to go back home thought the symptoms didn’t improve. I was ecstatic!

I was staying home for a while, and then I managed to get a shot called “No. 606”, which was produced in Japan. After the shot, all the STD symptoms disappeared. When I was clear of the symptoms, I wanted to be financially helpful to my family. Not far from my house, there was a Japanese military quarter where they recruited temporary employees. The number of people who got a temporary job varied between 30-50 each day. The temporary employees were given a belt without which nobody could move around in the military quarter. When I got a temporary job, I did some chores such as collection garbage. I can’t remember how much, but I remember I was paid some money at the end of the day. Things were going okay until somebody called me by the name “Hanako” when I was on my way home from work. I was so terrified because none of my family members knew the name “Hanako”. He was the one who took me to the military office in the first place. My body was shaking. I couldn’t escape. He put me on a train. I couldn’t resist at all because I was so fearful of him. That was when I realized somebody must have spied on me since I was sent home.

Once I was on the train, a man I had never seen sat beside me to tell me that I shouldn’t worry much as I was being taken to a good place. How could I believe what he was telling me was true? It was already not the first time, and I had a good sense about what I was getting into.

It was Peking in China where I arrived after the night long train ride. Once I got off the train, I was put in the truck. I saw many other women when I got off the truck. I was so afraid, so I couldn’t eat any food I was given on the train as well as the new place. Someone yelled at me; “You will die unless you eat something. If you don’t want to die here, you should eat!” Still I couldn’t eat at all that day. I was so afraid.

I was put into a small room, and soldiers kept coming into the room. I screamed and cried hard. So a manager came in the room to threaten me. Even after that, I still kept resisting hard, so one soldier hit my head with the tip of his sword. It left a permanent scar on my head. My clothes should have been torn apart, because I bled so much that I couldn’t take them off. Nobody wiped the blood off my body, and the soldier kept ra**ng me regardless of the blood flowing down.

I was too young to know that women experience a monthly period. I thought that the blood coming out of my body was due to some infections or some injuries inside my body. I couldn’t talk to anyone about it out of my fear. I attempted to stop the bleeding by putting pressure with a piece of my clothes or rags. My bedding got soaked by the blood. I couldn’t clean it, so I tried to fold it by half to avoid part of the bedding with the blood stain. It was a very miserable and painful time.

I didn’t know how much time went by. I turned 18. One morning, all the soldiers disappeared, and the manager was seen nowhere. All the women living there had no idea what had happened. The manager took all the food with him so we had nothing left to eat. The women older than me got some food from the village, so we shared it.

One day we were looking outside, and we heard people who were passing by were shouting that we would never return home if we missed this boat. I got in the boat, following the people. I eventually arrived in Incheon. I looked like a beggar. I didn’t have any extra clothes to change, so I couldn’t wash my clothes. I smelled so bad. I had no money with me so there was no way I could return to my home in Pyungyang. I stayed in South Korea to make some money with which I could buy a train ticket to go back home. However after the Korean war, the way to North Korea was blocked by the DMZ (demilitarized zone). Since then it’s been 71 years without knowing whether my family members are alive in North Korea.. I’ve been through a lot. I worked in a bar, and I even ran a street vendor business selling cooked silk worms. I tried to do anything to survive.

Even after what I’ve been through, and despite my age, I still feel that I am a woman. It still feels shameful and painful to disclose what I’ve been through in my life. I also understand that it is painful for people to hear my tragic story. If so, why am I telling you my life story? It is because we can prevent the history from repeating if we learn what actually happened in the past. I don’t want anyone to experience what we had to suffer and in the way we did. The reason I want to share my sad story is not because I enjoy telling my story, but because I am asking you to work hard to make a peaceful country with a strong defense system so that the same thing will never happen again to our next generations.

The Japanese government still looks down upon us, and has never acknowledged the truth or apologized for what they did to us. Even if they want to compensate us, how much money are they willing to pay? Even if we receive compensation money, can it return what we lost? Of course not. We have had a life in which we never had a chance to show our gratitude for our parents, enjoy friendships, have our own family or have children. Sometimes I hear that the Japanese government claims they have already compensated or apologized. However, we have never received any apology from the Japanese government. Why should we accept the citizen foundation funds? We are not asking money for our food or clothes. What we are asking for is an official apology and legal compensation from the Japanese government. It is not just the money we are asking. This is why we cannot accept the citizen foundation funds. The Japanese government should offer an apology to those comfort women victims. Instead what they did was they apologized to foreign presidents and provided money. Do they think the victims are living in those foreign countries?

I am ill and have pains all over my body. However, I believe the main reason I’m still alive is to share my story with you. I’m asking you again. There is no guarantee that the same thing won’t happen again if there is another war. If another war breaks out, you’re the ones who would suffer. It is now up to you, and you work hard together to resolve the war victim issues so that the Japanese government won’t lie again. I strongly believe that we will be able to resolve the issues while we are alive.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2022/10/120_337656.html

Let's hope that a solution with the survivors at the center will come from this.

Korea, Japan to hold working-level consultations on wartime forced labor Korea and Japan plan to hold working-level diplomatic consultations Tuesday over their protracted row over wartime forced labor and other bilateral issues, the foreign ministry said.

Current heads of state have yet to apologize for the atrocities committed during the occupation.

Former PM Hatoyama apologizes for Japan's wartime brutalities Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Saturday apologized for his country's wartime brutalities against Koreans as he attended a memorial event for those killed in a 16th century historic naval battle between the two countries.

Elderly victim calls for prompt, principled resolution of s*xual slavery dispute with Japan Elderly victim calls for prompt, principled resolution of s*xual slavery dispute with Japan

12 remain of the living history.

Another Korean wartime s*xual slavery victim dies; survivors now at 12 Another Korean wartime s*xual slavery victim dies; survivors now at 12

On February 17, another grandmother has passed. Her family wishes to be anonymous.

Rest in Peace Grandmother.