Dr. Young Lee Hertig Comments on Korean Comfort Women

  “During the mid ’80s and early ’90s, I had been involved with Korean American panels with Korean comfort women. There was a Methodist female clergy woman who provided tireless leadership to awaken the public to advocate for their dignity and releasing their han. What was inspiring back then was how Japanese progressive leaders spearheaded the movement. Times really have changed after two decades of Japanese revisionist history distorting the truths about comfort women and blaming the victims.

Glendale Comfort Women Memorial. Photo Credit: Glendale News Press

These survivors face the last phase of their lives having bore these tormenting memories. Rather than offering them belated remorse and sympathy, several Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans chose to protest the installation of the Comfort Women’s Statue in Glendale Park! Marking the historical pain of comfort women who have lived so uncomfortably with shame, it is a small step that we can take. I am glad to know that despite the opposition, the citizens of Glendale proceeded to do the right thing.

Unhealed history haunts all of us. For this reason, I applaud these women coming out boldly and speaking up. May God grant you peace and justice before it’s too late.”

– Young Lee Hertig

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Read more on the Glendale Comfort Women Memorial at Rafu Shimpo

For information on Kim Bok-Dong’s Museum of Tolerane event, see flyer HERE.

Kim Bok-Dong on “Comfort Women”

Kim Bok-Dong. Photo Credit: Wiesenthal Center

On Monday, July 29th, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is hosting human rights activist, Kim Bok-Dong at the Museum of Tolerance. The 87-year-old Kim is one of the few surviving Korean “comfort women”: women and girls forced into sexual slavery by Imperial Japan during World War II. Her story delineates a harrowing experience of countless sexual assaults beginning at the age of 14. Exacerbating the pain of her experience is years of shame and secrecy in her personal life alongside denial and avoidance from the Japanese government.

Kim’s talk will cover the history of these atrocities and the ongoing struggle to deliver historical accuracy and justice for the over 200,000 victims of these crimes. Her voice is especially pertinent now in light of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto recent public statements defending the practice of forced sexual slavery in wartime.

Kim’s effort to advocate for herself and other victims is, in part, driven by the fact that very few survivors remain. Kim’s hope is to see to it that “the Japanese government resolves the problem as soon as possible while we elderly women are still alive.” Meanwhile, some suspect the Japanese government is hoping that, as the victims die off, the issue will also be forgotten.

However, as described by psychologist Miyoung Yoon Hammer, an intergenerational transmission process occurs within families and cultures, making traumas of one generation pertinent to the next. Yoon Hammer comments that: “Legacies are transmitted from one generation to the next. Legacies are not always explicitly passed down, but instead can be done at an unconscious level.”

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There is no charge to attend the Kim Bok-Dong event, but RSVPs are required. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE.

Read more about Kim Bok-Dong and the Comfort Women issue at AP: The Big Story.