At ‘Comfort Women’ Shelter in South Korea, a Japanese Volunteer Helps Out
- A group of women join a rally to demand that Japan apologize and provide compensation to the surviving victims of the Japanese government’s sexual enslavement of women during World War II, in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, on Jan. 7, 2015.
- EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
The long-running dispute between South Korea and Japanover apologies and reparations for Korean women used by the Japanese imperial military as forced prostitutes is often portrayed as a clear divide between the two nations.
But among citizens of each country, it’s not that simple. In South Korea, some scholars note that the commonly held view among Koreans that local women were rounded-up by the Japanese military obscures evidence of Koreans taking active roles in setting up and sustaining the network of forced prostitution.
Meanwhile, demonstrations held outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul each week by former “comfort women” and Korean activists occasionally include Japanese supporters urging their own government to provide a new formal apology. Events in Japan have also been held in support of the women.
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One Japanese citizen who is less concerned with the politics of the issue than in providing support for the women — most of whom are now in their 80s — is a volunteer at a home for some of the survivors southeast of Seoul. Originally from Hokkaido in northern Japan, the volunteer agreed to answer questions from The Wall Street Journal via email on the condition that her name wasn’t used. She says she’s been the target of online attacks from Japanese people critical of her work.
The volunteer is a Japanese language teacher living in Seoul who decided to work at the shelter, known as the “House of Sharing,” after a suggestion from another worker there. The facility is home for 10 surviving elderly women and also features a museum about the experiences of the comfort women, statues of them and other artworks about violence toward women in conflict zones.
The volunteer has been working at the shelter on most of her free days since 2011. She guides Japanese visitors, responds to online and other inquiries to the center, handles social media outreach and manages the center’s Japanese website.
She says her family was supportive of her decision to volunteer. “I felt nervous about my role and burden” on the first day at the shelter, she says.
On a recent visit to the facility by The Wall Street Journal, several of the former comfort women said they appreciated support from Japanese citizens. They said their calls for a formal apology were directed at the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Japanese volunteer said the question of how the dispute should be resolved is something for specialists in Japan to deal with. She said she just wants to do her part to help the elderly women and to allow them to spend their days in an enjoyable and fulfilling way.
“As a Japanese person living in South Korea, this is the least I’m able to do,” she said.
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