hankyoreh

Members of Hope Butterfly collect signatures in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Jan. 1

The former comfort women for the Japanese imperial army had two dreams. The first was returning home to their parents and friends, and the second was creating a peaceful world without war or human rights violations. The symbol of the first dream is the balloon flower, and the symbol of world peace is the butterfly.

If the balloon flower represented what comfort women longed for when they were being violated as sex slaves for the Japanese army, the butterfly is a hope for the future, representing what the former comfort women wish to achieve in South Korea while they are still alive.

There are some young students who want to help the former comfort women achieve their dreams. They befriended those women at the weekly Wednesday demonstrations along with various petitions and other events, and they are dedicated to making the women’s dreams a reality. It is these students who are keeping watch over the comfort women statue in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, a statue that not only the Japanese government but also the South Korean government have been waiting for a chance to remove since they reached the comfort women agreement on Dec. 28 of last year.

These young people are now attempting to tell the world about how the comfort women system was a crime against humanity and are calling on the people of the world to take interest in and to support the cause of resolving this issue in order to create a world without war and human rights violations.

From June 23 to July 15, these young people will be participating in “Dream of the Butterfly,” Hope Butterfly’s European trip for peace. During this trip, they plan to visit 16 cities in five European countries, where they will hold Wednesday demonstrations, collect signatures for petitions, paint large hanging banners and do performances, including dances, choir concerts and flash mobs.

During World War II, the Japanese government forced thousands of young women from its Korean colony to become comfort women, or sex slaves, for the Japanese imperial army. When the Japanese army retreated, it slaughtered the women or abandoned them on the battlefield in order to destroy evidence.

Despite this, the Japanese government even today refuses to take legal responsibility for its actions. The Japanese government and military refuse to acknowledge that they were involved in the compulsory mobilization of the comfort women. Instead, they add insult to injury and assassinate the women’s character with the absurd argument that the women voluntarily accepted job offers from private recruiters. The South Korean government has also taken little interest in the issue and has reached agreements with Japan on two occasions that go against the wishes of the victims.

Hope Butterfly’s activities go beyond drawing attention to these facts and calling for people’s support. The group is also planning to launch a petition for the former comfort women to be awarded a Nobel Prize. This is not about the financial award that goes along with the prize. Rather, the object is to prevent the crime of state-led sexual slavery - the most horrific human rights violation in human history - from taking place again, to ensure that it is remembered forever and to let it serve as a lasting warning.

Despite the concerted effort by the Japanese government and army to destroy evidence, the former comfort women are a living witness to these crimes against humanity. They have given up their bodies and souls as evidence at the courthouse of history and justice.

That is why the Japanese government is patiently waiting for the death of these women, who are in their late 80s and 90s. In the 25 years since Kim Hak-sun went public with her status as a former comfort woman in 1991, the comfort women have testified around the world about Japan‘s war crimes and its infringement of women’s rights and have called on Japan to take political responsibility.

This was not just a matter of crime and punishment; these women were trying to prevent such crimes against humanity from ever occurring again. For the women, such confessions were sacrifices that would have been impossible to make without the courage to put their whole identity and reputation on the line.

As a result, the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has defined the comfort women issue as an instance of sexual slavery against women in wartime and called on Japan to take legal responsibility.

In 2008, the UN Human Rights Council adopted and released a report in which it stated that the Japanese government should acknowledge its responsibility for the compulsory mobilization of the comfort women, to apologize to them and compensate them and to make these things known to students and to the general public.

In 2007, the US House of Representatives also unanimously adopted a resolution calling on Japan to take responsibility for the comfort women. Subsequently, the Netherlands, Canada and the European Parliament adopted their own resolutions about the comfort women.

Of the 54 people who are attending Dream of the Butterfly, the European trip for peace, 50 are in their teens and twenties. Each of them paid the cost of the trip with money they earned through doing extra work in their spare time, and for the 23 days of the trip they will be staying at tents in campsites. Prior to departing, members attended three camps where they practiced the dances and songs needed for the various performances and prepared the materials required for painting the hanging banners.

In addition to Wednesday demonstrations in London and Geneva, the group will also be holding events at the human rights square in Paris, in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and in front of Strasbourg Cathedral. The oldest reporter at the Hankyoreh will be accompanying Dream of the Butterfly and sharing the various trip activities in the pages of the newspaper and through digital media along with the group’s press and PR staff.

The group’s vigor and spirit (which the former comfort women must have dreamed of when they were young) and their dedication to justice and peace are sure to make no small impression and impact on the people of the world. The comfort women themselves will find even more courage and strength in the sincere and energetic efforts of the young generation of South Koreans.

By Kwak Byoung-chan, senior editorial writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]