[Interview] California woman helps publicize comfort women issue in the United States

Posted on : 2017-09-22 16:17 KST Modified on : 2017-09-22 16:17 KST
Kim Hyun-jung has been a driving force in establishment of statues throughout US cities
 which was the first comfort woman statue to be set up overseas
which was the first comfort woman statue to be set up overseas

Kim Hyun-jung says that she has a broad range of Korean-Americans supporting her comfort women-related work. “I have received support from diverse sectors, from right-wing groups like Korean War P.O.W Affairs and progressive groups related to the Sewol ferry sinking,” she says.

“When it comes to human rights issues, there is no right or left.” When asked about when the comfort women issue will be resolved, Kim replied that it will be possible under the Moon Jae-in government. When pressed as to whether this was just an expression of hope, she added “I also want to apply some pressure to the Moon administration.”

On Sept. 22, a ceremony to unveil a new comfort women memorial statue was held at St Mary’s Square Park in central San Francisco. This is the seventh such memorial statute in the US, and the first in a major city. The event was attended by Lee yong-soo, a victim of Japanese sex slavery, and former US Congressman Mike Honda, but no one was more excited than 48 year-old Kim Hyun-jung, Director of the Korean American Forum of California (KAFC).

The movement to erect the memorial statue was led by the Comfort Women Justice Coalition (CWJC), a body that represents 20 multi-ethnic groups and is led by Chinese-American judges Lillian Sing and Julie Tang. As a member of CWJC’s executive committee, Kim was responsible for strategy and public relations. Kim resides in Glendale, a city in northern Los Angeles County, but I interviewed her by phone on September 19 while she was staying in San Francisco to prepare for the unveiling ceremony.

“After our resolution to erect the statue was approved by the San Francisco City Council in September 2015, I have been to San Francisco about 30 times,” she said. The CWJC, led by Chinese-Americans, was formed only a month before the resolution was passed. How did Kim, a Korean-American, become one of the ‘key minds’ of the organization?

“A number of groups came together to push for a memorial statue, but each organization was also engaged in other activities. KAFC was the only group that was focused solely on comfort women-related work,” she said.

The experience Kim had gained during ten years spent fighting for comfort women proved beneficial in San Francisco as well. She reflected on the situation two years ago when the memorial statue resolution was approved. At the time, the Japanese government had covertly supported groups lobbying to oppose the resolution, threatening its passage. In response, Kim made a snap decision to bring Lee yong-soo from Korea to the US.

“Her testimony in the public hearing played a large part in getting the resolution passed,” Kim said. After hearing her story, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the memorial statue.

“One of the committee members even yelled three times at a Japanese witness who was insulting Lee, telling him that he should be ashamed of himself.” Kim went on to say “Even though the US is an open society, only 10% of sexual assaults are reported. Against this background, many Americans were deeply moved by the sight of an elderly woman talking about the horrific pain and suffering she had endured. Even upon hearing that there were 400,000 victims, the enormity of the brutality doesn’t quite hit home, but seeing old women protesting in the Wednesday demonstration and coming to the US to give testimony really changed public opinion.”

KAFC was founded by Kim when she began fighting in support of comfort women. The organization is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. However there are only six members, including Kim, and the group has no office. KAFC was established for a single purpose – resolving the comfort women issue. In 2007, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution (HR 121) that urged the Japanese government to officially apologize for its wartime actions. At the time, Kim was serving as a member of a California task force made up of Koreans that was pushing for the resolution to be passed.

 California
California

Kim was born in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province and immigrated to the US with her family when she was a college student at the age of 21. After graduating with a degree in folk music from UCLA, she became a qualified court interpreter. “My mother encouraged me to become a court interpreter because it was a good job,” she said. “The exam wasn’t easy. Out of 100 candidates, I was the only one who passed.”

Why did Kim become involved in fighting for comfort women? “In 2007, I was part of a pungmul (a traditional Korean musical performance composed of drumming, dancing, and singing) group at a local Korean cultural center. I didn’t know much about the comfort women issue, but I was shocked to learn that the Japanese government was trying to deny the existence of comfort women outright.”

The comfort woman statue in Glendale
The comfort woman statue in Glendale

Thanks to the hard work of KAFC, the first comfort women memorial statue was erected in Glendale in 2013. The following year, a far-right Glendale resident of Japanese descent, funded by the Japanese government, sued the city to force it to remove the statue, but early this year the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, effectively upholding the dismissal of the lawsuit by lower courts.

The plaintiff claimed that the statue constituted an infringement on the federal government's conduct of foreign affairs, thus violating the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, but the courts disagreed. To help the city win the case, KAFC Director Kim was able to get the law firm Sidley Austin to handle the defense pro bono. “The plaintiff had a big law firm on her side, so I asked Sidley Austin, a law firm with which I have a working relationship, to take the case on a pro-bono basis. One of the senior partners at the firm is an authority on freedom of speech, so they were a very big help to us.”

The KAFC is currently consulting with experts on making new teaching guidelines for California teachers of world history. In 2016, the California Board of Education amended its public-school curriculum guidelines on history and social science to include in 10th-grade history lessons the facts about the suffering of the comfort women at the hands of the Japanese military. “Even if this is included in the curriculum guidelines, it's pointless if the teachers don't follow them. That's why we're getting experts to help us create lesson plans that we can put on the Internet to make it easier for teachers to use the materials in their classes. We're also spreading the word at teacher workshops.”

On September 30, the KAFC is holding an annual fundraising event. “We get the support of about three to four hundred people. Most of the money is used for transportation expenses, and the rest goes to compensating members for their out-of-pocket expenditures. We expect around 150 to 200 people to attend. Nowadays we get a lot of Chinese-American participants.”

In Glendale, where Kim lives, there are a lot of Armenian immigrants, who remember the horrors of genocide suffered by their people. “The Armenians understand the comfort-women issue only too well. Turkey denies the Ottoman genocide of Armenians. There are a number of Armenian-Americans in local politics, so they have an influence on the situation.”

Kim says that Japanese-Americans also generally agree in principle that governments should apologize for their human-rights violations. “During the Second World War, Japanese-Americans were forcibly interned in detention camps. In the 1980s there was a movement to get compensation from the federal government, and they received an official apology from Congress and $20,000 per person.”

Kim says, “As a case of sexual violence committed against women in time of war, the comfort women issue is a human rights concern and a crime against humanity. It should not be tied to issues of security, politics, or diplomacy. Foreign Affairs Minister Kang Kyung-wha has said as much. We have to renegotiate with Japan, taking into full consideration the demands of these elderly women. The demand for a thoroughgoing apology from Japan is also a message saying, 'No More War.'”

By Kang Sung-man, senior staff writer

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

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