Comfort woman survivor’s story brings Berlin audience to tears

Posted on : 2017-12-04 16:13 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Gil Won-ok was prevented from returning to Pyongyang following Korea’s post-Liberation division
Comfort woman survivor Gil Won-ok makes a “Butterfly Fund” contribution of 1
Comfort woman survivor Gil Won-ok makes a “Butterfly Fund” contribution of 1

“Taedong River / in sorrow / is it still there / unchanged? / Moran Hill . . .”

The plaintive strains of a song by a woman in her nineties filled the offices of a women’s rights group in central Berlin on Dec. 1. It was the bitter song of Gil Won-ok, 90, who was taken away to serve as a Japanese military comfort woman at the age of 13 and prevented from returning to her hometown of Pyongyang by Korea’s post-Liberation division.

Gil’s lifelong ambition was to become a singer, a dream she realized just last year after releasing an album containing a number of songs, including, “Arirang,” and “Tumen River, Wet with Tears.” The album, which was designed to commemorate Gil’s role as a historical witness and to encourage people to view comfort women survivors as accomplished individuals rather than simply victims, was produced by Yu Min-seok, a composer of protest songs.

Arriving in Berlin at the invitation of the German peace and human rights group Korea Verband (Korea Association), Gil mournfully performed the song “Taedong River in Sorrow” at the request of press conference attendees that day, its lyrics seeming to echo her own life story. Some of the attendees were moved to tears. Gil’s visit to Berlin came on the 10th anniversary of the European Parliament’s adoption of a resolution urging a solution to the comfort women issue. On Dec. 12, 2007, the Parliament adopted the resolution, which urged the Japanese government to formally acknowledge, apologize for, and assume historical and legal responsibility for its crimes against the comfort women.

Over the past two decades, Gil has traveled to countries like Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, and Canada to share Japanese’s misdeeds and demand compensation. She has also played a leading role in working to restore human rights for women suffering from sexual violence in strife-ridden regions. To provide support to them, she joined fellow comfort women survivor Kim Bok-dong and others in establishing the Butterfly Fund in Mar. 2012. She also pledged to donate any compensation she received for her victimization. Recently, she donated her 50 million won (US$46,000) in Women’s Rights Award prize money from the Justice and memory Foundation for Resolution of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Issue to the foundation.

On Dec. 1, she made a contribution of 1,000 euro (US$1187) to support female African refugees living in Berlin. Refugee women’s rights activists from Congo and Cameroon expressed tearful thanks after receiving the donation. Also visiting Gil that day was Syrian refugee Abiya Mabas, who decried the oppression of women in her homeland.

“Syrian women are faced with sexual violence and forced prostitution. They are subjected to water torture because they didn’t wear black socks, because they wore nail polish, or because they went out alone without a male,” Mabas said.

Gil said she was “aware of many people around the world who are leading difficult lives due to sexual violence.”

“I hope we can achieve a positive outcome, with all of you working together so that there are no more victims like us in the future,” she said.

“Even if the truth [of the comfort women issue] does not come to light today, I believe it will come out at some point. If I do not achieve it, then the young people [attending regular Wednesday demonstrations on the comfort women issue] will.”

Gil, who declared the Berlin trip the “last overseas journey of my life,” nearly had to return to South Korea due to health scare while changing planes in Helsinki. She is scheduled to stay in Berlin until Dec. 8 to attend a conference on the topic of violence against women during military conflicts and a Friedrich Ebert Foundation ceremony awarding a human rights prize to the Wednesday demonstrations.

By Kim Dong-hoon, staff reporter

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

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