hankyoreh

Han Yeon-ji

“I do miss the campus. The saddest thing is not being able to meet the incoming students this year. But I am here, anyway, and the underclassmen come here to see me and support me and the statues, so I think it’s worked out well.”

Most of the students holding down the fort have returned to classes for the new semester. But Han Yeon-ji, 23, planned to continue until Mar. 8 keeping watch 24 hours a day next to the statue of a young girl that stands in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul’s Jongno district - a symbol of Korea’s comfort women.

Older passers-by stopped on Mar. 7 to offer support. “You should put up a tent or something,” suggested one.

“Thank you. But the police won’t let me put up a tent,” Han replied.

Her face remained resolute as she turned up her down jacket against the still-harsh March winds.

“I think it’s especially cold here,” she said.

On Mar. 1, other “watchdogs” who had stood with Han launched what they called “season two” of the university student movement to protect the country’s comfort women statues, returning to their homes to continue working to have a late-2015 agreement by the South Korean and Japanese governments on the comfort women issue overturned.

But Han volunteered herself as a “fixture” at the setting in Seoul. “I can’t just let this space disappear,” she recalled thinking.

To stay at the site, she had to quit her part-time job at a convenience store across from her school, where she made just over 700,000 won (US$580) a month.

“It was a tough decision - that was money I really needed to live on,” she said. “But I summoned the courage to give it up, thinking it would be more meaningful now to guard a setting that’s become not just a protest site, but a symbol for peace.”

At around 7:30 each morning, Han climbs out of a sleeping bag stuffed with hot packs. She also makes sure to do her morning calisthenics to shake off the effects of huddling all night long in front of the statue.

“You have to be healthy and free of pain if you want to preserve peace,” she said.

Due to car exhaust and dust from nearby construction sites, Han sometimes clears up the easily damaged site and goes into nearby buildings to wash up. Every other day, she goes to a bathhouse. She makes sure to keep up with the news, while using coupons donated by members of the public to eat meals before going onto social networking service bulletin boards to share her activities.

The most difficult moment, she said, comes between 2 and 3 pm everyday when the area sees less foot traffic.

“I sometimes get tired or bored, and that‘s when I go to see what kind of replies my posts have gotten,” she said as she sent out her own reply reading, “Thank you. It’s the kind of strength that changes the world.”

Young people still stop by the site. That day, Han was joined by Lee So-yeon, a 20-year-old university student who had no classes scheduled, and Kim Seong-geun, a 23-year-old from Daegu. Both are dear acquaintances she met visiting other protest sites near the statue since Dec. 30.

“When I’m doing a one-person demonstration, I say that young people are still working to protect the statue,” said Kim, who has been holding one-person demonstrations every Wednesday in Daegu to have the South Korea-Japan agreement overturned.

“I’m grateful to Yeon-ji, but I also felt sorry and decided to come up from Daegu,” he added.

“Every time someone says ‘thank you,’ I just feel more grateful to them,” Han said.

The crowds visiting the regular Wednesday demonstrations on the comfort women have dwindled from over 1,000 people to around a hundred or so, and the number of articles criticizing the agreement has dropped sharply. But Han is confident the battle has not been lost.

“If there‘s even one person, we haven’t lost. What I realized at the statue protest sites is that people gather when they see one person, and then more people see that and gather too,” she explained.

“I just want people to know that young people are still here next to the statue.”

By Bang Jun-ho, staff reporter

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