I wonder, how much truth can we endure?
The comfort women are a truth that is heavy, a truth that hurts, painted with blood, despair, and disappointment.
Today, in 2025, what exactly has this atrocity taught us?
It taught us that silence is just as guilty as violence, and that open wounds will remain open if we do not decide to confront the pain. It taught us that history is not anniversaries and fleeting memory, but the faces of those who were either lost or became one with the shadows of sorrow. Above all, it awakened us so that we may never be at risk of experiencing it again.
Every year, on August 14, the Republic of Korea pays tribute to the comfort women. This term refers to the thousands of women who were forcibly subjected to sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. However, this term masterfully conceals the raw reality, which was nothing less than rape and abuse, hell and death.
Countless young women, even girls as young as 13, were violently abducted and taken to military barracks, converted into makeshift brothels, where they were forced, often multiple times a day, to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers. Most of these women did not survive. Those who endured this inhuman degradation and abuse either returned with their physical wounds turning into psychological scars, others ended their own lives, or condemned themselves to silence, obscurity, and shame, unable to face the future. But how could they face it, when all their youth and freedom had been swallowed by the darkness of this criminal depravity?
The memorial day for these women was officially established in 2012, in honor of Kim Hak-sun, the first woman in Korea to speak publicly about her experience as a Comfort Woman. She gave her testimony on August 14, 1991, and in December of that year filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government for the damages she endured during the war. Thanks to this woman, other survivors found the courage to speak, demand justice, and ensure that this tragic historical injustice would not be forgotten.
On August 14 in Korea, memorial ceremonies, school lectures, and silent marches are being held. The symbol of remembrance is the “Statue of Peace” a young girl seated with an empty chair beside her. Her gaze is silent, honoring women’s dignity. She did not bow her head, but faced fear for the sake of justice, something we are called to do as well, today and always.
The issue of the comfort women extends Korea’s borders, touching the hearts of women worldwide. It is a prime example of a human rights violation, that awakens and strengthens consciences on a global scale.
History and humanity share both light and darkness. Yet, within the brightest corridors of history, souls have endured the darkest side of human nature. Nevertheless, their presence became memory, reminding us that there is always only one path: the pursuit of light.
These women never lived their childhood or their adolescence, because they were violently uprooted. One morning they woke up in the warmth of their families, and that same night their bodies became objects of horrific pleasures. Imprisoned in dark, filthy rooms, with their bodies covered with blood, bruises, burns, and their eyes empty, as if they had died long ago, while their hearts kept beating. Broken dolls.
Every step that approached them brought fear and a racing heart. The death of the soul lurked once again. The door opened, and with it “Pandora’s box”. Another night, another rape among the continuous during the night. Another night that their bodies shattered again and again into pieces. How can anyone survive such a physical and mental nightmare? Innocent souls condemned to experience the cruelest form of human brutality.
Some survived. And? They entered a world that nobody hugged them, but blamed them, as if they were the cause of their own hell. They lived by day and died again by night. Helpless women, victims of their memories. Try to feel, even just a little, this nightmare. If you truly do, command your mind not to try to escape. Do not forget.
These women do not essentially seek revenge or apology. What they desire is that no woman should ever endure this barbarity again. Their memory is history and justice and if these values are lost, then everything will repeat again more violently.
Behind every figure that stands in silence, gazing at the pain of the past, lies another story without its ending. We are that ending, the ones who will give it the just conclusion it deserves.
Why does it concern us all?
Because the memory of the Comfort Women is not in the past, but in the present and the future.
It is both a warning and a lesson.
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