News and Updates

Thirty years ago, on August 14, 1991, Hak-sun Kim broke a silence of 50 years when she described her life as a “comfort woman,” during WWII.  In front of a live audience she declared:

“Before I die, before I close my eyes, I want to vent my anger once through words… I decided to tell a historical fact that must be told one day. Japan must apologize!”  

—Hak-sun Kim
“Comfort Women” Survivor & Human Rights Activist
August 14, 1991

 

Her anger described her life in the largest institutionalized system of sexual slavery in the twentieth century. Run by the Japanese Imperial Army from 1932-1945, it involved hundreds of thousands of women from all the countries Japan occupied during WWII. The vast majority of those women died, the others held their silence.

Hak-sun Kim’s testimony moved hundreds of other survivors to speak at as well. Their words helped focus the world on the issues of sexual violence and sexual trafficking, eventually leading the human rights community to view sexual violence as a strategy of war to be a war crime. Rape has finally been declared a form of torture.  

Decades later, women are speaking out. The #Metoo movement is in some ways the granddaughters of Hak-sun Kim and the other “comfort women.”

The international community has honored Hak-sun Kim by making August 14th a day to remember the “comfort women” each year. The central demand remains the same: Japan must apologize and offer reparations!  Japan continues to deny this crime and is actively blocking any moves for accountability.

The “Comfort Women” Justice Coalition and the Jin Duck & Kyung Sik Kim Foundation have marked “Comfort Women” Memorial Day by placing twenty “pole banners” around the streets of San Francisco. So we ask people to “Look Up” and you will see the image of the “Comfort Women” Memorials as well as that of Hak-sun Kim.

Please also read the op-ed by Judge Lillian Sing, co-chair of CWJC and Gitika Nalwa in the 8/13 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle below. 

San Francisco Chronicle: “Comfort Women” Memorial Day Article