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Silence
Broken by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson |
| "How was it possible for me to take off my
clothes and show my naked body to a strange man? You know that in those days, to Korean
women, chastity was more precious than life itself, don't you?" —Chung Seo Woon,
former comfort woman A topic long neglected after the end of World War II, the plight of Korean comfort women—women forced into prostitution for Japanese soldiers during World War II—finally comes to light. In her travels around Korea, Japan and China, noted activist/writer Dai Sil Kim-Gibson has interviewed dozens of former comfort women, compiling their searing commentary into this book. The women's stories, silenced for so many years, form a distillate of agony, courage and strength in the worst of times. These harrowing descriptions of abuse, escape and survival are accompanied by comprehensive historical background. At last the long silence regarding these forgotten women has been effectively broken in a resounding shot of poignant insight. Silence Broken has been made into a film and broadcast on PBS, and screened at a variety of films and museums, including the Women 2000 Film Festival, part of the Beijing Plus 5 UN Conference. Visit the website www.twotigers.org, for more information on the book and film. --Yoona Lee, editor of Cune Magazine
In this excerpt, one former comfort woman describes her last few minutes of normalcy before becoming a prisoner to the Japanese. "I looked out the window through the cracks of those black blinds. I saw the Japanese soldier who took us to the train exchanging rolled papers with a Japanese policeman. A sudden chill grabbed my chest and pain cut through my body like a knife. I somehow knew that my life would never be the same. Sure enough, that scene became an unforgettable image for the rest of my life. Even today, the image of those men exchanging rolled papers is so vivid...No doubt, our names in those papers turned us into sex slaves. Life and human fate- all so fragile."
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