davidjohnball comments

Nipair???? A compromise perhaps.

In 2016, the unveiling of a statue in Sydney, Australia honouring so-called "comfort women" during WWII caused tension between the local South Korean and Japanese communities.

The 1.5-metre statue was imported from Korea and symbolises the hardships endured by tens of thousands of Korean women, who were forced into sexual servitude.

It was unveiled at Croydon Park in Sydney's west by a former comfort woman from South Korea, Won-Ok Gil, 89, who flew in for the ceremony.

Ms Gil was forced to work in a "comfort station" at 13 years of age and was raped hundreds of times by Japanese soldiers.

At the Sydney unveiling, she sat besides the peace monument and became too emotional to speak.

Won-Ok Gil was taken to Harbin, Manchuria, and brought to a comfort station in the winter of 1940 where she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Japanese soldiers from the ages of thirteen to eighteen years old. During the years Won-Ok spent as a victim of military sexual slavery, she contracted syphilis, which formed tumors in her body, leading to four surgeries. Due to complications, doctors gave Won-Ok a hysterectomy which left her sterile. After the war, Won-Ok tried to go back home to North Korea, but when she got to the border, it was closed. Won-Ok to this day still has been unable to return to her home.

These statues serve to remind us of the importance of remembering the past and in doing so making sure sexual violence against females does not happen in the future. The issue of sexual violence in conflict remains with us till this day. No survivors of sexual violence should remain in the shadows. Those posters who flippantly say, "Get on with life etc." need to sit down with individuals such as Won-OK and hear their experiences.