Session 2. The Waves and Echoes of Kim Hak-soon’s Testimony
Living Justice: The Power of Survivors’ Voices Elizabeth W. Son I Professor, Northwestern University, USA
I want to thank Professor Lee and The Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Korean Council hereafter) for this opportunity to participate in today’s conference. It is an honor to be in this space with so many scholars and activists whom I admire. In my presentation today, I’ll discuss the concept of “living justice” and how Kim Hak-soon halmeoni’s public testimony and the voices of other survivors have echoed across time and space to sustain the global social movement for “comfort women” justice.
Introduction Fourteen years ago, when I began my research on women’s art and activism surrounding the history of Japanese military sexual slavery, I asked survivors why they attended the Wednesday Demonstrations. One survivor, Gil Won-ok halmeoni, explained that it was for the future. As a living witness, she believed that it was her responsibility to tell the world about her experiences during the war and to fight for justice. Her sentiment echoed the words and actions of another living witness—Kim Hak-soon halmeoni who gave the first public testimony as a survivor of Japanese military sexual slavery on August 14, 1991. Kim Hak-soon halmeoni inspired generations of women to come forward with their stories of sexual victimhood. Survivors like Jan Ruff O’Herne watched Kim Hak-soon halmeoni’s testimony on television and decided to share her testimony publicly in 1992. In the 1990s a group of survivors of militarized sexual violence during the Bosnian civil war were moved by the public testimony of “comfort women” survivors and decided to testify at the U.N. The 2010 Tribunal of Conscience for Women Survivors of Sexual Violence during the Armed Conflict in Guatemala was directly inspired by the survivors who testified at the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery (Women’s 261
