Dark days of 'comfort women' retraced

Memorial and museum

A bronze sculpture of two girls－one Chinese and the other Korean－stands in front of the Chinese "Comfort Women" History Museum on the campus of Shanghai Normal University. The girls represent the hundreds of thousands of young victims of the "comfort women" system.

The sculpture is one of many created by Korean couple Kim Eun-sung and Kim Seo-kyung and local artists around the world since the first was erected on a road outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, in 2011.The sculpture at the Shanghai university was created in collaboration with Chinese artist Pan Yiqun and film producer Shi Yong.

A mosaic shadow of an old woman is cast under the young Korean girl, while under the Chinese girl, a trail of footprints made by surviving Chinese "comfort women" symbolizes their fragmented lives and suffering from childhood to old age. Next to the girls, an empty chair forms part of the sculpture, inviting people to sit and join the victims' battle.

Kim Eun-sung said in 2015 when the sculpture was erected: "The Chinese and Korean peoples both suffered from Japanese militarism and shared common agonizing memories. Now, the Korean girl will not be lonely anymore."

The museum, which used to be a library where Su researched "comfort women", opened in 2016, and now houses some 3,000 exhibits donated or collected over the past 20 years. They include photographs of "comfort stations", and indictments from the first group of victims from the Chinese mainland seeking compensation from Japan.

Since it opened, more than 100 volunteers have worked at the museum, where their daily duties include cleaning the sculpture and providing guided tours for visitors.

Wang Ximing, a graduate student of world history who has been a volunteer at the museum since 2019, said: "Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many people from home and abroad visited the museum every week. We've received many Korean groups, and they always lay flowers and take photos of the sculpture." She added that Korean students have been volunteers at the museum.

Portraits of registered Chinese "comfort women" are exhibited on a wall at the museum entrance. This display is divided into sections featuring the origins of the "comfort women" system, its implementation during wartime, the testimonies of victims, and their current status.

Wang said, "I once met a retired Japanese lady. She took a lot of notes in the museum and told me she had previously read one Japanese book in the collection to familiarize herself with this issue."

Gu Anqi, a freshman at the university from Jilin province who visited the museum on Saturday, said she was impressed by the exhibition of the "precise but cold and brutal system of sexual slavery used by the Japanese military".

"I was also shocked by the extent to which the system spread in Asia-Pacific regions," she said. "I have sent messages to my roommates to come and visit the museum."

Wang added, "This past tragedy cannot be changed, but we can play our part to help preserve the memory of it, such as providing guided tours and raising funds for these 'grandmas'."