Comfort Women's Day is observed annually on September 22nd near St. Mary's Square in San Francisco's Chinatown. A statue depicts Kim Hak-soon, the first Korean "comfort woman" to publicly recount her experience, and another statue shows three "comfort women"—one from China, one from South Korea, and one from the Philippines—holding hands.
Background: Public records show that from 1931 to 1945, approximately 200,000 innocent women from 11 Asian countries and regions were forced into sexual slavery as "comfort women" by Japanese soldiers. The largest number of victims were from China, South Korea, and the Philippines. Other countries and regions included Burma, East Timor, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Scholars estimate that this group numbers around 200,000, most of whom spent the post-war period in silence. Seeking justice, on August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-soon, a South Korean woman, became the first to publicly speak out as a "comfort woman" victim.
Establishment Process: On September 22, 2015, a hearing on a bill to establish "comfort women" memorials in public places was held at San Francisco City Hall. Wearing traditional Korean clothing, Lee Young-soo came to the hearing and recounted his painful experience of being kidnapped to a Japanese military comfort station at the age of 15. The resolution was ultimately passed unanimously. [1] In 2017, a resolution designating September 22 as "Comfort Women's Day" was passed again by the San Francisco City Council. A memorial to the "Comfort Women" was also officially unveiled in St. Mary's Park on the same day.
Current Status of Comfort Women: On August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-soon, a South Korean woman, became the first to publicly stand up as a "comfort woman." In 1992, Wan Aihua, a 63-year-old woman from Shanxi, China, broke half a century of silence and displayed numerous scars on her body in Tokyo, Japan, directly pointing to the atrocities committed by the Japanese army. She became the first "comfort woman" among hundreds of thousands of victimized Chinese women to come forward and testify against the Japanese army's crimes. At 0:45 AM on September 4, 2013, Wan Aihua, the first person to accuse the Japanese army of sexual assault, passed away. On the morning of September 8th, a memorial service for Wan Aihua was held in her hometown, Yangquan Village, Meng County, Shanxi Province. In 2015, when Lee Yong-soo attended a hearing in San Francisco, there were 53 registered "comfort women" victims in South Korea. By 2019, only 20 remained. On August 19, 2019, Jane Raff, a Dutch-Australian woman, passed away at the age of 96. On August 21, 2019, Yang Guilan, a Chinese "comfort woman" survivor, also passed away. Thus, only 17 registered survivors of the Japanese military's "comfort women" system remain in mainland China.
Global Impact: In South Korea, civic groups and "comfort women" victims hold weekly protests in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, rain or shine, demanding that the Japanese government acknowledge its history and provide formal compensation to the victims. To date, these protests have been held over 1400 times. In the United States, the California Board of Education passed legislation to include "comfort women" in tenth-grade history textbooks. The parliaments of the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, and the European Parliament subsequently passed resolutions condemning the "comfort women" system and demanding that Japan apologize and assume corresponding responsibility.