Since this is my last full day in Korea, expect this blog post to be a bit longer than most. :)
Ewha Womans University (이화여자대학교)
I know the university's name is grammatically incorrect (even Wikipedia acknowledges the lack of apostrophe in "Woman's" as unconventional) but the university's founders had a special reason for using Woman over Women. By choosing the word "woman" the founders wished to avoid lumping all students together under a single heading of "women," and instead promote the idea that every woman should be respected as an individual and not as simply part of a group.
At Ewha we visited the museum there, which was established in 1935 to preserve and showcase Korean culture in the form of folk art, pottery, woodwork, and traditional clothing. Having first visited the two Sookmyung Women's University museums, this was a nice follow-up to see what other universities are preserving in their archives.
The War and Women's Human Rights Museum resides on a hill tucked away down a side street off World Cup buk-ro (World Cup Road). The official opening of the museum occurred May 5, 2012, but plans for the museum had been going for over nine years.
As according to blogger Hallie:
Talks to build a museum began back in 2003 but funds were slow in coming, though eventually amounted to about two billion won (US$1.8 million dollars). Originally, the Seoul city government granted permission for the museum to be built on the grounds of the Seodaemun Independence Park back in 2006 but, the Korea Liberation Association and the Association for Surviving Family Members of Martyrs of the Country thought it would be “undignified to have a museum for the former comfort women in a setting created to honor martyrs of the country.” The groups put up quite a fight and the city slowed in completing the administrative procedures necessary for the project to be finished. Finally, organizers focused on a location on Mt. Seongmi in Mapo-gu and the museum was opened on May 5, Children’s Day in 2012.
The three-level, 330 square meter (3,550 square foot) museum houses exhibitions and archives on the war crimes committed against women who were forced to work in military brothels during World War II. These women and children—termed "comfort women"—were coerced into the brothels by the promise of work, or abducted from countries including Korea, China, and the Philippines.
For more information on the museum, you can read additional articles here and here.
On March 8, 2012, the Japanese military "comfort women" victims, Kim Bok-dong and Gil Won-ok, announced that when they receive legal reparations from the Japanese government they will donate the entire amount to help other wartime sexual violence victims. As of Dec. 23, 2016, the Japanese government agreed to pay about $9.6 million to 34 surviving "comfort women." However, money from various other sympathizers have been donated over the years into Kim and Gil's Butterfly Fund, which supports sexual violence victims and children in the Republic of Congo and Vietnam. A wall of paper butterflies containing inspiring messages lined the side of the museum.
On August 14, 1991, Kim Hak-Soon (김 학순) was the first woman in Korea to publicly testify about her experience as a "comfort woman." Born in Jilin, China, the Japanese army took Kim when she was 17 and forced her into the military brothels. She escaped after four months and wandered Suzhou, Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai before returning to Korea following the war. Until her death on December 16, 1997 from chronic asthma, Kim actively worked to pressure the Japanese government into admitting their role in the "comfort women" system and taking responsibility.
We were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, but I took a photo with a statue of Kim in the small garden directly behind the building.
Fully titled "Wednesday Demonstration demanding Japan to redress the Comfort Women problems," this weekly demonstration has been occurring every Wednesday since Jan. 8, 1992 (except during the Kobe earthquake in 1995). The weekly protest is held in the presence of surviving comfort women on every Wednesday at noon in front of the Embassy of Japan in Seoul.
The only picture we were allowed to take inside the museum was of a statue of a girl sitting in a chair, staring intently ahead. The statue represents a tradition to have a young girl sit staring accusingly at the Embassy of Japan during the Wednesday Demonstration, as a remembrance to the age some of the "comfort women" were when they were forced into sexual slavery.
My Korean friend and her mother invited me over for dinner tonight, and I had an absolute blast. I bought a new outfit in Hongdae (홍대) and a potted flower to ready for the visit, and once I got there the food was absolutely delicious (or masisseoyo 맛있어요 in Korean) and her mom so nice. I hope I can come back to Seoul to eat with them again, and maybe bake a dessert to share with them next time as well.