The Korean Council
157 °ü¸®ÀÚ 2009-08-19 1145
Weekly News 166th issue

The Korean Council Weekly News 166th issue [2009-25 issue]
Mon, July 6th ~ Sun, July 12th

Report: Mihyang Yoon, head representative of The Korean Council


Campaign for Raising Ten Thousand Foundation Committee Members of War & Women¡¯s Human Rights Museum

Six people participated in Ten Thousand Foundation Committee Members of War & Women¡¯s Human Rights Museum

July 6th (Monday)

1. Ms Chungja Bang reported a movie showing event for was held in Osaka. 65 people participated in Hikashi Osaka event on July 4th, and 150 in Ikono event. Prior to the event was a volunteer performance of male duo of Korean residents in Japan. Earnings of the movie showing event was about 150000 Yen, and the event seems to be very successful.


¡ã Movie showing event in Osaka Picture provided by Ms Chungja Bang


2. Japanese reporter Kikuchi Masashi from Saitama Newspaper visited. : Japanese union for keeping constitution article 9 suggested him visit the Korean Council in Seoul. He visited Korea to participate in Korean Pressmen Conference. Governor of Saitama is a member of Democratic Party, yet is proud of being a student of Ishihara Tokyo Governor, who has conservative ideas. The Governor said in 2006, ¡°There might be comfort women in the world, yet there never were comfort women for Army. The exhibition in Saitama Peace Museum has errors, and hence needs to be corrected.¡± How to designate victims is a difficult problem, but the governor¡¯s intention is ¡®there was no involvement of the army¡¯. The efforts of Saitama citizens against such intention were reported in his report. He also has met and covered Ms Yongsoo Lee, one of the surviving victims, for several times.
Today we talked about movements of the Korean Council and what we demand for the Japanese government. As health conditions of victims decline, solution has to be made immediately. So we asked for a lot of cooperation. Especially as Japanese society is veering to the political right side, we asked for cooperating for solving this problem as a media journalist. There is no medium to know the issue of comfort women in Japan, so he promised to try to inform this issue as much as possible. He also said to come together with the union for keeping constitution article 9 next year when the union supervises Wednesday demonstration.


July 7th (Tuesday)

1.¡¡A lecture at the daily conference of Korean Christianity Council of Elders, National Council of Daughters of the Church in Daejun : Today, there was a daily conference of National Council of Daughters of the Church. Here, the staffs of the local federations gather together and discuss about this year¡¯s plans. The council invited Mihyang Yoon Representative for a lecture in today¡¯s conference. Mihyang Yoon Representative gave a lecture about the history and acts regarding the Comfort Women and the present condition of the War & Women¡¯s Human Rights Museum. Also, she asked for the council¡¯s participation in the 10,000 committee member of constructing the museum.

2. News from Byung Chul Kim of Australia¡¯s Korean Resident Forum: In Sidney, Austrailia, those members of ¡®Sidney Candlelight¡¯, who participated in the candlelight assembly last year, formed Australia¡¯s Korean Forum and began various activities. As a part of the activities, they started to support the Korean Council. For the first business, they gave us 1,000 dollars for the construction of [War & Women¡¯s Human Rights Museum] in the 868th Wednesday Demonstration, held on June 3rd last year. That time, they offered to support us with 100 dollars per month since then. Today, Byungchul Kim of Australia¡¯s Korean Resident Forum mailed us that he paid on account $100 for expenses in July.
He says it is very cold in Sidney since it is winter there. We hope that the members of the Forum would be happy with their dream to make a beautiful world where common sense exists.

3. Submission of the Korean Council¡¯s report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): The Korean Council and Japanese women federation had submitted a report about the military sexual slavery by Japan to CEDAW, informing the violation in the convention by Japanese government.
From the upcoming July 20th to August 7th, 44th session of CEDAW will be covering the issue of Comfort Women drafted by Japanese Military as an agenda regarding to the violation in the convention by Japanese government. CEDAW examines each nation¡¯s observation of agreements and asks for following performances based on Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In this 44th session, they will have examinations regarding 12 nations including Japan. Japan ratified this convention in1985. The Korean Council and Japanese citizens¡¯ groups denounced that it is the violation of the convention by Japan to evade the responsibility regarding the Comfort Women. The WAM in Japan will participate in this session and lobby.¡¡

CEDAW have been paying attention to the issue of Comfort Women since the early 1990s. Recently in 2003 when observed Japan, the committee recommended the Japanese government to find lasting solution regarding the issue, after concluding that the issue is continuously serious. However, before the upcoming 44th session, Japan reported that the government¡¯s effort through Asian Women¡¯s Fund was enough as usual. About this, the Korean Council reported through NGO report that Asian Women¡¯s Fund operates not according to the Japan government¡¯s legal responsibility, but on civil fund. We also reported that UN has been concluding that this fund cannot replace legal responsibility. Moreover, beside legal responsibility, we accused of examining the truth, official apology, prosecution of the perpetrator, punishment of and Japanese right wing official¡¯s absurd remark. We delivered the message that the issue would be covered before the elders pass away, awakening that the international demand is rising.

July 8th (Wednesday)

1. The release of the press release ¡° UN CEDAW, about to address the issue of Comfort Women¡±: We distributed the press release regarding the report sent to UN CEDAW.

2. 873th Wednesday Demonstration, arranged by Corean National Women Coalition : At 12 on Wednesday when the sun was burning-hot regardless of the rain predicted, many people gathered in front of the Japanese Embassy. 873rd Wednesday Demonstration began vigorously with the cheerful presiding of Jinmi Choi, the chairwoman. Juhye Kang, the General Secretary, reported the passionate activities of the Korean Council, followed by a Flute performance. Dahye Yang, a student studying in America, contacted us through internship and volunteers for the vacation period and she decided to play the Flute for the Halmonies. The melody of Arirang started to spread under the motto of ¡°Deep and Short.¡± People in no time sang a song and danced. Indeed, the short performance ended with deep impression.




¡ã 873th Wednesday Denmonstration¡¡

Then, there came the time for introductions of participators. 16 people were from Japanese JR Labor Union JR Bus Headquarters of Gantto and Dohuku, along with Korea¡¯s International Labor Interchange Center and National Progress Association. At long last, Eunmi Bang from the troupe Butterfly recovered good health and participated. Also, American professors of history, Canadian travelers, and the volunteers met one another.

Gangsil Lee, the representative of Corean National Women Coalition, bathed a cut of people by criticizing the lack of a sense of responsibility by Korean government. Members of Labor Union from Japan impressed people by promising that they would teach the true history to their young daughters, while delivering the message of passionate association. We also thank for them giving us the financial support for the construction of the museum. The chairperson of Japanese Rail Federation came out and promised to further associate with Wednesday Demonstrations.



¡ã Japan¡¯s JR bus labor union participated in Wednesday Demonstration and free speech.

Because the weather was so hot, we could not keep up the participants' speech. Instead, we continued with the speech of Ensook Yu, the chairman of Seoul Women's Coaliton. Then for the last stage, we broke the water balloons as the performance. Maybe because of the rage against the distorted historical accounts, Halmuny's power was great. Kyunglan Kang Staff of the Nation Women's Assembly, who was holding the placard with a absurd remark was wet to skin due to the water balloons. Everyone seems to enjoy the performance together. The 873th Wednesday Demonstration was finished with the hope and the power of everyone.¡¡

2. The Korean Council¡¯s working meeting: After the Wednesday Demonstration, we had a meeting. We talked about the historical travel which will start from July 19th, and schedule of Wednesday Demonstration etc. We planned to finish quickly but it took a long time.

3. Recruiting participants for the commemorating and anniversary of Okinawa Miyakojima cherishing stone construction and publication of material book related to comfort women.: Form September 6th to 9th ,we are planning to visit Okinawa. September 7th, a year ago, the stone of Arirang which is for the comfort women was constructed in Miyakojima. It already became 1year after the construction and we are planning celebrate the anniversary. It will take 1000000won per a person. As of now, Jung ok - Yoon, Jung Soon - Hwang, the chairman of Korea-Vietnam Coalition, Hye won Kim, and Mihyang Yoon is planning to participate.

4. Plans for opening seminar and exhibition related to "War and Woman's human right" in Washington, USA. : On July 30th, it becomes 2year after the House of Representative adopted the resolution indicating that Japan should make an apology to the victims of Comfort women. So Korean Council is preparing a symposium and exhibition for the 2nd anniversary. We are planning to visit USA¡¡from July 30th to 3lth. Today, we send a letter of invitation to USA.

July 9th (Thursday)

1. Visiting of Makdal Lee Halmuny, Busan : It was raining hard. After the early arrival it rained much more hard. At the Yang Jae station, we accompanied with the Hwangsun Ik professor of Wan and Woman right, and Donghee Kim director, and took the Kyung Bu highway. Fortunately, after passing the Chungchungdo, rain stopped.
Taking the Chungwon - Kimchun, highway, we enjoyed beautiful sceneries of mountains. Finally, we arrived at Busan. Makdal Lee halmuny lives in Busan. She is living with nephew. She had lived in shelter ¡®Woorijip¡¯ for a year, but because of nephew¡¯s ask , she moved and started to live with them. She said that she will often visit the shelter, but she comes to the ¡®Woorijip¡¯ once or twice a year after the moving. Makdal Lee halmuny is suffering from knee pain. As usual, She is eager to serve us something to eat.

"Halmuny, we are okay, we already had lunch, We just came here to spend time talking with you." But it does not working. Halmuny served some water melons for us. Eating watermelon, we talked about several issues. Especially This time, Hwangsun Ik Researcher of War and Woman right accompanied us so that we had conversation about the situation of Comfort Station in Taiwan during the war. She had quite vivid memories than other halmuny, but after moving to the families and falling apart from history, maybe the memories became faint. "I couldn't remember¡± It was something that halmuny spoke the repeatedly. She said it is so annoying that she could not go anywhere due to the knee pain. We spend almost 2hours with halmuny, talking and enjoying some performances of halmuny's grand daughter. At parting she thanked us even with the small present, and made us feel sorry.



¡ã At Mak Dal Lee halmuny¡¯s Room¡¡

I guess she was really painful. Formerly, although we asked her to stay inside because of her knee pain, she used to see us off by walking down the stairs until we got to the outside near the door. But this time, she actually waved her hands at the door. We felt relieved because she was living with her family, but it was quite disappointing that we could not meet her as much as we used to. Still, we hope she could live long and be healthy.

2. Examining the fringe of Busan Young-Do Bridge: After coming out from Lee, Mak-Dal¡¯s house, we directly headed for the Young-Do Bridge. Based on Yoon, Du-Ri¡¯s (resided in Young-Do Comfort Station) testimony and research about Busan¡¯s geography in the period of Japan¡¯s colonial rule of Korea, we arrived at the Young-Do Bridge. The wind was extremely strong and the sky was completely covered with clouds. We tried to reminisce about the history by walking around the bridge, surrounding buildings, and sidewalks.

3. We stayed in Jin-Hae for a day: Haha.. Have you ever spent more than one hour in a foreign village trying to find somewhere to sleep? Well, we did! Although we printed out few addresses of small inns when we were preparing for our journey in Seoul, we basically did not know where these inns were in this city. When we arrived in Jin-Hae, driving for about 50 minutes by car from Busan, the day was almost over. We were starving because we only ate lunch for a whole day so finding somewhere to rest was desperate. But the only place we found was an inn where scary movies could be shot. Being scared, we set the navigation program to Jin-Hae City Hall and just headed there with no definite idea. It seemed we arrived at Jin-Hae- lights were coming out from the darkness. It was midnight, so we couldn¡¯t find accommodations for two females. Meantime, we found a police car. ¡°Excuse me, we are from Seoul and are trying to find some place to sleep. Is there any place that you can recommend?¡±, we asked. We thought polices were quite trustable. They told us to follow themselves and where we arrived was a shabby motel. ¡°Wow, this sort of hotels actually exists in Jin-Hae?¡± Signs that are showing lurid images, drinking bars- in front of these stuffs, there were three motels. Police cars left, after saying ¡°Good night¡± to us. We were hesitating. ¡°Should we go inside this place?¡± ¡°God, why did I trust those guys?¡± Grumbling about police members, we grabbed the car handle again. We searched for the nearest place to sleep for one night by navigation program, and it suggested going across the mountain once again. Rather than choosing that path, shabby inns might be better so we went back. ¡°Maybe they knew,¡± we thought. We missed the dinner time and when I opened the laptop in order to write the paper that is due to weekend in the room, I felt so exhausted because I had to drive for such a long time. But the thing is, I could not sleep either. That was the unfortunate day in Jin-Hae

4. In Germany, Junghwa Han mailed us. In Germany, a program about comfort women, the witnesses of comfort women, and movies related to this topic is planned on September 13th, from 3:00 P.M. till the evening. Sponsors are Cologne¡¯s Rheinisches Journalisten Buro and Berlin AfricAvenir. This event is accompanied with the display under the concept of ¡°the third world and the World War ¥±: the war victims that should be emphasized¡±. This exhibition is planned to be commenced in 10 cities in Germany and Switzerland. The purpose is to break out from the Euro-centric perspective toward the sacrifices of Asia, Africa, and South America in World War ¥± and make people realize the real catastrophe the war made by the victims¡¯ viewpoints. The German NGO will be directly supporting this event, so I think we could form a great deal of public opinion in German society. the Korean Council is preparing to participate in this meaningful program, carrying out the German Parliament¡¯s adoption of the resolution at the same time. Putting aside other schedules, Wonok Gil is determined to participate in this program. We are trying to plan the expense and the advertising schedule from now on immediately.

July 10th (Friday)

1. Visiting Hyojae Lee in Jin-Hae: In spite of our great effort trying to find somewhere to eat breakfast, we couldn¡¯t find single restaurant nearby. We headed ourselves to the apartment where Hyojae Lee lives. After driving for 10 minutes, the apartment started to appear. When we were ringing the doorbell, we accidentally ran into Hyojae Lee, checking the mailbox and grabbing newspapers. We were so excited because it was such a long-time-no-see encounter.
Hyojae Lee was the first representative of the Korean Council with Jung-Ok Yoon and at that point, there was only one secretary, Mihyang Yoon. Although they were both representatives, they did practical affairs together and Hyojae Lee went all across the world trying to make the world recognize this comfort women issue and induce the interest of the society to this controversial problem. Now, she is in her 80s and is suffering with her eye problem, after contracting tuberculosis in her 50s. But she seemed quite healthy now, and that pleased me quite a lot.

2. Keumju Hyang halmuny's special memory: We drove to Busan from Jin-Hae with Hyojae Lee in the car. About 3 weeks ago, the instructor saw the weekly magazine which had news about Keumju Hyang halmuny. She thought we should visit Keumju Hyang halmuny, so she called us in the office.
"Hello? Is it Mihyang? I read about Keumju Hyang halmuny and thought we should visit her before she loses more memory. So can you tell me the name of the nursing home and its number?" So I said, "Instructor, why don't we go together? I will pick you up with my car." Today was the day we planned to go.
We drove to a nursing home in Guejeong-dong, Sahagu, Busan. I enjoyed talking to¡¡Lee. She has a little problem in her ear, so when I talk to her, I must turn my face towards her. Therefore, it was impossible to speed up, but we talked a lot about stories of the past, people, and the financial state of our office. She really likes the place where nursing home is. "The air is clean there, and I'm happy she is staying in that nice place."
When we stepped inside the first floor of the building, people who are working there recognized us and greeted. "Welcome! Halmuny would be happy to see you." Her room has changed from second floor to the third.
We peeked into her room and called her, then her face, which was absent of expression changed into a big smile and said "Oh my, you came! What brings you here?" The personnel asked, "Do you recognize who she is?" she says, "yes, it's Mihyang Yoon." Then instructor Lee got into the room behind me. "What about her?" the personnel asked again, and halmuny also recognizes. "Of course, I remember her"



¡ã¡¡Keumju Hyang halmuny

"How do you remember us?" we asked, and she says "We did a lot of things together, you don't remember?"
In August, 1992, Lee accompanied Keumju Hyang halmuny to Geneva, Switzerlamd attend the UN' Subcommittee for Human Rights, and to the U.S.A. She can't remember every place they went in detail, but she remembered that she went there with Lee. However, Keumju Hyang halmuny rather seems sad.
"When people I really wanted to see drop by here and leave, I actually feel more lonely..." Today, she seems to feel more sorry for herself. "You came to see me here, and I have nothing to give you. I'm sorry." She kept repeating. Lee said, "You served us very well in the past. It's okay." Then Keumju Hyang halmuny answered, "Yes, I did........."


¡ã Hyo Jae Lee, with Keumju Hyang halmuny

We called halmuny's daughter and told her that halmuny remembered Lee. She was happy to hear the news, saying "Really? I was worried that her memory loss was getting worse these days. That's great to hear."
For a long time we talked about bygone days, and her health now inside her room. Lee said she was worried that halmuny woud not remember her, but she was glad to see halmuny remembering her at a glance. She said Jin-Hae is close to where halmuny lives, so she would drop by more often.
The special relationship we had 20 years ago is still kept, by meetings and sad memories. We felt good as we now knew that her health was not getting worse. We hope her memory loss doesn't advance more.
3. Buk Dong Kim halmuny, happy smiles of new, calm, and active life: We headed toward Buk Dong Kim halmuny's house. She is living in Sahagu, just like Keumju Hyang halmuny. I called her and said, "Halmuny, it's me." She must have waken up just then, so after a little pause, she said "Oh, hi Mihyang," and asked me where I was. "We will be there in about 10 minutes," I said, and she answered "Okay." We arrived at her apartment, and pressed the bell. Halmuny came out. I didn't tell her that I would be there with Lee, but halmuny greeted Lee and said "It's nice of you two to come here in this bad weather!" She held Lee's hands with her both hands and took her inside. They asked each other's well-being and also each other's age. "I was a year or two older than you, right?" r Lee asked and halmuny said yes.


¡ã At Buk Dong Kim halmuny¡¯s house¡¡
Since the woman knew about our visit, she made a rice for us and suggested us to order some food. Then, Lee said that she would pay for food and asked us to eat out. Halmuny prepared to go out.
Taking out a ramie clothes, she asked, "How about it? Will I wear this out?" Everyone loved the clothes. Halmuny sit in front of the mirror, then wore a pearl necklace, put a ring on her finger and wore a bracelet. On this, she smiled while looking back us. We said it's pretty for several times.


¡ã Buk Dong Kim halmuny getting dressed¡¡
Getting dressed for going out, she looked so graceful and pretty. Kim asked Halmuny to take a shot of her, so we got a beautiful picture of her.


¡ã Halmuny, so beautiful.¡¡

Two women were going out apartment side by side. They lived the same generation but spent in a quite different way, and then met in the same point now. Both of them are standing together, with their white hair. Seeing them, we determined that we should try hard to make them live comfortably in their old age.


¡ã Buk Dong Kim halmuny and¡¡Ms. Hyo Jae Lee
Dadaepo swimming beach opened. There are many people in the seashore. Avoiding the summer heat, we went into a sliced-raw-fish restaurant named Mountain Bakdu. Two women might have same taste and constitution. They hate eating a meat and love raw-fish, prefer fruit vegetables to root vegetables. We talked a lot about health while eating. After having a meal, we wanted to take a stroll and walk around the beach, but put off because of the hot weather. After getting off Halmuny, we headed for a next destination.
4. UN APWLD developed an international signature-seeking campaign to request covering Comfort Women issue. : APWLD, an international legal supportive organization for female which report present condition of female's right in Asia Pacific region to UN, is developing a signature-seeking campaign to make Japan government to solve the problem itself through strong recommendation and urging.

July 11th (Saturday)
1. The movie , planned to be shown in Kimhae, being cancelled: While staying in Busan, I changed a plan to stay one more day in Busan to arrange a photo exhibition and 10 minute speaking. Suddenly, cell phone rang. 28 Indonesian who participated in a world chorus tournament and 2 domestic volunteers are verified as an infector of H1N1 Flu, making a fuss in Kimhae. The Hall of Culture where supposed to take a movie screening show were closed. Since the event was canceled, easel carrying in the back of the car and all the material bombed out. Waking up early in the dawn, I started driving to go back to home. That's the end of my weeklong activity.
..................................................
Does sky get a hole? It really rains a lot, making me think in that way. Farmers who are not responsible for pollution are suffering, too. I'm afraid rainy spell still continues. We'll try hard to make our lives more peaceful with all the people who strive hard to change the world. Please be with us until the end.