Sep 22, 2013

Is She a Comfort Woman? No, She's a `Yanggongju'

A Korean media recently published an article, which title means "They Cried, Japan Must Apologize." Follwoing link is the article.

프랑스서 울려퍼진 절규··"일본은 사과하라"

In case the article is withdrawn, please refer to a snapshot.

In this article, Kim Bok-dong went to France and told how cruel Imperial Japanese Army did to her, comfort women, during Korean war. ("한국전쟁" means Korean War.)

Hey, hey! This is very odd! Korean War happened after the World War II! At that time, Japan did not have any army. Japan was occupied by USA from 1945 to 1952. Of course, Japan was disarmed. Korean war happened from 1950 to 1953. Japan didn't send its army into Korea at all!

Is Kim Bok-dong telling a lie? I guess it's yes and no.

Korean army also had a comfort woman system during Korean war. If Kim Bok-dong was really a comfort woman, it's highly possible that she was a comfort women of Korean and US army, not Imperial Japanese Army. See the Wikipedia article for more details: Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S. military

She might be really a victim as a comfort woman, however the victimizer should not be Japanese Army, but it should be Korean and U.S. army.

Prostitutes in South Korea during Korean War are called "western princess" or Yanggongju (양공주 in Korean, 洋公主 in Japanese). They were initially called "comfort women" officially.

If you are not familiar with comfort women problem, please do not mix "comfort women" done by Japan during WWII and "westerm pricesses" during Korean war. The victimizer of "comfort women" is Japan, but Japan was totally irrelevant to "western princess" at all.