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"The
Night Never Gives Sleep To Me"
In the Lee dynasty, with the sense of morality of Confusionism,
chastity and nobility were the life and soul of women. Hence,
Korean women were set up as a model of purity and nobility in North
East Asia. This fact made a great contribution to maintaining
the
racial characteristics of Koreans.
Korea
had been occupied for 36 years by Japan since 1909. During
this time the royal family of Korea had no power and most people were
suffering deplorably under the Japanese dictatorship.
Japanese
tried to suppress the royal family line and destroy the idea of Korean
women's purity and nobility as part of a policy of collapsing the
racial consciousness of Koreans. The Japanese thought that
disgracing the women's purity and nobility was the shortcut to breaking
down the Korean national identity.
During
the Second World War, Japan commandeered young Korean men by
force and sent them to the front as soldiers or laborers of munitions
factories. Besides, the Japanese started to exploited Korean
women. About one hundred and fifty thousand unmarried Korean
women were commandeered or even hunted as "Comfort Women" for Japanese
soldiers, and were sent to the front. The Japanese called
them
"Groups of Women Entertainers" for their soldiers and used them satisfy
their desires. They were very young and some of them were
even
primary school children. They all resisted even though they
might
be put death, but they were gang-raped by Japanese soldiers.
Many
of the women became mentally and physically ill and those who tried to
run away were killed by Japanese soldiers.
The
idea of so-called "Groups of Women Entertainers" for Japanese
soldiers was obviously a war crime. Militarism and the idea
of
disgracing women was a policy of breaking down the racial
consciousness of Koreans by Japanese. The group of women were
forced to be prostitutes only for the reason that they were Koreans.
Now,
fifty years after the end of the war, they are fighting against
physical and mental diseases. Most of them are still
miserably
living without compensation in foreign countries as a living witness to
the war crimes.
Since
chastity and nobility were their most concerned matter as Korean
women, their miserable pasts have been deeply engraved on their hearts
as a great disgrace to their lives.
Because of their
suffering, I intend to sublimate their tragic lives into my work,
sharing their pains and anguish with them.
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