An unsung hero is a person who is not noticed or praised appropriately for their courage or hard work that they have done for others. A great example of an unsung hero from my country, South Korea, is a humanitarian activist called Kim Hak-soon. She was the first person to testify and reveal the issue of Japanese military sex slaves, who were euphemistically called “comfort women.” From the 1930s until the end of the war, Japan coerced almost 200,000 women into military-run rape centers in Asia.
Kim Hak-soon is an unsung hero because testifying as a victim of sexual slavery required lots of courage, especially in the cultural atmosphere of Korea in the 1990s which lacked awareness of such human rights issues. Thanks to her testimony, people began to uncover the truth of the Japanese military’s war crimes of sexual slavery and the issue began to gain international attention.
Kim Hak-soon was born in 1924 in Manchuria, China, where her parents had migrated during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea. Her father was a Korean independence activist, but unfortunately, he died shortly after her birth. At age 15, Kim’s stepfather enrolled her in a school for ‘kisaeng,’ female entertainers who learned to sing, dance, play musical instruments and write poems to entertain upper-class men. Upon graduation in 1941, Kim’s stepfather took her and another adopted daughter to China to find them jobs. However, when they arrived in Beijing, Japanese soldiers detained them.
As soon as she got dragged away, she became a Japanese military sex slave. She was only seventeen. After two months, the soldiers moved to another location, taking the girls with them. Kim was there for more than a month when a Korean man entered her room for sex one day while the Japanese soldiers were away. The man helped her escape, and she tagged along as he moved across China delivering opium. After Kim arrived in Seoul, Korea, her husband died during the Korean War and her children also died due to a drowning accident.
For most of her life, Kim’s life was also financially difficult, as she had to rely on government food and monetary subsidies. Her life as a human rights activist began when she met a nuclear bomb victim called Lee Maeng-hee. One day, Kim and Lee met at Dongdaemun Church, and Lee shared about her difficult life after being exposed to radiation in Japan.
Kim also shared about her difficult past and life story, and then Lee suggested that Kim also share her story with a women’s rights organization. Since the early 1990s, the Japanese government repeatedly denied the existence of “Japanese military sexual slavery.” Whenever Kim heard the news, she felt indignant at how the Japanese government could deny the history when she continued to live on as the living proof.
In August 1991, Kim Hak-soon decided to share her experience with an organization called The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, thereby becoming the first person to publicly testify about the issue of Japanese military sex slaves. Following Kim’s first public testimony, many other Japanese military sexual slavery victims also testified and raised awareness of Japan’s war crimes.
Kim’s courage inspired not only Korean victims, but also other women around the world because Japanese “consolation centers” were established in various places occupied by Japan. The movement for raising awareness about Japanese military sexual slavery became global, as women from North Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia (including the Dutch victims) also began to speak out for Japan’s official apology and legal compensation.
In December 1991, Kim Hak-Soon went to Japan to file a lawsuit with a Japanese court on the matter and testified in court on behalf of Japanese military sex slaves. Kim became a resolute activist; every Wednesday, Kim Hak-soon protested to tell the truth about the Japanese military sex slaves in front of the Japanese Embassy. In June 1994, Kim Hak-soon attended the Tokyo district court and vividly testified about the atrocities of Japanese imperialism in a cross-examination.
At the trial, Kim Hak-soon criticized the Japanese government’s past crime and present lack of apology: “It is not me who was a ‘Japanese military sexual slave’ who should be ashamed; it is the Japanese government that does not admit or apologize properly that is the one who should be ashamed.” Kim Hak-soon emphasized, “what matters is not money, but the Japanese government’s recognition of facts and an official apology.”
Kim Hak-soon participated in various events to testify, and she also staged a sit-in with victims and bereaved families in front of the Japanese National Assembly. Every time Kim Hak-soon got invited for an event related to the issue of Japanese military sex slaves, she attended the event without hesitation. For her testimonies, she usually got an honorarium of 200,000-300,000 KRW, and she often shared the honorarium by giving 50,000 KRW to other women who were victimized as Japanese military sex slaves.
Approximately one week before her passing, Kim Hak-Soon donated all the money that she had saved up from her entire life to Dongdaemun Church, where Kim first met Lee and became inspired to give her testimony. She donated around 20 million KRW; considering the exchange rate in 1997 and inflation over the years, Kim’s total donation would amount to approximately $20,000 today. Kim Hak-soon’s last testament demanded a sincere apology from the Japanese government. On Dec 16, 1997, Kim passed away due to pulmonary disease.
After Kim Hak-soon passed away, she left a long-lasting legacy that inspired other former sex slaves from countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Australia, and the Netherlands. After that, Gay J. McDougall, a former United Nations special rapporteur, defined Japan’s wartime enslavement of “comfort women” as a crime against humanity in a 1998 report. The Korean government designated August 14, the day that Kim first testified, as a day to commemorate the women who have been victimized as “Japanese military sex slaves.”
Kim Hak-soon is an unsung hero because her courageous testimony and activism brought global awareness to the atrocities of Japanese military sexual slavery. Her actions not only exposed a significant injustice but also challenged the Japanese government to acknowledge and apologize for its war crimes. Recognizing and commemorating unsung heroes like Kim Hak-soon is crucial because current and future generations should be thankful for the individual’s courage for social change.
By: Promise Yi
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