Grandmother Lee Yong-soo "Only Used for 'Wednesday Demonstrations'... Justice Network Says 'History Must Not Be Distorted'"

Yoon Mi-hyang "Support Fund Receipts Kept with Grandmothers' Fingerprints"
Justice Network, Fundraising for Grandmother Support and Various Projects

"Justice Network Refuses to Communicate with Other Groups"
Grandmother Lee Criticizes "Deceived for 30 Years"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] Yoon Mi-hyang, former representative of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdaehyeop, now Justice and Memory), posted a clarification regarding the press conference held by grandmother Lee Yong-soo, a direct victim of the Japanese military 'comfort women' system, and Justice and Memory also issued an official statement, but the controversy has not subsided.

On the 8th, former representative Yoon stated on her Facebook, "Justice and Memory has kept receipts for support funds given to the grandmothers since 1992, with the grandmothers' seals on them," and added, "Regarding the 2015 Korea-Japan agreement on the Japanese military 'comfort women' issue (2015 Korea-Japan Agreement), the grandmother said no, so we could not continue the dialogue." Yoon was elected as a proportional representative for the 21st general election under the Together Citizens' Party.

Justice and Memory released a statement that day saying, "We clarify any parts that were miscommunicated or could be misunderstood out of concern that the history of the movement created together with domestic and international citizens should not be damaged," and explained, "After the 2015 Korea-Japan Agreement, the money raised through citizens' donations was delivered as a women's human rights award of 100 million won per individual in the second half of 2017. In addition, the funds have been used for various content production and promotional projects, memorial projects including the construction of overseas peace monuments, publishing, and scholarship projects."

Receipt containing the details of the donation provided to Grandmother Lee Yong-soo presented by the Justice Memory Solidarity (Provided by Justice Memory Solidarity Facebook)

However, some in the women's community view the grandmother's criticism as not baseless. Although Justice and Memory has held rallies every Wednesday since 1992 with the grandmother as a figurehead and conducted related fundraising, it is difficult to believe that all the donations were actually used for the grandmothers. It is known that most comfort women victims live on livelihood support funds from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and local governments. The victims receive about 1,474,000 won monthly from the government, and approximately 1,520,000 won for hospital caregiving expenses. Some of the money collected by Justice and Memory as donations and given to the grandmothers was reportedly donated back to the organization by the grandmothers themselves.

The grandmother's claim that former representative Yoon was aware of these facts even before the 2015 Korea-Japan Agreement is also persuasive. At that time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs formed a task force (TF) and held director-level meetings, reportedly listening to opinions from civic groups related to comfort women victims in various regions. A women's community official said, "Seeing the elderly grandmothers taken abroad to foreign countries where water, food, and schedules did not match, I got the impression that the grandmothers had become a means of making money," and criticized, "They refuse any communication with groups that have different opinions from theirs."

Earlier, at a press conference held in Daegu the previous day, the grandmother criticized, "They take care of grandmothers who are with them as victims, but if they are not in the organization, they don't care even if they are victim grandmothers," and said, "I have been deceived and exploited for 30 years." She also said, "At the time of the 2015 Korea-Japan Agreement, 1 billion yen was coming from Japan, but only the representative (Yoon Mi-hyang) knew. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also at fault. The victims should have known this fact, but only they knew."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.