[In-Depth Look] Was There Ever an 'Era of Purity'?

Let’s turn the clock back to August 14, 1991. The author was a female reporter covering the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdaehyeop). There was a grandmother present at this event. She was Kim Hak-soon (1924?1997), the first to publicly testify about being a victim of the Japanese military 'comfort women.' Born in Manchuria during the Japanese colonial period, she tearfully testified, "At 16, I was taken by the Japanese military in Beijing and subjected to all kinds of humiliation at a detention facility run by the Japanese military." She said that five Korean women lived in a red brick house as 'comfort women,' and on some days, they had to face 7 to 8 soldiers. It was unbelievable, but true. At the time, co-representative Yoon Jung-ok said, "Many of the comfort women victims are elderly and suffer from illnesses. Most have no family." How difficult it must have been to revisit such a shameful past and reveal it in public. After Kim Hak-soon’s courageous act, testimonies from Japanese military comfort women victims continued both domestically and internationally. On January 8, 1992, ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa’s visit to Korea, the Wednesday Demonstrations began, demanding the Japanese government acknowledge responsibility for the comfort women war crimes, issue an official apology, and investigate the truth.

Time passed. Of the 240 victim grandmothers registered with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 222 passed away without hearing a single apology from the Japanese government. The Wednesday Demonstrations never missed a week, and the comfort women issue expanded into international public opinion, resulting in the U.S. House of Representatives adopting the 'Comfort Women Resolution' in July 2007, demanding a public apology from the Japanese Prime Minister. Jeongdaehyeop changed its name in 2015 to the Justice and Memory Foundation for the Resolution of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Issue (Jeonguiyeon) and has continued its activities. The number of donors also increased significantly. Donating to a public foundation working for grandmothers who were taken at the prime of their youth and suffered horrific ordeals was meaningful to everyone. Another point: Yoon Mi-hyang, who served as Jeongdaehyeop’s representative and Jeonguiyeon’s chairperson, was elected as a proportional representative member of the National Assembly for the Together Citizens’ Party.

Controversies over the opaque accounting of Jeongdaehyeop and Jeonguiyeon have been intensifying. On the 7th, a bombshell statement from comfort woman victim Lee Yong-soo (92) triggered a fierce backlash. The grandmother revealed, "I have been deceived as much as I could and suffered as much as I could. I don’t know where Jeonguiyeon uses the donations. They are not using the funds for the victim grandmothers." The problems that have surfaced one by one are absurd. They received 1.3 billion KRW in government subsidies but reported only 530 million KRW in National Tax Service disclosures. Any organization that has received even a small amount of government funding knows such a 'small mistake' is absolutely unacceptable. Of the 4.92 billion KRW raised over the past four years using the comfort women grandmothers as a front, only 920 million KRW was used for victim support. There are also allegations that Representative Yoon collected donations through personal accounts. Yoon is currently under investigation and has been accused of violating the Act on the Collection and Use of Donations, embezzlement, breach of trust, and fraud.

The Japanese military 'comfort women' issue remains a painful scar in our history. Jeongdaehyeop brought the comfort women issue, which no one cared about, to the surface. They publicly revealed the deep pain of grandmothers who lived their lives burdened with resentment and anger, and raised awareness of the Japanese military 'comfort women' issue both domestically and internationally. However, there is no law that excuses improper accounting. Transparency in how donations are used is an obligation for any organization receiving donations. If they profited personally, it is not only hypocrisy but an unforgivable and utterly disgraceful crime. It is because they exploited the poor grandmothers who became victims of history.

Reflecting on this, one wonders: Did they ever have a 'pure era'? If they do not fulfill their fundamental role, there is no reason for their existence. As Lee Yong-soo said, if 'it cannot be fixed and should be dismantled,' then the first step must be to disclose every detail of the fund usage.

During the response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), South Korea was admired worldwide as a leading country in quarantine due to its transparency. This incident reminds us that for South Korea to become a truly advanced country, transparency must spread throughout all sectors of society.

Ham Hyeri, Journalist/Cultural Critic

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