Pyeongwha-bi (소녀상) @kylebae6-blog - Tumblr Blog

Final

As a student who took this class mostly for my GE, I was surprised by the difficulty of the material of class, with all the equations and terms presented to us. Although I noticed that many students dropped out of the class in a few classes (including a lot of my friends), a source of curiosity triggered my unyielding mind to continue taking the class. Now, by the end of the quarter, I feel like I delved into a whole new world - a world which was hidden beneath a capitalistic, individualistic, and discriminating society. Topics that I have encountered before in the evening news and videos in Facebook became more and more relevant in my real life throughout the readings, which I would call the process of being woke. I became aware of the social injustice being committed against the social minorities of the society, and that there is a variety of social structures, such as the education system, media, police, labor force, and so forth, set to keep those in power in advantage for generations to come, while keeping all others under control.

Throughout ETHN 2, I realized there are lots of definite, yet subtle evidence which exist to confirm this social plantation we are living on in the present. This social plantation happened to exist all the way back when the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was occurring, as the black slaves were considered as cargo rather than human beings. The systematic trade of slaves continued to behold them in the constricted space of the “ship”, where they were considered commodities of trade that needed to be moved from one place to the other for money, and if they weren’t in a good condition, they would be thrown off into the deep ocean, like throwing away cargo to lessen the weight of the boat in times of emergency. The concept can be found in the photographs of a Haitian girl with the word “ship” on her forehead, and a girl at the immigration center holding the figure of a ship, and they exist to suggest that the blacks are still living in the residence time of the wake, struggling to break the seemingly inevitable yet indefinite cycle.

I saw a similar type of struggle with the Korean women during the Japanese colonization of Korea back in the 1900s. For the sexual relief of Japanese military soldiers, the Japanese military would trick or abduct Korean women into stations where they would have to face more than 5 men per day. Without proper utility and care, these so-called “comfort women” were prone to sexual diseases and illnesses. Those who were sick or pregnant would either be released or killed, and those released would not go back to their families due to shame. While the comfort women were held in comfort stations, they were not treated as human beings, but as sexual commodities that could be used up and thrown away. Sexual slavery exists even in the modern world, but it is just that we cannot sense its presence around us. If such horrendous act against humanity should not happen again, we need more people to be woke, so that they can stand for what they believe and make better decisions/choices along their lives.

#stay woke #ethn2

extra credit gif

My blog post talks about the story of Korean women who were enslaved as sexual slaves during the Japanese colonization of Korea (1910 - 1945), and a statue that remains standing tall, patiently and courageously.

Final Draft for the Ethn 2 Zine Project! Published on issuu.com on Wednesday at 11 p.m.

Draft of my Zine. Might have to work more on the creative design aspect of the zine, but as of now I am pretty satisfied with the formality of my zine.

Zine (2 pages)

This format may need a bit more designing, with more photos (captioned), quotes, and layouts, but as for now, this is the two-pages of how my zine would look like in the future. I would like to stick to the formal-looking method of layout.

Zine cover page (drawn with my insufficient art skills)

Based on the photo by Yonhap News (http://www.segye.com/content/html/2015/10/11/20151011001955.html)

The Korean letters, which are supposed to represent tears dropping from her right eye, mean “Pyeongwha-bi: We will not forget”. The phrase suggests that we should neither forget what happened as time passes nor forgive those who are in fault until they properly apologize.

Example single page of zine - I would like to do this formally, more specifically like a news paper. I think I would either have to do my zine very creatively or very formally, but maybe not both, considering the topic of my choice.

History Repeats/Continues

The focus on the object is still clear, so I don’t think I will be changing it any time sooner. After searching more information about comfort women, I realized that comfort women weren’t just present in Asia. There were German military brothels in World War II, where Polish women would be kidnapped and raped to the military’s liking. Like the comfort women of Asia, these women were forced to service up to 32 men per day and generally treated as badly, although they were given medical check-ups and managed in a rather controlled environment.

After realizing that the idea of comfort women was not only prevalent in Asia but also in Europe as well, I thought to myself that this horrible occurrence could possibly happen again if we do not learn from it. And, to my surprise, sexual slavery is still happening in the modern world, even in first-world countries such as America. In the United States, human trafficking and sexual slavery is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and without people recognizing, they are happening all over the world – even in places you would least expect. The idea of sexual slavery by the Japanese during World War II marked the women for death, and considered them simply cargo/property. They were seen solely for their ability to satisfy the soldiers’ sexual desires, somewhat like the “black body” on the ship in the past. Sexual slavery in the modern United States, although less severe in its treatment, also does the same thing. It labels the person more for one’s physical quality to estimate his or her desired value, than for anything other than one’s physical aspects. If one is thought to be deformed, “ugly”, or ignorant, then one is worth less money in the customers’ eyes. And, just like how women were not allowed to leave whenever they wanted, women are stuck in the system of sexual slavery in the United States as well. Although it is not impossible to escape, the process of getting out would take a long time/effort, and the damages of prior experience wouldn’t go away. In addition, this cycle of women being inhumanely abused to satisfy the sexual desires of men is proven to continue repeatedly, regardless of its form or severity. From the prior experience of comfort women all over the world during World War II (Dutch, Poland, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, China, and so on), we should, as one, learn that such crime against humanity should be stopped happening now and in the future.

In general, the people of Korea weren’t treated like human beings at all during the period of colonization by the Japanese. To rack up resources from Korea, the Japanese military would order Korean people to mine incessantly; however, the mines were extremely unsafe with dynamites being used to further dig the holes. Because the walls frequently caved in, many Korean workers were killed in the mines. They were already “marked for death” ever since they were colonized and taken to the mines to work, much like black slaves who were thrown overboard for insurance money from their so-called “natural death”. The comfort women were also considered property, stuck in the endless repetition of being in the state of death. The similarity in the fungibility of black slaves and comfort women led me to consider a change in topic from “War and the Figure of the Refugee” to “Circulation of Blackness”, even though they are not completely the same.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_military_brothels_in_World_War_II

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1440-5-things-i-learned-as-sex-slave-in-modern-america.html

Victims of sexual slavery and students holding a protest at Japanese embassy in Washington D.C.

http://typehost.com/peace/comfort14.jpg

How did I feel? I felt as if we were taken here to be killed. I could not but weep. No one talked. All were weeping.

Kimiko Kaneda: from Testimonies of the Victims

One of the few surviving comfort women, sitting next to the Statue of Peace.

http://typehost.com/peace/comfort23.jpg

Facing the Japanese embassy in Korea, the Pyeongwha-bi still stands.

http://typehost.com/peace/comfort3.jpg

Little Statue, Big Message

The “object” of my choice is not necessarily a physical item per se, but a brilliant idea that inspired and motivated others to pursue transnationally. An idea first proposed by the Korean Council for Women drafted for Military Prostitutes by Japan, a statue was to be built in front of the Japanese embassy in downtown Seoul, South Korea, to send a sincere yet grave message regarding the oppression of former sex slaves during the Japanese occupation of Korea.

As for a brief background introduction, from 1930 to 1945, during the colonization of Korea by Japan, many young women were forced to suffer as sex slaves by the Japanese soldiers in the “comfort stations”. These women were inhumanely abused against their will to satisfy the sexual desires and to improve their morale during World War II. The living conditions in these camps were unspeakably horrible, as their sanitation and nutrition were not taken proper care for. The women did neither dare speak out against them nor escape from them, because society would most likely have viewed them as unclean and unacceptable, as were the social perspective on the comfort women. Even after time passed, the victims hid the truth, until by the 1990’s when they started to give testimonials and the issue started getting a lot more attention. This idea of building the “Statue of Peace”, or the Pyeongwha-bi, shifted from Korea to the States, and was targeted towards the Japanese government for them to admit their falsehood and formally apologize to the surviving “comfort women”. This transnational idea, in my opinion, would fit well under the category of War and the Figure of the Refugee, as it represents a girl whose youth and life was destroyed by foreigners.

This idea was put into action on the 1000th weekly rally, also called the Wednesday demonstration, by a sculptor named Kim Woon-Sung. A statue of a 13-year old girl sitting across the Japanese embassy was erected on December 14, 2011. After 20 long years of protesting, former “comfort” women and their supporters would consider the statue to have great impact and meaning. It is impossible to ignore the distinct message and meaning of the new landmark, but the Japanese government chose to ignore it. Furthermore, they requested that the statue should be removed, as it denounces their dignity and international reputation. Of course, the Korean government refused since “The statue is a free and rightful expression by the victims and their civilian supporters” (koreanjoongangdaily.joins.com). Although some time has passed since Japanese occupation, people and government alike cared and supported these women because Korea, overall, was and still is a nationalistic country. Anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea was an elephant in the room, while animosity between the two nations was growing. Similar patterns were shown when a monumental plaque was installed in Palisades Park, Bergen County, New Jersey in 2010 for the memory of Korean women who were sexually enslaved at the average age of 13 by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Two delegations of Japanese officials came to the park lobbying to remove the monument: the first on May 1st, 2012, and the second on May 6th, 2012. These attempts at convincing the park authorities only deepened the animosity between South Korea and Japan on the issue on comfort women. In fact, their attempts to remove the monument spurred the movement to plan more such monuments around Korean-based communities across the United States. An example of this spread of idea is the unveiling of the “Statue of Peace” in Glendale, California on July 29, 2013. Another example would be Chang-Jin Lee’s work “Comfort Women Wanted” on one of the DOT Urban Art Program’s art display at 14th Street and 9th Avenue in Manhattan. As such, the movement was not only active in South Korea, but rather a transnational movement motivated by a single idea to commemorate the 20th year, or the 1000th week, of protesting for sincere admittance and apology.

As time runs out and does not wait for the comfort women forever, all they want is a sincere apology, not a financial compensation. How could they bid farewell to the world in which took their dignity and freedom from such a young age without having them restored? These monuments, based on the idea introduced before, symbolize the courage these victims of “comfort women” have shown in testifying their history to the world. This problem is not limited to Korea - other countries have experienced wars and sexual slavery – and must be addressed to stop it from happening again in the future. We live in a different world today than in the World War II era; while national security was above human rights and decency, human rights and dignity have the highest priority in the modern days. Just as Germany sincerely apologized and have focused on educating their children not to repeat the same mistakes, Japan should take a similar course of action for their soldiers’ crimes as a culturally and economically mature nation and a major Asian powerhouse.

Sources:

http://panoramapsu.com/2016/04/wounds-comfort-women-unhealed-80-years/

http://typehost.com/article/pyeonghwa-bi-peace-monument-seoul-south-korea

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/nyregion/monument-in-palisades-park-nj-irritates-japanese-officials.html

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2945683

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Peace

Parents and grandparents

#notebook1 #kwayneyang #ethnicity2

True Meaning Underneath

Through more thorough research, I found out that 9 more statues have been built internationally (mainly in South Korea and the United States of America) to help remember the crimes committed against comfort women during Japanese colonialism.

After thinking about it for a long time, I thought that the appropriate national binds present in the transnational context of my object are Japanese uth, colonialism, and citizenship and conservative nature of Korea. As for Japanese colonialism, the Japanese military took power over most of East Asia during the Asia-Pacific War. While they had authority, they explicitly used such power to deceive, recruit, and kidnap local women (especially in Korea, Taiwan, China, Philippine, and Indonesia) to military brothels called “comfort stations”. Their idea of colonialism wasn’t just about obtaining more land, but rather on exploiting the resources and women to relieve the stress soldiers go through from the war.

I also thought the national binds of citizenship and the conservative nature of Korea were important to consider while writing about the idea of Pyeongwha-bi in Korea. Because of the conservative nature of most Koreans and the government’s state after Japanese colonialism, “comfort women” victims hid the truth, fearing that they might be seen as prostitutes (generally, ones with immoral values). However, following the democratization of the Republic of Korea, a Korean former “comfort woman” came forward publicly and sought formal apology in 1991. From then on, nationalism and citizenship in Korea helped embolden and enlarge the movement, starting with the Wednesday protest march outside the Japanese embassy, which has been happening every week for almost 25 years now. An extreme example of this nation bind could be a man named Mr. Choi who set himself on fire to protest Japan’s forced recruitment of sex slaves for military brothels during World War II and passed away after 9 days. In addition, many students and adults, especially women, had and have been active participants of the movement. If not for the nature of citizenship in Korea, it would not have been possible for the protest to go on for over a thousand times successfully.

The problem of relating intersectionality with an idea is that the idea may not necessarily have a gender or a definite race. Fortunately, the entire idea of Pyeongwha-bi was based on a young, Asian girl. The girl that the statue represents seemingly has an age of around 13-14, and is depicting one of the comfort women as a young girl, sexual slave of the Japanese military during the Second World War. The fact that the statue is female, Korean, and young contribute to the subtle image of innocence, youth, and vulnerability of young Korean girls at that time, and how such image was trampled by the Japanese soldiers.

Sources:

http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/oralhistory-00.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/fact-sheet-on-japanese-military-comfort-women/5449039

http://catholicamericaneyesinkorea.blogspot.com/2014/09/comfort-women-and-statue.html

#kwayne #ethn2 #pyeongwha

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