I Can Speak
"There's something I really want to say."
There is a grandmother who goes around the whole neighborhood and puts in as many as 8,000 complaints for a community service center. She is “Okbun”. In front of her, Min-jae, a 9th-grade principle civil servant, suddenly appears.
Okbun studies English just as hard as filing complaints. However, her English has not improved as much as studying hard, so she goes to find an English teacher who can teach her. At that time, she sees Min-jae, who speaks English like a native speaker, and asks him to become a teacher regardless of time and place.
There are two reasons why Okbun wants to learn English.
First, Okbun has a younger brother who was adopted by an American family. The younger brother moved to the U.S. when he was young and was not able to speak Korean at all. So, Okbug learns English because she wants to talk to his brother.
The other reason is that Okbun has work to do on behalf of his friend, Jung Shim, who has dementia symptoms.
In fact, Okbun and Jeongsim are Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army(the so-called `comfort women').
Unlike Okbun who lives in hiding the past, Jeongsim did a lot of social activities for Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army. She was also preparing to attend a hearing on the adoption of a resolution on the Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army (HR121) in the U.S. Congress. Jungsim has learned English because she is afraid that the interpreter will interpret her words incorrectly.
However, as Jungsim's condition worsened and she became difficult to attend the hearing, Okbun revealed that she is a Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army.
#Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army Station
The "Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army Station" is a facility established by Japan by mobilizing women to address the sexual desires of the Japanese military and prevent sexually transmitted diseases during World War II.
Japan expanded its battlefield to the Manchurian Incident in 1931 and the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
In the process, the number of cases of sexual violence against local women by Japanese soldiers increased, and local anti-Japanese sentiment rose. The Japanese military thought that a facility should be created to control anti-Japanese sentiment there.
Another reason was the issue of venereal disease.
The Japanese military, which experienced the loss of troops due to venereal diseases during large-scale wars in the 19th and early 20th centuries, made preventing venereal diseases an important task during the war.
So they created the facility so that they could manage the soldiers efficiently and at the same time relieve the sexual desires of the Japanese military.
According to the map produced by a Japanese civic group, in addition to Korea and Japan, this facility were also installed in Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Russia, China, Singapore, and Guam (US territory).
▲ A map released by the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM).
#Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army
Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army were deployed at Japanese military occupation or military camp.
Sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army were forcibly taken by the Japanese, and Japan operated the system systematically and methodically.
The age of women taken by the Japanese military ranged from teenagers to married women in 20s and 30s.
The nationalities varied from Korea, Japan, China to the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
They was mobilized in the same way as employment fraud, kidnapping, and human trafficking. They was just playing with a friend and was forcibly taken away by soldiers or police on the street.
There was no human rights of the women who were taken.
They were sexually assaulted by as few as five or as many as 60 soldiers a day.
Women who menstruated or were pregnant were also sexually assaulted. Some pregnant girls were shot, saying they didn't need it.
Also the hygiene of the facility itself was not good.
When Japan was defeated in the war, the Japanese army abandoned Sexual slavery victims.
The Japanese army abandoned them on the battlefield, or gathered and killed them to hide the facts.
Victims who saved their lives also had to suffer from physical and mental suffering due to beatings and torture even after the war.
HR121 Eesolution : a resolution urging Japan to apologize formally for coercing thousands of women to work as sex slaves for its World War II military.
"I Can Speak" is based on a true story that the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution to apologize for the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery in 2007. At the U.S. Congress hearing, Lee Yong-soo, the late Kim Gun-ja, and Dutchman Jan Ruff O'Herne, who were actual victims, were witnesses.
The resolution was raised by Mike Honda, a Japanese-American in California. At that time, the Japanese government tried to distort the facts, ignoring the recommendations of the United Nations, such as fact-finding, apology, compensation, and punishment for Japanese Military Sexual Slavery. Korean and Chinese compatriots living in the United States strongly raised questions about the Japanese government, and U.S. lawmakers, who recognized the seriousness, submitted a resolution to Congress demanding an apology from the Japanese government.
On June 26, 2007, this resolution was officially adopted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee with 39 votes in favor and two votes against. The resolution was then unanimously passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 30, 2007. After the resolution was passed by the U.S. Congress, several European countries, Australia, and other countries passed the resolution.
Lee Yong-soo is still active in promoting the atrocities of the Japanese military, and Kim Gun-ja died in 2017 when the movie was released.
As of 2023, there are about 240 Japanese military "Japanese Military Sexual Slavery" victims registered with the government. Among them, 231 people died, and the number of surviving victims registered by the government has now reached a single digit. The survivors are 8 people aged 90 to 95 and 1 person aged 96 or older. Victims and related organizations are steadily campaigning for the Asian Solidarity Conference and UNESCO Records List to resolve the issue of Japanese military Japanese Military Sexual Slavery. I hope they receive a heartfelt apology as soon as possible before it's too late and that the grandmothers' efforts will lead to the right results so that their efforts don't go up in smoke.
#Watching
▲ [YouTube] The Japanese military "Japanese Military Sexual Slavery" issue that a young French man thinks?