89 year-old WWII sex slave fights for her rights more than 60 years later

Kim Bok-dong’s story is yet another example of the atrocities perpetuated throughout the war

Kim Bok-dong, aged 89, has lost her hearing and her vision almost completely by now. She knows that her health problems will not allow her to live for much longer, but her gaze still holds the will to fight and claim justice on the tortures she endured during WWII.

 

Kim is a member of an NGO, the “Korean council for women used as sex slaves in Japan”. The organization fights so that this moment in history is formally accepted by the Japanese government.

 

According to the 89 year-old woman, even though former Japanese leaders had expressed their support to these women, what is ultimately required is a formal apology by the leadership of the island nation.

 

Kim Bok-dong was only 14 when Japanese soldiers invaded her village in Korea and told her that she has no other option but to leave her home and support their troops by working in a factory. If she had denied such an “offer” they would have shot her on the spot on the charge of treason.

 

Instead of being taken to a factory, Kim Bok-dong was locked in a room with 30 more women and was forced to do unthinkable things.