Wasted Away
Young-sook Kim. She was born in 1927 in North Korea. Her family was so poor that she had to work as a servant for a rich family since she was nine years old. While she was working, her sick father passed away and siblings got split up. One day after she turned twelve, a Japanese officer came over to the house. He bought her a new pair of shoes and told her that she will get to meet her siblings if she works for Japanese soldiers. She missed them so much in her young heart, getting herself tricked by that officer. He then brought her to a barrack, in other words, a comfort station, in China.
When she arrived, he told her to change to a piece of cloth he threw at her. It was a cloth that fell right off her body with just a slight touch. She was embarrassed and humiliated to change in front of him, but he started yelling. Her face turned blue and started changing without saying anything.
Two days after she was locked up in a small room, the officer came back and said that they will now start “playing”. The twelve-year-old girl was clueless what was about to happen. When he took off his clothes and ran up to her, she started screaming, jumping from corner to corner, screaming “Mommy, please help! Your little girl is in this small room. Mommy, where are you?” The officer snatcher her small body, tried to rape her. The twelve-year-old girl’s body could not take the devil’s body… So he got his knife out.
The blade cut the girl’s soul away.
The blood started covering the floor and the officer satisfied his evil desire. She was left bleeding. She was in a panic that she couldn’t get a grasp of what was going on while he was in the room. After a few days, he came back again, screaming at her that she did not obey the great Japanese army. He stepped on her leg and cut down her stomach and one of her breasts.
The blade cut the girl’s spirit away.
Young-sook Kim suffered for five more years, enduring countless rapes and tortures. The deep physical and emotional scars from the painful days stayed with her for 71 years until she passed away in 2010. She never got married, never had children, never had her own family. She felt like her body was worthless after being wasted as a comfort woman.
But they should remember that they are not wasted away,
And that we’re here for them.