Korean Comfort Women

Why were the Korean Comfort Women “silent” so long? To answer this question, one thing you will need to think about is how much women’s “worth” is tied to their status as virgins or “sexually pure” and how women who are not “pure” are shamed in societies. You also need to reflect on how rape has been characterized as simply an “unfortunate consequence” of war—this is not true, of course; rape does not “just happen.” Why could the words and actions of Japanese officials and government be interpreted as attempts to further silence them?

I think that the Korean comfort women were silent for so long because they feared the social repercussions that they would face should they break their silence. Unfortunately even many years later they still face the social degradation of the Japanese denials and have been branded as prostitutes (which is the connotation that had initially intended to evade). Maybe the women hoped to be seen as innocent if they kept quiet about the sexual acts they had been forced to perform.
I also think that such a traumatic experience for the women and girls involved was not something they wanted to dwell on. The idea of face the allegations, the court charges, having to recount again and again the pain and suffering they endured was not appealing. The women may have tried to subconsciously forget the situation at first. Many of the women had been murdered; perhaps even away from the Japanese war camps they felt that they would meet the same end should they try to break the silence. As with some of the women in the video I think they had simply lost their will to live, and lost their capacity to care. They had been left so beaten, desolate, and in such great despair they did not pray for reparations, they prayed for death to end their wretched lives. Most sadly of all I think many of the Korean Comfort Women hoped that they would be able to overcome that obstacle of their past, that they would be able to go on leading a normal life. They dreamed of marriage, children, happiness, and it took them some time to realize they would not have the chance to obtain it.
We must remember that as the Korean Women admitted they were brainwashed by the Japanese, and had been their whole life. Perhaps to a degree they felt that this was something they deserved. That the Japanese were right, and they must accept the consequences doled to them by the superior culture. Admitting to the constant sexual and physical abuse probably made them feel like prostitutes, though it was not that way at all and there was absolutely nothing the women could do to stop the abuse.
The Japanese are attempting to further silence them through their denials and exclamations that the women whored themselves willingly for money. The Japanese don’t want to have to deal with that black mark upon their social record as rapists and murderers. They try to silence the women through private bribes, hoping that the rumors will slowly slip away. The Japanese don’t want to take the shame that the Korean Comfort Women have carried for so long although they should. The issue will probably continue to go on unresolved; the Japanese will prolong the cruelty by refusing to admit they were wrong.