Terrible news. Lee Ok-seon Halmeoni, one of the South Korean survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery who used to live at the House of Sharing, died last Sunday. She was 97, and she must have been in poor health for some time.
I had the good fortune to meet Lee Ok-seon Halmeoni in group settings at the House of Sharing in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2019. Usually the guides who facilitated communication tried to keep the conversation light and avoid difficult topics, but in 2019 Lee Ok-seon Halmeoni delivered an important message.
She urged us to learn about the history of Japanese military sexual slavery in East Asia and spread it throughout the world. She didn’t hate the Japanese people, she said, but the Japanese government was denying everything she went through during the war and accusing her and the other survivors of lying. And she urged us to educate ourselves in order to stop more wars from happening, in this country and in every country.
I worried that our visits might be retraumatizing for her, but I found out later just how important it was to her to speak out at every opportunity. She went abroad many times to talk about her experiences, and she used to attend the weekly Wednesday protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul as long as she was physically able.
My 2021 interview with Lee Ok-seon Halmeoni
In 2021, we spoke again via Zoom with the help of a House of Sharing staff member. Once again, she talked about the importance of remembering history and pushing Japan to acknowledge its wrongdoing. She said the fight would have to go on even after all the victims died.
That interview became the subject of a 2021 blog post, but I took it down because I realized it needed a rewrite. The sexual slavery issue will be the focus of a chapter in my upcoming book, which I hope will be ready for publication soon.
I’m sure if Lee Ok-seon Halmeoni were here, she’d encourage us all to keep learning and talking about this ugly part of history. That’s the lesson I’m holding onto, and I hope to write again soon with some book and film recommendations.
Many thanks to Kim MinHee for taking this picture of me and Lee Ok-seon Halmeoni at the House of Sharing in 2010. I took the other photos over the years, mostly at the House of Sharing or the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum.