“Wednesday Demonstrations” in condolence with Comfort Women continue

The 24th anniversary of the Wednesday demonstrations for regaining comfort women’s rights. (photo: Rahul Aijaz)

On the 1212th anniversary of the weekly “Wednesday Demonstrations,” numbers exceeded the usual and the atmosphere was different. The weekly demonstrations became the main outlet for the victims of Japan’s war crimes to vent their anger. On January 6, 2016, dozens of protesters gathered, sitting on the ground, surrounded by police forces and journalists and filmmakers anticipating to document these peaceful demonstrations.

The bronze statue of the girl is a witness to the suffering of sex slavery victims. (photo: Rahul Aijaz)

Labor union members, priests, students of all ages, and even entire families came together to support a cause they believe in. It definitely was different today, as we saw many of them get emotional, crying and singing along to some of the songs. These demonstrations that have been going on for 24 years had a main goal which is to recover the dignity of “comfort women”.

a short play reenactment of the suffering of sex slavery victims. (photo: Rahul Aijaz)

The large numbers of protesters this time forced the police to extend the yellow “police line” imposing their power and flipping the table on the authorities. The large numbers are due to two main events coinciding together, as it marks the anniversary of the demonstrations, and it also comes days after the controversial deal between Korea and Japan concerning sex slavery settlement.

The crowd was interacting actively with the speeches and the performances despite the freezing weather, even children were holding banners, giving out donations and clapping along to motivational speeches. And through a short play reenactment of the suffering of old women and a song performance where all the audience sang along, and collecting donations afterwards, we could certainly feel their compassionate souls.

A moving speech by one of the members of the organizers of the Wednesday Demonstrations (photo: Rahul Aijaz)

We met different people, from families to high school students, who all came to show their support. Among those we met is Park Seong-nam, a father who came with his children, who said, “I wanted my sons to learn what happened to the grandmothers and how these protests would shape Korea’s relationship with Japan. Before coming here, my kids watched some animation about comfort women. Children would not be able to fully understand their pain, but I believe my sons would learn something from all of this.”

One of the former comfort women Lee Yong Soo, next to the white statue of the first comfort women to speak in public about sex slaves issue back in 1991, Kim Hak Soon, who died a few years ago. (photo: Rahul Aijaz)

Another participant is Ahn Sol-bin, a high school student, he said, “This is my first participation in this kind of protests. I came here with my friends. I was really surprised that the grandmothers did these protest every Wednesday for more than 1200 times. I could feel their pain and desperate wish.”

(photo: Rahul Aijaz)

Another student was Lee Hae-jee, from Ewha Women’s University, she was accompanied with other Ewha students who were also part of the student union. She said, “We are from a student community for comfort women, called ‘Nabi’ at Ewha Women’s University. We learnt a lot from ‘Wednesday Demonstration’. Japan would not offer their sincere apology to the victims easily. However, I believe that justice will prevail and the grandmothers would be able to regain their honor for sure.”