2007年米下院公聴会での李容洙氏証言
2007年2月15日の米下院公聴会での口頭による李容洙氏証言です。
STATEMENT OF MS. YONG SOO LEE, SURVIVING COMFORT WOMAN, KOREAN COUNCIL FOR THE WOMEN DRAFTED FOR MILITARY SEXUAL SLAVERY
Ms. LEE. Chair of the committee, Chairman Faleomavaega, members of the subcommittee, I thank you for giving me this opportunity to come all the way to United States of America to share with you my anger, my rancor. This is a true and live testimony from history. So I will share my story with you but I am so embarrassed.I am so ashamed but this is something that I cannot keep just to myself. So I will start telling you my story.
I live in Taegu, South Korea. My name is Lee Yong Soo, and sometimes I am a 14-year-old girl, and I look outside my window, and there is a girl, and there is a Japanese man, and they are saying something to each other, and they are gesturing me to come out. I did not know anything. I did not know what was going on but they gestured me to come out so I came out, and as you seen her dress, the girl and the Japanese soldier put their hand on my shoulder, and covered my mouth, and the soldier put something against my back, and like that in the middle of the night I was taken away.
So when I was taken away I was taken to a bridge. Underneath the bridge there were cars going by, and when I arrived there I saw three other girls and they gave me a parcel, a ripped parcel, and I had a feel of what that parcel had inside it, and there were some clothes and some shoes. And then we were taken to a train station. We were taken on a train. It was my very first time in my entire life to board a train, and my head hurt a lot. I can even remember now I told them my head hurts, my head hurt, and they called me something like Jo Sen Ging or something like that, and they started hitting me with their fists and kicking me with their feet. And they kicked me and punched me so much that I lost consciousness.
So the train went all the way to North Korea. It went to P’yongan, and from there we got off of the train, and we were at a port. We were told to board a ship. So we boarded this ship, and there were 300 soldiers on the ship as well as us. As we were going on the ship, the ship was rocking like this, and on the ship I had seasickness. I had seasickness so badly that I went to the toilet inside of the ship, and I remember I was being sick inside the toilet, and then as I was getting up I saw shoes of a Japanese soldier.
And as I was trying to get out of the toilet, the soldier gestured like this and prevented me from coming out of the toilet, and I remember I bit his arm very hard but then he hit me. He hit me back. He hit me back really hard, and after that I lost consciousness. When I woke up again, they told me we found you covered in blood without consciousness. So they put a blanket over me, and they told me do not get up. Do not get up and close your eyes.
As I was lying there, I opened my eyes a little bit, and I could see from the corner of my eyes all around me the Japanese soldiers were all over the girls but even then I did not know what was really going on. The ship was shaking a lot. There was a lot of turbulence, and they told me to change my clothes, and they gave me a set of new clothes, and they told me that the ship cannot go on. It has to stop, and there were still soldiers. And I did not know what was going on. I did not know what it meant that the ship has to stop.
And we traveled I do not know for how long on the ship, and then one day they told us to get off. We got off the ship, and we saw a truck. They told us to get on the truck, and when we got out of the truck we saw a house, and I looked inside the house, and there were pretty women wearing kimonos to the one side, and to the other side there were little rooms, and they used blankets to make curtains to provide petition for the little rooms.
Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. If I could ask the translator I realize that our witnesses have traveled quite a distance to come and to testify, and I am sure of the members here on the committee will also like to ask questions but if she could summarize maybe for the next 2 minutes some of the highlights. With all due respect I would like to ask if she could. Thank you.
Ms. LEE. The soldier told me to come, and when I went he told me to go inside a room. I could see a Japanese soldier inside the room so I said, I am not going in. I am not going in but they held me like this, and they just dragged me inside the room. The room had a big lock, and they put me in there. They kicked me, and they had sticks they beat me with. They even had knife. They put it here, and they wrapped something around my wrists, and at that point I remember I screamed out ‘‘Mom, Mom.’’ I screamed out, and right now, right now I can hear that sound ringing in my ears.
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/33317.pdf
I was really beaten a lot. I was really beaten a lot. I even got electric shock. I even got tortured. And then one day they told us the war is finished. I remember there was a Japanese soldier he was in a special like special force like the marines, and I remember he gave me a Japanese name. He called me Tosiko.
So after the war, I was in POW camp, and then after that I went home. When I arrived home, just then there were giving jesah which is Korean ceremony for passed away ancestors. They were giving jesah, and when I walked in they said there is a ghost. There is a ghost because they have not seen me in such a long time.
And my mother came up to me, and she said, this is a ghost of my daughter, and she hit me, and she went a little crazy, and she bit me on the face, and she hit me saying, I am a ghost. And my father at that point he was just drinking everyday, and when he saw me he was shocked, and he had a stroke, and soon after that he passed away. Here is a victim. Here is a witness but still the Japanese Government is lying.
I have heard before one of the members of the committee speaking, and he said there was evidence that the Japanese Government had already apologized but why is that apology here in the United States when I am the survivor and the victim did not get an apology? Why did they give that to the Americans? I will not leave the Japanese Government alone. I will continue until they get down on my knees in front of me and then they give me their sincere apology.
I am a victim. I have been damaged. I have gone through suffering. So I ask you, the chairman and the members of the committee, I feel embarrassed and ashamed but I have told you my story. The Japanese Government have never apologized to me. See I have been protesting for the last 15, no, the last 16 years I have been in Wednesday demonstrations but never once have the Japanese Government apologized to me. Never once have I gotten anything from them. Never once.
The chairman and the members of the committee, I thank you again for this opportunity, and I ask you again, I plead with you; you cannot leave the Japanese Government alone, never. If you leave them alone, violence against women during world war will continue. We have to rip out the roots of violence against women and girls during war so we cannot leave the Japanese Government alone. Thank you.
