By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter

An exhibition of photos on ``comfort women'' who served as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II opened Monday in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The Northeast Asian History Foundation in Seoul said the exhibition in the city of world justice, titled ``Comfort Women ― Unfinished History,'' will contribute to raising public awareness on the estimated 200,000 women forced into slavery by the Japanese.

It will continue until June 28 at The Hague City Hall, the foundation said.

The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debt in the Netherlands and the Ravensbruck Memorial Museum in Germany joined as partners in displaying images of Dutch and German women whose human rights were infringed during wars.

The Korean foundation said in its newsletter that the exhibition carries particular meaning.

The Hague is home to the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice.

In 2007, the lower house of the Dutch Parliament passed a motion urging Japan to compensate people forced into sex slavery during World War II. Among them were Dutch nationals who were picked up in the country's former colony in Indonesia.

The history foundation held a similar exhibition in 2007 in Seoul.

skim@koreatimes.co.kr

For years the Japanese government denied responsibility for holding an estimated 200,000 women captive as sex slaves for their military during World War II. Suffering from shame as well as physical and mental trauma, it would take years for the surviving “comfort women” (also referred to as wianbu) to speak out. One such survivor finds her voice to bear witness in Haerry Kim’s part of the terraNOVA Collective’s soloNOVA festival of solo performances running at the DR 2 Theatre near Union Square throughout the month of May.

Based on published first-person testimonies, writer-performer Kim structures as a memory play, told years after the fact by a survivor now in her eighties, but still haunted by the wartime atrocities she endured. As a young girl, life was a struggle in occupied Korea. After the death of her father, she drops out of school to help her mother eke out a subsistence living in the fields. Yet, she still yearns for a better life, which makes her susceptible to a cruel Japanese bait-and-switch. She signs-on to work in a Japanese factory by day, lured by the promise of school at night. What follows is a harrowing story of rape, torture, disease, and mental anguish in the euphemistically named “comfort stations.”

Kim is truly heartrending in conveying the shattering death of a young girl’s innocence and the hard-earned resolve of woman in her twilight years. Kim transforms herself into her character at vastly different ages, without the aid of make-up, simply through her uncannily expressive countenance. By their nature, solo performance requires the considerable courage to take the stage alone, without back-up. However, Kim seems particularly exposed on-stage, bringing to life her character’s unspeakable sufferings.

Even though Kim does all the talking (save for her best friend Sunja briefly heard in recorded voice-overs),never feels stagey. Jakyung Seo’s dramatic lighting effectively emphasizes the stark, minimal nature of the well-mounted production. A compellingly written work, should also open some eyes in the audience, not only to the tragic story of the “comfort women,” but also the severe cultural policies of the Imperial occupation, which required Koreans to adopt Japanese names and prohibited their native language.

is a viscerally intense theater experience, featuring an exceptional performance by its writer. It might be sad and infuriating, but Kim also finds a measure of inspiration in her character’s resilience. Highly recommended even to those not ordinarily enamored with one-person shows, transcends its format. It runs through May 23rd as part of soloNOVA at the DR 2 Theatre at 103 East 15 Street.