Recently I visited Seodaemun Prison and The house of Sharing and I was quite shocked at what I learned. I was also a little shocked that I didn't know a lot of about the situation between Japan and Korea until now.
On the last weekend on December I took a trip to Seoul to visit Seodaemun Prison history hall. It's now a museum but formerly it was a prison. Seodaemun prison was used to house anti-colonial activists. It was run by the Japanese from 1908 until 1945.
In the museum I found out a lot about the history of Korea during the time it was under Japanese rule.
In the museum I found out a lot about the history of Korea during the time it was under Japanese rule.
It was such a cold day when I visited the Prison hall, but even if it had been a hot summers day I think I still would have felt the same chill through my body when reading about the way the prisoners were treated here.
We walked through the museum hall and saw many artefacts from the time Seodaemun was open as a prison. There were letters, pictures of prisoners and some of the torture weapons that had been used when the prison was run by the Japanese. Down in the basement there were mock cells, interrogation rooms and some re-creational scenes of different torture methods used by the Japanese. Out in another building we walked through the cells, it was so cold and hard to believe that it would have been just as cold when prisoners were living there. Outside in the prison grounds there was a tunnel that was used by the Japanese prison guards to send dead bodies to the cemetery- very chilling!
Later on in January I took another trip to Seoul to join a group of volunteers taking people to the House of Sharing. The House of Sharing is a home for any of the living comfort women, located a 45 minute bus ride away from Seoul.
The comfort women is something I hadn't heard about before coming to Korea. Don't be fooled by the name, there is nothing comforting about the lives these women had to live. The comfort women were in fact sex slaves who were tricked and forced by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two into becoming sex-slaves.
Women were abducted from Japan, Korea, China and other parts of Asia. There were usually taken away from their home countries to prevent them from running away from the "Comfort Stations" set up by the Japanese army.
On our visit to the House of Sharing we learned the horrific tales of what these women went through from being forced into being sex slaves and being raped 40 times a day to the stigma they received if and when they returned to South Korea. We also heard the comfort station rules and a testimony from one of the halmeonies.
We also learned about how the Japanese government, to this day, still denies any involvement in the situation. The halmeonies (korean word for grandmother, used to refer to the women who live at the house of sharing) protest every Wednesday outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. They want Japan to achnowledge the war crime and reveal the truth about the crimes of military sexual slavery. They also want an official appology and for the government to make legal reparations.
At the end of our visit to the house of sharing we met 7 of the halmeonies. We sang for them, and they sang for us. I was amazed, after hearing some of the horrors these women had to go through, sitting in a room with them, watching them smiling and enjoying our company was truly amazing.
My visit to the House Of Sharing was an eye opening experience. I'm mostly shocked that I had not heard much about the situation until now.
We walked through the museum hall and saw many artefacts from the time Seodaemun was open as a prison. There were letters, pictures of prisoners and some of the torture weapons that had been used when the prison was run by the Japanese. Down in the basement there were mock cells, interrogation rooms and some re-creational scenes of different torture methods used by the Japanese. Out in another building we walked through the cells, it was so cold and hard to believe that it would have been just as cold when prisoners were living there. Outside in the prison grounds there was a tunnel that was used by the Japanese prison guards to send dead bodies to the cemetery- very chilling!
Later on in January I took another trip to Seoul to join a group of volunteers taking people to the House of Sharing. The House of Sharing is a home for any of the living comfort women, located a 45 minute bus ride away from Seoul.
The comfort women is something I hadn't heard about before coming to Korea. Don't be fooled by the name, there is nothing comforting about the lives these women had to live. The comfort women were in fact sex slaves who were tricked and forced by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two into becoming sex-slaves.
Women were abducted from Japan, Korea, China and other parts of Asia. There were usually taken away from their home countries to prevent them from running away from the "Comfort Stations" set up by the Japanese army.
On our visit to the House of Sharing we learned the horrific tales of what these women went through from being forced into being sex slaves and being raped 40 times a day to the stigma they received if and when they returned to South Korea. We also heard the comfort station rules and a testimony from one of the halmeonies.
We also learned about how the Japanese government, to this day, still denies any involvement in the situation. The halmeonies (korean word for grandmother, used to refer to the women who live at the house of sharing) protest every Wednesday outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. They want Japan to achnowledge the war crime and reveal the truth about the crimes of military sexual slavery. They also want an official appology and for the government to make legal reparations.
At the end of our visit to the house of sharing we met 7 of the halmeonies. We sang for them, and they sang for us. I was amazed, after hearing some of the horrors these women had to go through, sitting in a room with them, watching them smiling and enjoying our company was truly amazing.
My visit to the House Of Sharing was an eye opening experience. I'm mostly shocked that I had not heard much about the situation until now.
I found both of these trips very educational. Whilst in Korea I am enjoying educating myself about korean culture and also korean history. It's something we don't get the opportunity to learn about in school back in the U.K, but thanks to the internet and my lonely planet guide which lead me to these kind of trips I'm slowly learning more and more about Korea.
I hope you appreciate this tiny insight into some historical events in Korea.
Kirsty
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I hope you appreciate this tiny insight into some historical events in Korea.
Kirsty
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