The article underscores the legacy of Gil Won-ok, a prominent South Korean comfort woman, who recently passed away, leaving a dwindling number of survivors. It highlights Mina Watanabe, a Japanese activist advocating for reparations and recognition of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery. Watanabe, inspired by her engagements with survivors, co-founded the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace to educate and raise awareness about sexual violence in war. Despite facing criticism from her compatriots, she remains dedicated to championing the rights and acknowledgment the comfort women deserve.
Activists for comfort women are often subjected to criticism or left isolated by their fellow Japanese. The interview was edited and condensed.
Mina Watanabe said she had been interested in women's rights since her school days in Tokyo. When some of the survivors of Japan's military sexual slavery system finally came forward in the 1990s, her encounters with them changed my life.
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