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Former comfort woman Lee Gi-jeong died on Nov. 11 at the age of 92 (provided by Dangjin City Government)
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Number of survivors reduced to 33 after the death of Lee Gi-jeong
Lee Gi-jeong, a former comfort woman for the imperial Japanese army, passed away on Nov. 11 at the age of 92. Lee was the seventh former comfort woman to die this year. Her death reduces the number of surviving comfort women registered with the South Korean government, originally 239, to 33. Officials from the city of Dangjin in South Chungcheong Province and members of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdaehyeop) told the Hankyoreh on Nov. 12 that Lee Gi-jeong, who had been at a hospital in Dangjin since September because of her worsening health, had died at 8:35 am on Nov. 11. Born in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, in 1925, Lee was taken to comfort stations for the Japanese army in Singapore and Myanmar in 1943 after being tricked into thinking she would be doing laundry for the Japanese army. This all happened without the knowledge of her family members. “We had to put up with the pain because they beat people who said no and killed people who ran away. I hated them; I cried; I thought I would die,” Lee said during an interview with the press before her death. Lee didn’t return home until after South Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule. She scratched out a living in Seoul doing odd jobs. After Lee finally returned home, the only person she told about her experience as a comfort woman was her father. A stroke had paralyzed her right hand. She had been unaware that the government was taking care of former comfort women, so it was not until 2005, when her family found out and informed the government, that she was registered as a comfort woman. Lee’s funeral was held in the second room of the Dangjin Funeral Home. The funeral was attended by Ahn Hee-jung, governor of South Chungcheong Province; Chung Hyun-back, Minister of Gender Equality and Family; Cho Hyun, Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs; local lawmakers from the city council and the provincial legislature; and members of the general public, who paid their respects to the deceased. “It’s unbearably sad that seven former comfort women have already passed away this year. We will continue pursuing memorial projects to restore the dignity and the reputation of the late Lee Gi-jeong and all the other former comfort women,” said Chung. The city of Dangjin is planning to hold a public funeral in the plaza on the first floor of City Hall at 9:30 am on Nov. 13. Lee’s remains will be interred in the burial plot for former comfort women at the Manghyang cemetery in Cheonan. By Park Soo-hyeok, Gangwon correspondent Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
