Song Sin-do ( ko, 송신도; November 24, 1922 – December 16, 2017) was a
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republi ...
n former
comfort woman
Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ian ...
who had been living and campaigning in
Japan for an official apology from the
Japanese government
The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary stat ...
. She had also recognised the need for the history of comfort women to be taught in Japanese schools to prevent a recurrence of the situation.
Background
Song Sin-do escaped a
forced marriage
Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later forc ...
at the age of 16 years by signing up to assist on the Japanese front line. However, like many thousands of young Korean and Chinese girls who believed they would work in factories or as nurses' assistants, Song Sin-do was taken to a comfort house to work as a
sexual slave for seven years. During this time Song was forced to give away two babies to local families and beaten repeatedly.
When the war ended in 1945, Song found she had nowhere to return to and so accepted the marriage proposal of a Japanese soldier who abandoned her on arrival in Japan. Song had lived with a Korean gentleman called Ha Jae-eun she sees as a father figure.
[http://www.hancinema.net/korean_Song_Sin-do.php ee Hyo-won - "Comfort Women film touches Japan"/ref> In 1992 a document proving the Japanese government's involvement with the military brothels was found and a hotline called 'Comfort Woman 110' resultantly formed to provide support for the former comfort women. It was this way that Song's story was uncovered when the organisation contacted her and persuaded her to go public with her history.]
Legal action
A support group of Japanese citizens formed around Song and assisted her financially during the trial to receive an official apology for comfort women. However, although the Court recognised misconduct by the state, it deemed that the events were too far in the past to make a claim.