A door has opened for people to go beyond time and space and talk with the elderly comfort women victims in the Japanese military. Using interactive artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology, people can now ask and listen to the answers given by the elderly victims. When you greet the elderly woman, who appears as a hologram, she answers, "Hello. Nice to meet you." It is a significant education tool, for you can personally ask questions, and it is also a method to permanently preserve the vivid testimony of the elderly women. Some believe this can be an alternative at a time when the number of surviving victims continues to diminish.

On October 26, the research team of Professor Kim Ju-sub of Sogang University's School of Media, Arts and Science launched the "Eternal Testimony" project. This project launched after nearly two years of preparation, and it aims to allow people to listen to the testimony of the elderly victims in the form of a dialogue anywhere in the world. For this, the most important element was the testimony of the victims on over a thousand questions submitted by expert institutions. It was physically strenuous, but the elderly victim, Lee Yong-soo volunteered, making this project possible.

The image of her answers captured from this day was then classified using AI.. When someone asks a question, A.I. will seek an appropriate answer making it possible for the person and the hologram to engage in a natural conversation. To make this process more vivid, Professor Kim's team made Chroma key videos of the elderly woman, a method used to synthesize the image with a separate background. They used holograms to allow people the experience of actually facing the elderly woman.

The "Eternal Testimony" project was born when the wishes of the elderly victims to tell the world about what they went through met the determination of a scholar who wanted to record memories. The Kyunghyang Shinmun watched their challenge, which has yet to draw the world’s attention.

■ "Eternal Testimony" Helping Elderly Victims Fight the Afterimage of Their Memories

"I couldn't sleep. I think I'll be able to relax when this is over."

On the morning of October 26, we met the elderly Lee Yong-soo at a hotel in Mapo-gu, Seoul, and this was her answer when we asked, "Did you sleep well last night?" Lee, who repeatedly said, "It's okay. I'm fine," is 91 years. Despite the worrying eyes around her, she smiled and said, "I can't say that I’m tired, when I think of the people working so hard to help me."

Lee received a proposal for the "Eternal Testimony" project a year ago. "When you age, your body doesn't listen to you. I thought I should do this, since the opportunity came, before it was too late for me to testify," she said as she recalled the time she was contacted for this project. But she also had her concerns. "People will continue to listen to my story in the future, even when I'm gone. I'm worried that perhaps I'll be giving them pain," she said.

Before shooting a video of Lee, who seemed tired from all these concerns, Professor Kim gave a demonstration of the interactive artificial intelligence program for her. It was a demonstration of her testimony captured a year ago during the preparation stage. Lee asked her other self displayed before her, "What should we do to solve the problem of the comfort women?" The image of the elderly woman answered, "There is something that we shouted in front of the Japanese Embassy, come rain or come snow. Uncover the truth, formally apologize, and provide legal reparations." Lee, who was watching, nodded and said, "That's right."

This time, she said, "Good-bye." The image also said, "Goodbye. I love you," and made the shape of a heart over her head with her arms. Lee, who also made the heart with her arms, said, "Oh, this is amazing. I am here, but Yong-soo is also there," and giggled like a child. She moved to shoot another video after the demonstration and said, "I feel better after meeting Yong-soo. I will find the strength and testify."

The elderly woman must answer over a thousand questions in four days from this day. The questions include those about her childhood, her family, the social atmosphere at the time, as well as her life in the brothels. They cover all the questions that people want to ask the comfort women victims. Often, she will have to repeat similar answers, because people can ask the same question in different ways depending on how they frame their questions.

Some of the questions are difficult to ask face to face. For example, the questions about what she went through in the brothels. Lee also said, "When I talk, I go back there to that time and think. Then I sometimes cry at night with such unknowable grief."

She faced the painful questions this day as well. When asked, "What was the most painful memory from back then?" the elderly woman said, "It's difficult to put that in words, but.... The most painful thing was having to enter the soldiers' rooms. If I tried not to enter, I was dragged and tortured." "What did you think about to bear the difficult time?" To this question, Lee answered, "I couldn't think about anything. I just missed my mother so much." A solemn mood lingered among those listening to her answer.

Fortunately, she will not have to testify of her painful days and repeat her story so much when this project is complete. When the professor said, "In the future, you won't have to personally repeat the painful stories so much," in a low voice, Lee said, "I really hope so...." The "Eternal Testimony" project can reduce the time that the elderly victims have to struggle with the afterimage of their painful memories alone after giving statements of what they went through.

■ Our Reality: Counting the Declining Number of Survivors

The idea for the "Eternal Testimony" project was not unique. People are already experiencing the testimonies of the Holocaust and the Nanjing Massacre survivors in this method. In fact, Professor Kim was inspired by the New Dimensions in Testimony (NDT) by the USC Shoah Foundation in the U.S., which created an interactive program with the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. He also received advice from the Shoah Foundation on the questions and production.

Although there was support for the recording of the testimonies of the comfort women victims overseas, domestic conditions were more challenging. It took over two years to realize Kim's idea, because he couldn't get funding from anywhere in South Korea. Professor Kim said, "At first, I thought about asking the NDT to produce this project, but it didn't seem right to have foreigners handling our history." Eventually, Professor Kim's team developed their own production system.

However, he could not obtain the funding needed for the production in Korea. He received support from a benefactor in the U.S. with the help of the U.S. NGO, Comfort Women Action for Redress & Education (CARE, executive director Phyllis Hyun-jung Kim). He has yet to secure the funding for the exhibition and education after the project is complete. Professor Kim said, "Since the content was not produced for profit, anyone with a computer, microphone and display can easily run the program," and added, "But we don't have the means to get the word out."

The government and the press simply count the falling number of surviving comfort women victims each time the issue surfaces. They are constantly under fire for not finding ways to preserve and use the testimonies of these elderly victims. When the surviving victims all die, there is no way to vividly educate the people on our history as now. Yet there have been no new attempts. They are relying solely on the sacrifice of individuals with a purpose for this issue.

Professor Kim said, "I wanted to transform more of the elderly victims' memories into contents, but there are few left who can testify for long hours." He also said, "I hope to create contents out of testimonies from one or two more people."