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Japanese military’s comfort women victim Gil Won-ok dies at 97, only 7 surviving victims left

입력 2025.02.18 17:15

Tak Ji-young

A citizen pays his respects at the funeral hall for Gil Won-ok, a victim of the Japanese military's wartime sexual slavery, at Incheon Red Cross Hospital in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, on February 17. Yonhap News

Gil Won-ok, a survivor of the Japanese military’s wartime sexual slavery, passed away on February 16. She was 97 years old.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (the Korean Council) said on the 17th that she passed away the day before. Gil was born in 1928 in Hwicheon, North Pyeongan Province, and spent her childhood in Pyongyang. In 1940, when she was thirteen years old, she was tricked into a brothel in Manchuria, China, after being told that “if you go to Manchuria, you can get a job in a factory and make money.” A year later, she returned home after contracting a venereal disease, but she went to China in 1942 to support her poor family, and was mobilized again to a brothel in Hebei Province, China.

Korea was liberated from Japan when Gil was 18. She returned to Korea in 1946 through Incheon Port and earned money in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province to return home, but was unable to do so due to the division of Korea.

In October 1998, Gil registered with the government as a victim of the Japanese military’s “comfort women.” Since then, she has worked as a human rights activist who has been leading the way to inform the damage caused by the Japanese military's wartime sexual slavery home and abroad and to solve the problem. From 2003 to 2020, she lived at the “House of Peace,” a shelter for comfort women victims, and participated in weekly protests held on Wednesdays. She testified about the damage at the UN Human Rights Council and the International Labor Organization (ILO) General Assembly.

Gil traveled around the world, including Australia, Canada, the U.S., and France, to advocate for the restoration of human rights for comfort women victims. In 2012, she founded the “Butterfly Fund” with another victim Kim Bok-dong and the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

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In 2017, she met with victims of sexual violence in Germany and said, “We can endure the pain we suffered, but we must continue to inform and fight so that many people will know about the problem and work together to solve it. Our future generations shouldn't have to suffer the same fate as I did. It's hard, but let's do it together.” That year, the “Gil Won-ok Women's Peace Prize” was established to recognize and support women activists in Korea who are actively working for peace and reunification.

Out of the 240 victims registered with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Gil’s death leads to the number of surviving comfort women victims decreasing to seven. The average age of the survivors is 95.7 years old, with five aged 96 or older and two aged 90 to 95. “It is very heartbreaking to lose another victim of the Japanese military’s wartime sexual slavery,” said Vice Minister of Gender Equality and Family Shin Young-sook. ”I hope she finds peace as she has gone through many hardships in her life.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.