11th INCANDESCENT SPARK - FORGET ME NOT
Korea and Japan. Japan and Korea. The two countries, bordering the East Sea, have a special diplomatic and historical relationship. Although both Korea and Japan belong to East Asian region and share cultural similarities, what makes these countries to polarize is ongoing dispute on the past events. The dispute has rooted from 1900s, during which Japan took over Korean peninsula and deprived it of all constitutional rights. Much effort is required to understand the history correctly, however, subjugation of Korean women into coerced sexual slavery was one of the deeds that our generation should investigate upon.
INCANDESCENT met members of Forget Me Not to hear their initiatives to empathize with the past and victims of the sexual slavery. Some argue that the past is in the past, however, Forget me not claims that its attempts to shed light on the past are designed to complete the ‘unfinished task’ that the past generation left.
Can you please introduce ‘Forget Me Not’ to our readers?
Forget Me Not: Our name ‘Forget-Me-Not’ named after a flower called “ forget-me-not, Myosotis (물망초)”. As this name suits our theme - do not forget the enforced sex slaves- well, we decided to name our group ‘Forget Me Not’. Our aim is to raise awareness of the enforced sex slaves during wartime and spread the correct history to the international society. Suin Ko and Kyriem Chang were the founders and leaders of our group. Now it passed down to us - Jungoh, soojung, and dohyun.
What is a comfort woman? Why do you think burrowing into the history of comfort women is of importance?
Forget Me Not (FMN hereafter): The “enforced sex slaves” refer to victims who were forced to serve as sex slaves during Japanese colonization. They were abused not only sexually, but also traumatized physically and psychologically. As we are students from only girls’ international school, we are working for women’s right. This leads us to stand up for the “enforced sex slaves” and their human rights. As a starting point, We are trying to use our multi-linguistic skill to speak in and outside of Korea. We believe that we, as Korean girls, must pay attention to this issue and stand up to speak for the enforced sex slaves. Even though we are aware that we cannot make a real, huge change, but we do believe these small changes will add up to a massive influence in the long-run. Lastly, we regard this as unfinished homework for our generation and will keep working on this issue.
What activities has Forget Me Not done? What activities are you doing these days?
FMN: We started off by learning about the Japanese sex slavery, and why it is important to raise awareness of the issue. Then, our previous leaders suggested to fundraise for the enforced sex slaves memorial museum which is still being built. So, we held a huge fundraiser at last year’s Branksome got talent. After the fundraiser, we split into three departments and strived hard to revise incorrect information on Wikipedia, make a promotion video, and make storybook about the enforced sex slaves. Then We made a survey to see how much Branksome girls know about this issue.
Our biggest goal in this year is to make a storybook and study more about the enforced sex slaves. We are trying to build network with other organizations working under the issue of the enforced sex slaves. Prior to that, we are trying to be prepared as much as we can. Also, We are looking forward to go on an excursion to visit “소녀상” and watch movie “귀향”.
When do you find your initiatives worthwhile?
FMN: When our facebook page got 30 likes, haha. Since our page is not famous, we felt grateful with 30 likes hahahah! We also felt proud when people paid attention to enforced sex slaves during our presentation on the Enforced Sex Slavery issue at assembly.