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Lee Kyung-shin

After studying painting at Hongik University, Lee Kyung-shin taught art to Japanese military comfort women victims living at the nursing home House of Sharing between 1993 and 1997. Lee also experimented with art therapies to treat mental diseases at the Graduate School of Education at Inha University.

By exhibiting her work inspired by comfort women as well as works by the victims themselves, Lee has helped publicize the Japanese military comfort women issue that has remained obscured in the histories of Korea and Japan. She published drawings about her art classes with comfort women into a book titled “Flowers Unbloomed.”

The year 2018 marks the seventy-third anniversary of Korea's liberation. It has also become the first year for the Korean government to designate and celebrate a memorial day for comfort women on August 14, the same day when Kim Hak-sun went public in 1991 about her past as a comfort woman. Kim's testimony encouraged other victims to speak up for the first time in half a century after the end of the war. The series of testimonies infused a breath of fresh air into a long-buried history. However, among those registered with the Korean government as a comfort women victim, only twenty-seven remain alive at the moment. To join in celebrating the designation of a memorial day for comfort women, the Northeast Asian History Foundation hosted an exhibition in October 2018 at the Citizens Gallery in Seoul Citizens Hall. The exhibition titled "Comfort Women Stories Through Art" featured nearly 130 works the artist Lee Kyung-shin drew to document her art classes with Japanese military comfort women victims. Lee was the first to teach an art class for five years since 1993 at a nursing home for former comfort women called the House of Sharing. This month's interview features the artist's experience teaching victims and her thoughts on the Japanese military comfort women issue.

Q

Going through the pictures featured at the recent exhibition in October seems to naturally lead to the question of what prompted you came to teach comfort women victims. Could you please start by telling us how you came by the opportunity?

A

I first met the victims in 1993. I was trying to figure out what sort of artist I wanted to become after graduating from university and struggling to discover the meaning of life. Then I heard a radio announcement recruiting volunteers to help out at the House of Sharing where comfort women victims were living. The announcement reminded me of Kim Hak-sun who was the first to testify about her shocking past as a Japanese military comfort woman. I can’t quite describe it in words, but I couldn’t ignore that weight of history. So, I dialed the House of Sharing's number and that’s how I first came to meet comfort women victims.

Q

It's been twenty years since you've communicated with the world about the Japanese military comfort women issue through pictures and a book. What motivated you to hold the recent exhibition?

A

The victims are women courageous enough to expose the truth about a shameful part of their past. When I first met with them, we had a tool called drawing, which the victims used to convey their experiences and thoughts. It was in some ways an extraordinary situation and perhaps the reason why I was able to teach art to the victims for five years. Some of the pictures we created were published in textbooks for a while, turning personal achievements into objects of social interest. The victims' works were even exhibited overseas and resonated with many in Japanese civil society. Back then, I was so happy to be able to somehow contribute in a small way to help resolve the issues victims were going through. Now that I think of it, I poured my purest passion throughout my twenties into that project and it was probably the best thing I ever did.

However, after I stopped teaching them, I kept feeling uneasy about not having done more to publicize the intense moments only I was aware of from having been there alongside the victims as they tried to lay bare and express their wounds. In a corner of my mind, a sense an obligation took root for the need to organize the works created by those victims of history into a collection symbolizing their traumatizing wounds. Then the governments of Korea and Japan announced the comfort women agreement's conclusion on December 28, 2015. Watching reports about angered victims on television made me angry as well. It seemed like nothing had changed since 1991 when Kim Hak-sun first publicly testified about what she had suffered. I then thought about what I could do as their former art teacher, which methods the victims had used to reveal their wounds, and what message they wished to convey. I arrived at the realization that my final task as their art teacher was to compile a record of all the efforts the victims made until the end to overcome their wounds and desperations.

Q

What was the social mood at the time you gave art lessons to the victims and how did they react to your lessons?

A

The early 1990s was a time when it was difficult for former comfort women to have their photograph taken or even refer to themselves as victims, especially those who had family. They had been left personally traumatized, yet intimidated by the atmosphere of a society that had long remained patriarchal. But even under such circumstances, the victims did not push away or ignore a young, inexperienced teacher like myself and treated me with respect. I had this vague idea that expressing the wounds in their hearts through drawing would serve as a shortcut for them to overcome those wounds and rebuild their lives. However, drawing is different from using words in that victims can sometimes experience fear from having to face their wounds and anguish in order to visually reproduce them. That's why it wasn't easy to propose to the victims to go through that process. I believed the act of expression would bring about a change within them, but I couldn't force my belief upon them by encouraging them to dredge up the painful past buried deep down in their hearts.

Q

It seems like you weren't aware of art therapy theories or techniques from the beginning, but you recognized the need for them as you conducted art lessons for the victims.

A

That's right. I wanted to know how to encourage the victims so that they may be able to face their own wounds. The learning objectives had to be changed accordingly. I stumbled across an article about art therapy a psychiatrist had published in an art magazine and thought it could be a solution to break the wall I had run into while teaching. Of course, the goal I ultimately sought to achieve through art lessons didn't exactly fit into the idea of art therapy in psychiatry. Yet, I came to believe that it would help the victims tell their stories through art, which could change them and even inspire others who encounter their works.

Out of all the procedures, the most difficult was to have the victims drag their wounds out on canvas. By visually expressing what they were feeling in that moment, the victims attempted to identify emotions like anger, sadness, and loneliness that had been suppressed within them. They showed that they could heal themselves as they poured out images featuring the times they spent in depression and despair. Accompanying them throughout that journey offered more than enough answers to questions a novice like myself had about the meaning of life.

Q

Were the methods of expressing mental imagery you adopted to teach the victims effective from the beginning?

A

It wasn't easy to tell the victims upfront to express their wounds. It's a difficult and vague request to anyone let alone comfort women victims. I was in many ways scared because I couldn't anticipate what sort of reaction the victims would show when facing scenes in which they had been most vulnerable. And I wasn't experienced enough to effectively employ a new method, so there were victims who didn't want to have to squarely face their own wounds.

While everyone was flustered and hesitant, a victim named Lee Yong-su briskly and boldly began to draw lines and apply colors on to a piece of white paper. I didn't even ask her to, but she explained that what she had drawn was a contrasting image of herself between past and present. Everyone in class including myself received a refreshing shock. Lee Yong-su's courage, method of expression, and positive energy got through to the rest of the victims who had been feeling lost in class. In the end, learning how to express mental imagery helped the victims turn their eyes inward, which was an important and necessary procedure for them.

Once past the stage of expressing mental imagery, I waited for the victims to courageously identify their wounds and actively express them, hoping they would reach the stage of being able to objectify their struggles. And when they illustrated their most painful stories, I felt all the concerns I had as their first art teacher as well as an individual artist instantly disappear. It was really about realizing the power of art.

Q

What sort of message did you hope to convey to the recent exhibition's visitors?

A

Former comfort women are victims of history. They are women who weren't able to lay bare the wounds and blood-boiling anger within them for more than fifty years. Drawing helped them pour out all that anger from deep down so that they could gain confidence and a sense of achievement as they moved on to new chapters in life. So, I hoped the visitors would regard the exhibited works as a representation of the process victims went through to tell their stories and overcome their past.

The five years I spent with the victims was a time of revealing and healing themselves for the victims. For myself, it was a time of growth that introduced me to the field of art therapy and taught me to enjoy working with them. The victims' works have already resonated with many, but I hope more people will be able to gain courage and hope from encountering the life stories and works of comfort women victims.

Q

To truly achieve historical reconciliation, it may be necessary for the Japanese society to offer a voluntary, contemplative confession about the Japanese military comfort women issue. What are your thoughts on Japan's failure to offer a sincere apology?

A

The victims have been angry at the Japanese government for not only failing to issue an official apology, but even refusing to acknowledge them as victims. What they want is for the Japanese government to truly acknowledge its past wrongdoings and sincerely apology for them. However, the Japanese government has persisted in an ambiguous attitude while trying to wrap up the comfort women issue without properly straightening out its wrongful past. Moreover, it has openly denied the fact that comfort women were taken away by force to become sexual slaves. It is no doubt challenging to publicly admit wrongdoings committed by one's ancestors and realize that the wrong approaches have been employed so far. Nevertheless, the comfort women issue is a matter of human dignity, which is why it goes beyond overcoming an un unfortunate past. I hope the victims' stories told through art can be an occasion for the Japanese to historically reflect upon the issue once more and thereby gain a deeper understanding about it. I also wish such hopes can be conveyed to everyone in Japan and help move their hearts. If more Japanese citizens are able to express regret over the comfort women issue turning into a forgotten part of history, I believe it can fundamentally contribute to resolving historical issues between Korea and Japan.

Q

We hope there will be more opportunities for your works to resonate with the audience in diverse formats. Finally, is there anything you'd like to ask of the Northeast Asian History Foundation in terms of resolving the comfort women issue?

A

The Japanese military comfort women issue is not a matter of the past, but an unresolved matter of the present. It's a painful part of history yet to be resolved. However, we still don't know much about how the system was operated, what the victims actually suffered, and how they carried on with their lives thereafter. I would like to serve as a link between past and present by contributing to further publicizing the issue's historicity and helping more people remember the victims. I want to contribute to helping the victims in their quest to cast away the fetters of victimhood and right a wrongful past. And I believe the victims' art work can serve as an asset to revealing the truth about the comfort women issue. What I would like for the Northeast Asian History Foundation to do is help publicize the issue's significance to as many people as possible so that they may consider what needs to be done to prevent such a tragic history from repeating itself. I also hope the Foundation will be able to engage in various activities that help people form proper perceptions of history.