Korean-American woman donates artwork on 'comfort women'

Jonathan Sisson, left, a human rights activist, and Choi Im-ja, president of Penn Asian Senior Services, pose in front of a piece of art titled “Lines of Violation” at the Gyeongnam Art Museum in South Gyeongsang Province on Aug. 13. / Courtesy of Choi Im-ja

By Kim Hyo-jin

A Korean-American woman has donated a piece of art depicting “comfort women” to South Gyeongsang Province on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

“I’m really glad that it found its permanent home,” Choi Im-ja, the donor and president of Penn Asian Senior Services, an organization for Asian American seniors based in Philadelphia, said in a recent interview.

“It means a lot for the piece to have a home here, considering South Gyeongsang Province is the region from where many women were taken to become victims of Japanese military sexual slavery.”

The piece, titled “Lines of Violation,” depicts the hands of 53 sexual slavery victims in Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines and their fingerprints.

The 157-by-76-inch standing screen is made of drawings slipped between transparent sheets of plexiglass and neon lights flickering in vibrant red, yellow, green and blue.

Jonathon Sisson, a human rights activist and former diplomat, started the project with Scottish artist Andrew Ward in 1998.

Sisson acknowledged the seriousness of Japan’s wartime crimes against women while working at the U.N.’s International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), and wanted to raise awareness of the sexual slavery issue to the international community.

He initially planned to exhibit the piece at the U.N. headquarters in New York. But with no support from a single nation, which was compulsory for an exhibition there, the piece had to move place to place from South Africa, Asia to the U.S.

Choi, then the operator of the non-profit organization Women’s Development Institute International (WDI), organized its exhibition at the Free Library of Philadelphia for two months in 2003. That same year, she took over the piece from Sisson who had trouble raising funds for its exhibition.

The 63-year-old businesswoman said her involvement with the sexual slavery issue started in 1995.

“It was shocking to know what happened to the victims,” she said, adding she first found out about the issue during her participation in the 1995 U.N. Conference on Women.

“Since then, I have been engaged in awareness campaigns aimed at informing the American society of the truth of history.”

Choi exhibited the art piece for more than three years at the American Museum of Asian Holocaust, which Chinese-American Eugene Wei established in Pennsylvania with private funds to raise awareness of the Nanjing Massacre.

She, however, had to collect it back when the museum closed its doors due to financial difficulties.

“Seven years passed with the piece put inside my storage. I felt terribly sorry about such meaningful art work being kept away from the public,” she said.

It finally found a home with a help of Korea’s provincial government.

The president of Gyeongnam Provincial Geochang College, Kim Jung-gi, heard about the situation and asked for support from South Gyeongsang Governor Hong Joon-pyo. He decided to keep it permanently in the province from a historic year, marking the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from the Japanese rule.

It will be exhibited until the end of August at the Gyeongnam Art Museum, and then moved to the provincial government building.

The donor expressed hope that the piece will someday be able to be taken on a world tour.

“I hope seeing the artwork can be an opportunity for people around the world to vow once again to never allow a war, which exploits women so easily,” she said.