Women make up approximately 60% percent of the Earth’s population, so wherever you go, you will encounter them. They raise the leaders of our countries and guide the future of their countries. They have endured the pain of childbirth, hormones, sexism, and oppression for as long as I can remember and they still get their jobs done. Throughout history, women have been the role models of peace and restoration to lands in the midst of war and terror. In modern day, they have begun to spread their influence and power in all aspects of life/culture, whether that is entertainment, politics, or medicine. Out of all the places I’ve been to and heard about, the ladies of South Korea have shown me the result of women’s influence on the history, traditions, and culture of the country in which they live in.
During my first year of college, I participated in an abroad program called Preview, a curriculum that teaches students a topic that correlates with a country and gives them a chance to visit that country for a week. I was lucky enough to go to Seoul, South Korea while studying art and culture. At the beginning of our trip, we were introduced to the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, a museum that showed the history of South Korea, things such as the Japanese invasions of World War II, their tensions with North Korea, and the economic boom that has made them one of the world’s most modern and technologically advanced countries. As I walked through the front doors of the museum, I was met with an animated display of the exhibition that was featured that month. The title of the exhibit was “I Was There Without Me”. It was an exhibition featuring over 20 illustrations of the misery and pain of comfort women during World War II.
During World War II, Japan had invaded and conquered China, Korea, and the Philippines. In doing so, they captured as low as 20,000 to as high as 410,000 women from their villages. They ranged from adolescent girls to old women from a variety of races, even a small number coming from the Netherlands and Australia. While under the Japanese Imperial’s control, these women were lured and deceived with the promises of jobs in factories and restaurants. Once they were taken in, they were forced into camps and turned into comfort women, or women and girls forced into slavery by the Japanese during War World II. In this exhibit, pictures, illustrations, videos, and comics used efficient visual tactics to show the pain, terror, and humiliation these women endured during the war. I feel that the overall purpose of this exhibition was to show others the tragedies thrown upon South Korea by Japan, and that Japan should apologize for their mistakes, instead of turning a blind eye to them.
I am only used to the history of my country, figuring that others did not matter or weren’t as important. However, this trip showed me that I am not only part of women history in America; I am part of women history around the world, mainly because I am a woman. This exhibition showed me that women, wherever we are or come from, will be the targets for oppression and hate. This oppression will affect the generations after us if we don’t come back with pride and surge ahead with recovery in our minds. But, as we continued our trip, I wondered: How have South Korean women rose to the challenge of recovery? The answer to my question was: wonderfully.
It’s easy to write about the places, temples, museums, and other areas I’ve been around. But for this trip, we were told to be visually aware of our surroundings and take into consideration what we see. After seeing the exhibition, I wondered how the modern Korean woman acted in this generation. The two women that we met throughout the week had shown me much. The first is a fashion designer who designed her clothes from the colors of her mind and the Earth. Her clothes and her home represented balance and peace with the land around her. The next woman we encountered was a monk at a Buddhist temple. She was once a college student before she followed the Buddhist lifestyle. She is now one with her mind and body and teaches others to balance their life and spirit, to be good to one another in the name of humanity, and to be happy with oneself. Meanwhile the music and entertainment industry is dominated by women, like the ones of Girl’s Generation and 2NE1. The industry's influence has reached the States and many more western countries, becoming a phenomenon that's taking over today's entertainment.
What all these women have in common is that their lives represent one thing: harmony. To balance and blend their lives into their work, passion, spirit, and country is remarkable, and when observed closely, represents everything South Korea is about. Their traditions, values, and ideals surround themselves around the theme of harmony. The only way I could fully understand that was when I looked upon the lives of Korean women. They have left an impression on me, the same way they have left one on South Korea and the rest of the world. I will always remember Seoul for the women who rose from the ashes of their horrible past and moved the world.
