STORIES UNTOLD
Animation directed by Junki Kim (2017)
Created with the voices of the witnesses
Original video link: https://youtu.be/mdrlrn1JoSA
Content warning: This video can be viewed by anyone who is 12 years old or older.
This video is a follow-up to a short animation "HerStory," produced with a support from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family of Korea.
Initially, this video was designed to elicit Japan's reflection on its military "comfort women" issue, through the conscientious confessions of the Japanese people who were actually involved in the “comfort” system as Imperial Japanese soldiers and the “comfort station” operators. Collecting the testimonies was challenging, because the witnesses were extremely reluctant to testify about the “comfort women” issue - more so than about other war crimes - and the bereaved families changed their minds and withdrew their permission to use the testimonies while this film was being produced. Notwithstanding these challenges, thus shorter footage than anticipated, we still believed these testimonies are historically important records that remind us of the dignity of human beings and the egregious violation of human rights of women during war. With that and our initial intention in mind, we went ahead and completed this video. Also, we have edited several scenes in consideration of the ages of the viewers.
Supported by Ministry of Gender Equality and Family of Korea
Supported by ChungKang College of Cultural Industries
The voices in the video are of the actual members of the Japanese military during the war.
Stories Untold
Hajime Kondo: We gathered in front of the HEIAN Shrine in KYODO on December 2, 1940. In OKAZAKI Park, a 38-type infantry rifle was first handed over to me with the words, "You are an infantry."
Officer: You should have received 38-type infantry rifles. The rifle is a precious gift from the Emperor. You’ll be executed if you damage or lose it. From now on, you should care for the rifle more than your own body. Now you will be trained with that rifle.
Hajime Kondo: What that meant is that, since the Emperor gave us the rifle, we were now the “soldiers directly under” the Emperor. This implanted the idea in our head that "We are now the Imperial Army."
Hajimae Kondo: It was in December 1940 when the troops arrived in China. The unit name was DOKHON (Independent and Mixed), 2nd Company, 13th Battalion of 44th Brigade.
Hajimae Kondo: A month or two after the training, they told us to gather in the Southeast Square.
Officer: The reason I asked you to come here is to teach you how to kill people. Today, I will show you how to behead someone. See that? This is how to kill people. It’s nothing difficult. From now on, you should train yourself and get used to it.
Hajimae Kondo: I was watching it thinking, this must be what cutting people feels like.
Hajimae Kondo: We were told to gather in the Southeast square again about a week later. I wondered what it was about this time.
Officer: Today, we will be training to stab people. I will teach you how to kill people.
Hajimae Kondo: I was wondering what was going on. This time, two Chinese were tied to each tree.
Officer: Stab! Next! Stab! Next! Stab!
Hajimae Kondo: I learned how it feels to stab a person at that time.
Joju Nemoto: They built a small room in the outskirts of QIQIHAR city in China. There they built a "comfort station." Soldiers went there to have fun.
Soldier: Is Shizuka your partner again today?
Soldier: Of course, it's been two weeks.
Soldier: You like her so much, right? But be sure to use a condom.
Soldier: I will do it really fast and do it again today!
Soldier: You are going to use up all of your salaries!
Joju Nemoto: Our commander took us there. Each time, an officer gathered 10 to 15 soldiers and took them to the ''comfort station."
Masaru Nemoto, Grandson of Nemoto Joju. Masaru is running a website with his grandfather's testimony regarding Korean "comfort women."
Masaru Nemoto: I wanted many people to know about my grandfather's testimony.
Masaru Nemoto: When I first heard the story, I was really shocked because I had never imagined that grandpa would have experienced "comfort women" issue.
Hajime Kondo: We built tochkas (blockhouses) every 500 to 1000 meters to block the advance of China's Eighth Route Army who was moving from SHANXI to HEBEI.
Hajime Kondo: I was on the mission building those blockhouses. One day, the Commanding Officer brought a woman.
Soldier: Huh? What is it?
Soldier: It's a woman - a woman!
Soldier: Wow, he's great. He's got a nice girl.
Soldier: We’ve been working hard. Let's take a break.
Soldier: Shhh be quiet!
Soldier: Do you wanna see your baby killed?
Soldier: Who's gonna go first?
Soldier: I'm the first.
Soldier: Just hold this.
Soldier: Anyone, do something with this crying baby!
Hajime Kondo: There was a chamber in the pit. We put the woman in there and gang raped her, taking turns from the highest rank.
Hajime Kondo: If they gang rape or rape someone, they usually kill the woman in order to keep her silent, but this time, they wanted to bring her along. I don't know what they were thinking. So we brought her along while we marched.
Hajime Kondo: One day, a senior soldier suddenly got up and took the baby from her and threw the baby down from a cliff, 20-30 meters high.
Hajime Kondo: When I saw this, I thought, 'Ah... that’s too much.'
Joju Nemoto: They recruited Korean girls to serve the Japanese military. They took them and made them "comfort women."
Joju Nemoto: How old are you?
Girl: I am 17.
Joju Nemoto: Are you Korean?
Joju Nemoto: She was crying.
Masaru Nemoto: "Comfort women", biological weapon of Unit 731, and Nanjing Massacre. We need to teach people about those things, just as what Japan did.
Hajime Kondo: I suggested a test of the performance of the type 38 rifles. I said, ‘let's see how many human bodies the bullets can penetrate.’ We had people stand in line and shot them with type 38 rifles from 20-30 meters away.
Soldier: What? Only four bodies? That’s it?
Hajime Kondo: And we threw those four dead bodies in a big pigpen made of stones. Things like human dignity was never our concern.
Hajime Kondo: Why have we become like that? What made us become such people?
Joju Nemoto: Couldn’t we have returned at least some of those girls back to their hometown?
Masaru Nemoto: Japan took tens of thousands of Korean women and forced them to become "comfort women" and killed them, right?
Masaru Nemoto: What do you think?
Hajime Kondo: Now I regret that we did something horrible, but I know it doesn't help no matter how much I regret it now. So those things that happened then... even 50 or 60 years later, it wouldn't disappear from my memory. So whenever they talk about war, I just hope people keep in mind that there should never be another war.