Annotation source: Seoul Metropolitan Archive
Annotation and image link:https://archives.seoul.go.kr/item/137
ANNOTATION
This video captures 18 seconds of Korean “comfort women” in Songshan, Yunnan Province, China, on or around September 8, 1944 by sergeant Edward Fay of the 164th Telecommunications Photographic Corps. In the first scene, there are six women standing against the dirt wall and some men in Kuomintang uniform. The woman in the kimono on the far right appears to be Japanese. In the next scene, the Kuomintang soldier is speaking with the woman in a kimono with a smile on his face. In this scene, there is one more woman hiding behind a woman in kimono. The women appear to be very nervous, fearful and exhausted, with their bare feet and anxious glances at the camera, their posture uncertain with their heads down and clinging to the other women.
The women in the video are the same women in the photo of “comfort women” rescued in Songshan, often described “the photo with Young-shim Park,” but Youngshim Park (alt: Yeong-shim Park) and another woman with a burn on her face do not appear in this footage. [See note below.]
In June 1944, the Y forces (U.S.-China coalition) launched an attack on Songshan in Yunnan Province, which bordered China and Burma(now Myanmar), because the Allied Forces had to cross Songshan and Salyun River (Lugang) in order to support the Nationalist Army of Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing. A Japanese garrison was stationed there and 24 Korean “comfort women'' including Young-shim Park had been brought there as well. In the course of the Y forces’ attack on the stronghold Japanese garrison to retake Burma Road, the Y forces captured the Korean “comfort women.'' On or around September 3 of the same year, a military photographer Charles H. Hatfield and a military cameraman Edward Fay of the 164thSignal Photo Corps., the “B” detachment of the Y forces, took these pictures of the “comfort women” in Songshan. [See US-32]
According to the explanation provided by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that owns this video, these women are “Chinese women.” However, based on cross-analysis with the related photo taken on September 3, 1944 and the fact that the women appearing in the photo and recording are the same, as well as the testimony of Young-shim Park, we can conclude that some of these women were Korean “comfort women.” The original title of this footage is “World War II in China” and the total video length is 9 minutes and 55 seconds. (The footage is available at U.S. NARA under Record Group (RG) 111, Entry ADC.)
Note: Supplemental footage with Young-shim Park was discovered by Korean news service KBS in 2020 and is at https://youtu.be/mkpL_luCD4Y.
Contributors
[Organization] City of Seoul, Women and Family Policy Affairs Office 2011~
[Organization] National Archives and Records Administration 1934~
[Organization] Seoul National University, Chin-sung Chung Research Team,2015~
[Organization] Seoul National University, Chin-sung Chung Research Team, 2015~
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Download file: https://international.ucla.edu/media/mp4/US-33-Video-“Comfort-women”-in-Songshan,-China-xn-c1v.mp4