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PHYLLIS KIM
Executive Director, KAFC
Phyllis Kim is the executive director of the Korean American Forum of California (KAFC). She is an activist for the “comfort women” movement, which seeks justice for the sexual war crimes carried out by the Japanese government in World War 2. Kim has led recent efforts to enact statues in the city and to adapt the California high school history curriculum to include conversation about this issue.
When did you join KAFC and become the executive director? Does the organization deal with any other issues besides comfort women?
I became involved in KAFC in 2007. I didn’t have this grand plan to stay in the movement for over ten years. It was just one campaign that got me interested, which was a campaign to pass House Resolution 121. This comfort women resolution urged the Japanese government to accept historical responsibility and issue an official apology to the victims, who are still waiting for justice. It was introduced by a third-generation Japanese American congressman, Mike Honda, so that was really inspiring. We invited one of the surviving grandmas from Korea for a month, and I was her interpreter as she met with politicians and talked to the media. I was deeply inspired by her courage. The courage of these grandmas is truly amazing. What pushes others who haven’t been directly affected to join the cause and fight alongside them? As a woman, just one incident of rape ruins your entire life in many cases. And these victims live in silence and internalize that pain, taking it to the grave. But collectively, these grandmas are so powerful. It started with just one grandma, Hak Sun Kim, who broke the silence in 1991, but that inspired other victims, who also mustered up the courage to come out and speak up. And these grandmas collectively led the struggle in the past 30 years to demand an official apology, an acknowledgment, that the Japanese government committed a war crime. You’ve mentioned that you have directly worked with comfort women survivors from South Korea. Does KAFC work with comfort women organizations in other countries like China and the Philippines? Yes, but we focus on the U.S. because the main battlefield is the U.S. Miss Kim’s testimony really was a huge shock to the international community, and many more victims have spoken out, mostly from Korea. They started a Wednesday demonstration in front of the Japanese embassy, and they have been taking this issue to different international organizations like the United Nations and Amnesty International. However, the Japanese government refuses to take legal responsibility, only taking moral responsibility, which is not what the victims want. The victims want legal accountability from the government, not a half-hearted apology. I imagine there must be a lot of pushback from historical revisionists or those who oppose your cause. How do you deal with the hate? Since we have been out there from the very beginning, we have been very transparent and good at contacting media. That’s why these people do not contact us. Because they know that they will not intimidate me. Because they only do that to the people who will get intimidated by their threats. And if they know it’s not going to work, they’re not going to do it. And if they do, I’ll go the media right away and embarrass them. |
"And of course I identify myself with these grandmas who were born at the wrong time in the wrong place -- that was their only fault, being born! It could have been me. And not because I am Korean, but because I am a woman."
Have you ever had a conversation with someone about this issue and been able to change their mind?
Many people have these biases that mainly come from ignorance. If they have an open mind and actually listen to the stories of the grandmas, or if they watch a movie like The Apology, they will probably be strongly affected. I recently came back from Germany, where we had a screening of The Apology and a two hour Q&A session. One of the German guys, one of the members’ friends, was a little skeptical about our efforts to raise awareness about the comfort women issue in Germany. His position was that Germans apologized and compensated and recognized the victims. They knew what they did was wrong so even to this day Germany is repenting and building memorials and teaching about the Holocaust in their education system so history won’t repeat itself. He thinks that’s how it’s going to happen in Japan as well, so we should give them a chance for them to do this themselves; his logic is that if we demand an apology, it’s not going to happen. So he came and sat through this movie and two hour Q&A session, and his perspective completely changed. He realized that this is really important, and that we have to demand an apology because of all the denial that’s going on. Because of the tremendous effort and money the Japanese government is pouring into revising its history. In the face of that, how can you say such a naive thing that the Japanese government is going to come to its senses by itself? We have to put pressure on them. Glendale has a sizable Japanese American population. How did they react to your efforts and to the monument that was erected in the city? I’m really proud to say that Japanese Americans who actually experienced and worked for redressement for Japanese internment experiences are supportive of the comfort women issue. They came out really strong when the city of Glendale was sued by historical revisionists to remove the monument. And like I mentioned, it was a Japanese American congressman who introduced the comfort woman legislature. We were so sad we couldn’t get the chance to speak to you at the National College Leadership Conference in Pepperdine. If you had been able to attend, what message would you have imparted upon the students, particularly in terms of your definition of success? Instead of the idea of success, I really want to talk about the idea of leadership. I think we really need to think about leadership in terms of how good of a change you can make and how you contribute to the advancement of our society. That’s my definition of success and leadership because if you’re a good businessman and make a lot of money, that doesn’t equate to leadership. Good for you that you make a lot of money! But it doesn’t mean you’re a leader. The same goes for politicians. A lot of politicians say that they want to make good changes for society, but look at what they do. Look at what’s happening with immigration policy in the U.S. Look at what’s happening in the running water system in Flint, and with police brutality and Black Lives Matter. Look at what our leaders and politicians are doing to our society! And I think we really need to think about success and leadership not just in terms of how high up a position you obtain, but in terms of the good changes you bring into society. The reason why I devote myself to this movement is not just because I am Korean or because so many Korean women who were victimized, but because it’s such a universal problem. And of course I identify myself with these grandmas who were born at the wrong time in the wrong place -- that was their only fault, being born! It could have been me. And not because I am Korean, but because I am a woman. Women are going through the same things these days in so many different places around the world. I’m not fueled by some intense nationalistic vengeance. I think it’s really important for us to have that kind of perspective, to think deeply in terms of the universality of these issues. |