La mitad invisible - Fauna, de Joan Fontcuberta

Chang-Jin Lee (Korea/Estados Unidos): Comfort
Women Wanted, video instalación multicanal, 2011 

COMFORT WOMEN WANTED brings to light the memory of 200,000 young women, referred to as "comfort women," who were systematically exploited as sex slaves in Asia during World War II, and increases awareness of sexual violence against women during wartime.

This video is based on my interviews with Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Filipino, Dutch “comfort women” survivors, and a former Japanese soldier from W.W.II. The gathering of women to serve the Imperial Japanese Army was organized on an industrial scale not seen before in modern history. This project promotes awareness of these women, some of whom are still alive today, and brings to light a history which has been largely forgotten and denied.

The title, COMFORT WOMEN WANTED, is a reference to the actual text of advertisements which appeared in Asian newspapers during the war. When advertising failed, young women from Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Netherlands were kidnapped or deceived and forced into sexual slavery. Most were teenagers, some as young as 11 years old, and were raped by as many as fifty soldiers a day at military rape camps, known as "comfort stations." By some estimates only 30% survived the ordeal. The "Comfort Women System" is considered the largest case of human trafficking in the 20th century.