Almost five years ago, she called asking to speak to my father.  She knew her son was sick, but we had kept from her that he had been diagnosed with late stage liver cancer and that he had taken his last painful breath just a few days before her phone call.  We were afraid the news would be too traumatizing in her old age.   

“Please let me speak to him…”

“I’m sorry grandma.  He’s not feeling well.  He’s sleeping.  You can’t talk to him right now.”

“Is he gone?  Please don’t lie to me anymore.  I saw him in my dream last night.  He was dressed in white, and he told me he had to say goodbye.”

All I could do was weep silently and tell her I was sorry. 

I was the last one in my family to see her before she passed away.  While staffed on a case in New York, I acted on an impulse to drop by Queens during a 2-hr break before my next meeting.  She wept when she saw me and wouldn’t let go of my hands.  A bag protruded out of her abdomen after a previous surgery left her body unable to handle waste on its own.  When had she become so old, so fragile? She just held on to me.  “I didn’t think I was going to get to see you again before I died.”  We spent the precious hour sharing stories about my dad and making dumplings together.  She insisted she cook me some, and she chuckled when I told her they were the best I’d ever had.

I decided to come back after work that night to spend more time with her.  It was late, almost midnight and way past her usual bedtime, but she was waiting up for me.  She insisted I sleep on her bed, and we stayed up talking and praying together.  When morning came, I asked her for a prize zucchini from her garden to take back home with me.  We both wept as I left for the airport.  I promised her I’d come visit again.

She passed away today at 1:30pm. I was in a client meeting all day, so I didn’t get the voicemail until after 4pm.  I can't say how thankful I am for the precious time I had with her last fall.  Grandma, I’m going to miss you, but I hope you are finally enjoying a joyous reunion with your son.  I hope you’ll give him an extra hug and kiss for me too...

And some said that Japan had already apologized enough...

Abe not sorry on comfort women

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not apologise for the sexual enslavement of captive women in World War II even if the US Congress demands it.

All you have to do is copy and paste

Comfort Women Update:  Congressional hearings take place in two days.  PLEASE, take a few minutes to copy and paste the letter below (from www.support121.org) and mail it to your congressional rep.   Check out the same website under "Resources" to find contact information for your state's reps. 

NAME

STREET ADDRESS

CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE

The Honorable (INSERT NAME)
U.S. House of Representatives

(INSERT BUILDING ADDRESS)

Washington, DC 20515

Re:       Supporting H.Res.121

Dear Congressman (INSERT NAME):

As your constituent and as a member of the Korean American community, I am writing to you today to strongly urge your support for H.Res.121, legislation introduced by your colleague, Representative Michael Honda (along with Reps. Christopher Smith, Edward Royce, Diane Watson, David Wu, Phil Hare and Madeleine Bordallo) that calls on Japan to acknowledge and accept responsibility for forcing women and girls into sexual slavery during the World War II era.

The South Korean people were among the first victims of Japanese imperialism and aggression, but the Japanese use of young South Korean women and little girls as sex slaves known as “comfort women” was among the most horrific degradations imaginable.

Sadly, despite decades of democratic rule and engagement with the United States and other countries that have condemned human trafficking of the past and of today, the Japanese government refuses to apologize to the world for its role in this atrocity.  In fact, it will not even acknowledge Japan’s responsibility for the suffering of South Korean women and girls forced into prostitution.

Let me note, too, that South Korea was not the only country in which Japanese officials abused young women in this way. “Comfort women” were recruited in countries throughout Asia and the Pacific as Japanese troops advanced through conquest in the 1930s and 1940s. Only by the American-led Allied victory in 1945, which brought an end to Japan’s colonialism, ended the suffering and humiliation of these unfortunate women.

H.Res.121 sends a strong and important signal to Japan, a friend and ally of the United States, that American leaders are not satisfied with the silence of the Japanese government on this human rights issue.

I request that you add your name to the growing list of co-sponsors to H.Res.121 and urge you to vote for it when it comes to the House Floor.

Thank you for your support on this important human rights issue.

Comfort Women: Take Action!

Until last year, I had no idea about the thousands of young Korean girls who had been kidnapped, raped, dehumanized and murdered during Japanese colonization.  Now I have no excuse for not doing my part to bring justice to the few surviving Comfort Women.  After you read the following message from Adrian Hong, founder and Executive Director of LiNK (Liberty in North Korea), you won't have an excuse either.  Please do your part.  Pick up the phone and call your Congressional leaders or fax in a letter (print out a pre-written letter from www.justiceforcomfortwomen.org).

UPDATE: A Congressional hearing on this subject has been scheduled for February 15, 2007!

Friends,
The brutal colonization of the Korean peninsula by Imperial Japan is common knowledge to many of us, but lesser known is the plight of the "comfort women" caught up in Japan's aggressive military expansion in the first half of the 20th century. Over 200,000 girls and young women, predominately from Korea but also from the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, were forced into bonded sexual slavery. Many of the girls were tricked into thinking they were signing up to work in a factory or as a house servant, and others were kidnapped. According to testimony, a "comfort woman" could expect to be raped up to forty times a day, often resulting in serious physical injury, as well as numerous STDs. Women were divided into categories depending on "freshness"; virgins, the top category, were given to officers for first rape, and as time passed women were downgraded gradually in category, until they were ultimately abandoned, oftentimes far away from their homes. Many women reported having their uterus rot from diseases and many others became barren and unable to give birth.

I have met many of these old women personally. One of them showed me the scars on her belly where they had to remove her uterus. They look, talk and have all the mannerisms of my grandmothers- but their childhood and teenage years were wrought with some of the most horrible suffering known in this past century, without exaggeration. After the war ended, many of these women managed to make it back to their families, and sometimes, to their husbands. Some were abandoned, seen as causing "dishonor" to their families. Others were never able to bring up the terrible things that they went through, for fear of being left to live and die alone. Some of these women now reside in the "House of Sharing", a private home for these women in Korea [ see http://www.nanum.org/eng/ for more information ].

These elderly women have held protests at Japanese embassies worldwide with a persistent and perseverance that puts those of us younger folks to shame. For decades their claims and cries were ignored by governments- including that of the Republic of Korea for a time, and many activists and organizations have toiled for years to bring this issue to the forefront.

Now, we may be able to change all of that, and give these women the respect and recognition they deserve.
Last week, here in Washington, D.C., Representative Mike Honda (D-CA) introduced what is now House Resolution 121, which expresses the sense of the House of Representatives of the United States that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge and accept responsibility for it's sexual enslavement of "comfort women" during it's occupation of Asia in the first half of the 20th century. The majority of the 200,000 victims were Korean girls and women, many of them in their teens.

The resolution is sponsored so far by Representatives Edward R. Royce (CA-40), Christopher H. Smith (NJ-4), Diane E. Watson (CA-33), David Wu (OR-1), Phil Hare (IL-17), and Delegate Madaleine Bordallo (GU). Previous similar efforts were blocked successfully by powerful lobbyists for the Japanese government and those who believe that such a resolution would damage relations with Tokyo.

We failed during the last Congress in getting this bill passed. A combination of strong pressure from lobbyists for the Japanese government and an unwillingness by House leaders to bring the bill to a vote prevented it from passing. However, this time many factors have changed. We can win. We will win.

Time is running out, in a very real sense- the few remaining comfort women in this world are in their 70s, 80s and 90s. Thousands of them have perished without any formal recognition of their plight- and have had to live with being slandered as prostitutes and willing partners in the vicious exploitation they fell victim to.

Simply put, they are dying. It is now or never. These women must have their dignity protected and their memories honored. We must send a message to the world that rape is never to be tolerated, and institutionalized or organized rape is absolutely unacceptable. This is as much a message to today's violators as those of history.

Next week we will see the first ever hearing on the issue of Comfort Women in the history of the United States Congress. I believe we can pass this resolution this time around.

WHAT TO DO:

• Forward www.justiceforcomfortwomen.org and/or this email to all of your friends and family, as well as to any listservs you're aware of. Post it on blogs and web boards. Get the word out!
• Call, email, write and fax [ all of the above! ] your local representative, and ask them to vote yes on this bill, and to urge House leadership to bring the resolution to vote on the House Floor. If you don't know who your representative is, go to http://www.house.gov.
• Contact the offices of both Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and ask them to make sure this resolution (House Resolution 121) is brought to the House Floor for a full vote. If it does not get to a vote, it doesn't matter how many congressmen are in support- it will die when Congress leaves session, and with it any hopes of justice for these people. All you have to say on the phone is, "Hi, I'm calling because I'd like to make sure ______ can bring House Resolution 121 to a vote this session- the resolution on Comfort Women." or something to that effect.

Chairman Tom Lantos
2170 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-5021, fax 202-225-2035
Please take just a moment of your day to do something great by doing something little for these women. Call in RIGHT NOW. Send an email. Send a fax. AND write a letter. Why not? If you would like more information, you can reach us at info@justiceforcomfortwomen.org.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thank you for your help.

Adrian Hong

What inspires me enough to come out of my 3 month hiatus from Xanga?

Victory is so sweet.....  GO TARHEELS!!!!!!!!!  WOO HOO!