On May 11, 2025, at 7:07 PM, the Late Lee Ok-seon passed away.
Lee Ok-seon was born in 1927 in Busan. She was the second of six siblings. From a young age, she had a strong desire to study. Starting at seven, she begged her parents to let her go to school. However, due to the family’s financial difficulties, she could not study and instead had to take care of household chores and look after her younger siblings. Until age fifteen, she constantly pleaded and cried, asking to be allowed to study. When she turned fifteen, she was told she could eat well and go to school, so she was sent to a household in Busan as an adopted daughter. However, the family made her do various chores instead of sending her to school.
One evening, as it was getting dark, suddenly, two strange men appeared and forcibly dragged her away. When she asked where they were taking her, they told her to stop talking and just come with them. They took her to Ulsan Station and left her there. There were a few other young girls at the station as well. Fifteen girls were forced onto a train with no windows and taken somewhere. After about two days, they arrived in Tumen, China. It was July 1942.
She was taken by train from Tumen Station to an airfield in Yanji, where a Japanese military air unit was stationed. There, she was subjected to sexual slavery by the Japanese military. She even tried to plan an escape, but there were soldiers everywhere, and she had no freedom to move, so escaping was impossible. In the spring of 1943, she was mobilized to a comfort station near Yanji, where she was forced to continue living as a sex slave.
In 1945, shortly before Korea’s liberation, there were heavy bombings. Unaware that the country had been liberated, she stayed there for a few days. Then, a Korean-Chinese farmer passing by told her that liberation had come. She made her way to downtown Yanji, but with nothing to eat, she had to survive by begging for food.
She lived in China for many years but could not return to her homeland. It wasn’t until June 2000 that she permanently returned to South Korea. She said, “When I came to Korea briefly in 1996 to look for my family in my hometown, my husband cried and held on to me for days, afraid I might leave for good. That’s why, even though I missed my hometown terribly, I couldn’t return. But now, he has passed away, and I don’t have much time left either. I wanted to spend the rest of my days in the homeland I had longed for, even in my dreams, for half my life.”
In 2001, Grandmother Lee Ok-seon was officially registered by the South Korean government as a Japanese military “comfort woman” victim. She actively participated in resolving the issue, including Wednesday Demonstrations and overseas testimonies.
She was one of the plaintiffs who won a damages lawsuit against the Japanese government in 2021, and she also served as the model for the Statue of Peace in Nam-gu, Gwangju. Even when her health declined and she was bedridden, she often expressed her wish to attend the Wednesday Demonstrations.
However, she was never able to return to the protests. Just days before the 1,700th Wednesday Demonstration, she passed away. Despite her tireless advocacy, she never received the Japanese government's official apology or legal reparations that she passionately demanded.
Halmoni, may you now rest peacefully in a place free from pain.
On May 11, 2025, at 7:07 PM, the Late Lee Ok-seon passed away.
Lee Ok-seon was born in 1927 in Busan. She was the second of six siblings. From a young age, she had a strong desire to study. Starting at seven, she begged her parents to let her go to school. However, due to the family’s financial difficulties, she could not study and instead had to take care of household chores and look after her younger siblings. Until age fifteen, she constantly pleaded and cried, asking to be allowed to study. When she turned fifteen, she was told she could eat well and go to school, so she was sent to a household in Busan as an adopted daughter. However, the family made her do various chores instead of sending her to school.
One evening, as it was getting dark, suddenly, two strange men appeared and forcibly dragged her away. When she asked where they were taking her, they told her to stop talking and just come with them. They took her to Ulsan Station and left her there. There were a few other young girls at the station as well. Fifteen girls were forced onto a train with no windows and taken somewhere. After about two days, they arrived in Tumen, China. It was July 1942.
She was taken by train from Tumen Station to an airfield in Yanji, where a Japanese military air unit was stationed. There, she was subjected to sexual slavery by the Japanese military. She even tried to plan an escape, but there were soldiers everywhere, and she had no freedom to move, so escaping was impossible. In the spring of 1943, she was mobilized to a comfort station near Yanji, where she was forced to continue living as a sex slave.
In 1945, shortly before Korea’s liberation, there were heavy bombings. Unaware that the country had been liberated, she stayed there for a few days. Then, a Korean-Chinese farmer passing by told her that liberation had come. She made her way to downtown Yanji, but with nothing to eat, she had to survive by begging for food.
She lived in China for many years but could not return to her homeland. It wasn’t until June 2000 that she permanently returned to South Korea. She said, “When I came to Korea briefly in 1996 to look for my family in my hometown, my husband cried and held on to me for days, afraid I might leave for good. That’s why, even though I missed my hometown terribly, I couldn’t return. But now, he has passed away, and I don’t have much time left either. I wanted to spend the rest of my days in the homeland I had longed for, even in my dreams, for half my life.”
In 2001, Grandmother Lee Ok-seon was officially registered by the South Korean government as a Japanese military “comfort woman” victim. She actively participated in resolving the issue, including Wednesday Demonstrations and overseas testimonies.
She was one of the plaintiffs who won a damages lawsuit against the Japanese government in 2021, and she also served as the model for the Statue of Peace in Nam-gu, Gwangju. Even when her health declined and she was bedridden, she often expressed her wish to attend the Wednesday Demonstrations.
However, she was never able to return to the protests. Just days before the 1,700th Wednesday Demonstration, she passed away. Despite her tireless advocacy, she never received the Japanese government's official apology or legal reparations that she passionately demanded.
Halmoni, may you now rest peacefully in a place free from pain.