QCC Hosts Comfort Women Survivors' Summit

It's been over 66 years since the Japanese surrendered to the Allied forces aboard the USS Missouri.

But, the Comfort Women Survivors—a group of female captives who were forced into sexual slavery during World War II by the Imperial Japanese Army—have yet to receive an official apology from the Japanese government.

So on Tuesday night, the Kupferberg Holocaust Center at along with the Korean American Voters' Council hosted an international summit of Comfort Women and Holocaust Survivors, who demanded justice for the victims of these now infamous Japanese military-operated brothels.

"I don't remember exactly when I was taken. But it was in July of 1942," said World War II comfort station survivor Ok-Sean Yi at Tuesday's forum on Japanese war crimes.

Addressing, each struggling to make sense of the intolerable cruelty that these comfort station captives endured during the war, Yi relived the horrors of her time spent in organized enslavement.

"I had no idea what a . I was so young at the time that I didn't even know what was to happen when a woman got married. But the place they [the Japanese] called a comfort station was such a scary place, indeed, no place for a child," Yi said.

It was at a comfort station in China that Yi said she and several other Korean girls, ranging in age from 11 to 14 years old, were forced to engage in horribly violent sexual acts with Japanese soldiers, who brutalized and raped them.

She vividely recalled the horrific acts perpetrated by the Imperial soldiers, describing gut wrenching torments and torture.

"They [the Japanese] would beat us, stab us in our private areas with knives, and slash our clothes if we did not obey their orders," she said.

Still, despite Yi's testimony, and similar accounts of torture from the 68 other remaining Comfort Station survivors, the Japanese government continues to deny that their soldiers took part in the systematic kidnapping and rape of Korean women during the war.

"But I was there," Yi insisted. "And I saw many other Korean girls there as well," she added.

According to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 200,000 Asian women, most of which were barely in their teens, were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

Even so, the Japanese government refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing during the war, which is drawing some stern criticism from several Queens Politicians.

"It's unusual for an elected official to be at a loss for words, but clearly what do you say?" said state Senator Tony Avella, D-Bayside.

Avella was joined in his dismay by both state Assemblyman Ed Braunstein, D-Bayside, and city Councilmember Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone.

All three political leaders called on the Japanese government to accept responsibility for the war crimes they committed during World War II.

"Tonight's not about blame. It's about recognition and moving forward," Braunstein said.

"The Japanese government must acknowledge that these Comfort Women stations existed, if the victims are ever to find the closure they need," Halloran added.

December 14, 2011, the Comfort Women Survivors group will host its weekly protest outside of Japanese Embassies around the world, hoping one day, Japan will finally recognize the tortures these Companion Women suffered during World War II.

Wednesday's rally will mark the Comfort Woman Survivor's 1000th protest since January of 1992—their struggle for justice remains among the longest unanswered protest in recent world history.