if you’re ever in seoul keep an eye out for these little statues in honor of the women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the imperial japanese army (so-called “comfort women”). there are like 40 of them all over the city.
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i’ve wondered that too! the bulk of the statues of peace were designed by a korean sculptor couple (kim seo-kyung and kim eun-song) so this is very consistent. my guess is it’s to convey vulnerability but im not sure.
I can't recall where I heard/learned this, but I think it's because comfort women were often banned from wearing shoes, as a way of preventing them from running away...
i could totally see that (or also as a way of avoiding giving them something to whack the soldiers over the head with) a lot of them were just kept in pits so they were not like, out and about
bc imperial japan created comfort women stations in multiple countries incl china, the philippines, burma, taiwan, indonesia, these statues are all over the world. a statue in shanghai depicts a chinese girl seated next to a korean girl.
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Starting to think articles should have citations like academic papers.
details here: https://international.ucla.edu/cks/care/us_allieddocs/250933
https://youtu.be/t7SvtikTkrM?si=UxO91l43Y29tKw1_