Decades on, a painful chapter of wartime history is surfacing again in the Republic of Korea.
A photo exhibition is keeping alive the memories of 13 ROK women who endured Japanese sexual slavery far away from their homeland.
These women were forcibly taken to China by Japanese troops during WWII. They were victims of Japan's military "comfort woman" system, where women were forced into sexual slavery during the war.
But what happened to them after the war?
Many of them never returned home. They faced poverty, illness and isolation while trying to rebuild their lives.
This exhibition brings their individual stories back into focus, through photographs, videos, documents and personal belongings.
"We all know the term 'comfort women' and the history of Japan's military sexual slavery, but we don't really know much about the individual lives and dignity of the women who suffered. They could have been our neighbors, our older sisters, or our mothers. We put this exhibition together to remember their lives, with the hope that something like this will never happen again," said Ahn Se-Hong, whose photographs are on display at the exhibition.
Behind the words "comfort women" were real people, with names, families, memories and lives of their own. And these exhibits are stories that refuse to be forgotten.
"My hope is that future generations who have never experienced war will find a way to prevent the wars we continue to see around the world from causing suffering to women and other vulnerable people, and that they will find a path toward peace," said Ahn.
Exhibition preserves stories of ROK "comfort women" during WWII
