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Gil Won-ok, Victim of Wartime Sex Slavery Who Fought for Japan's Apology, Dies at 96
Gil Won-ok, Victim of Wartime Sex Slavery Who Fought for Japan’s Apology, Dies at 96
She led a tireless campaign for a formal apology and reparations from Japan for what it did to thousands of women like her — mostly Korean — during World War II.
Gil Won-ok, a Korean woman who was forced to work as a sex slave for Japanese soldiers during World War II, protested in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in 2012. Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Choe Sang-Hun
Reporting from Seoul
Feb. 18, 2025, 5:23 a.m. ET
Gil Won-ok, one of the last survivors of sexual slavery in brothels for Japan’s World War II troops, who campaigned to bring international attention to the suffering of thousands of women like her, died this week at her home. She was 96. ... Ms. Gil’s death at her home in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Sunday was confirmed by the South Korean government. The cause of her death was not revealed. Officials said that in her last years, Ms. Gil had suffered Alzheimer’s and a host of other ailments often associated with old age.
To her final days, Ms. Gil had fiercely criticized Japan, accusing the government of refusing to take legal responsibility for sexual slavery and offer compensation to the victims, euphemistically known as “comfort women.” She died with her tireless demand unmet, but she had said that the campaign for justice would continue after her death.
Despite the stigma, around 240 South Korean women came forward to report their painful past as comfort women since their government began accepting registration in the early 1990s. Now, only seven of them — with an average age of 95 — are still alive.
“They are wrong if they think it will be over when the last of us die,” Ms. Gil said in 2013. “There will be our descendants continuing to campaign as long as it takes to get the apology we deserve. It will not be over with our death.”
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Gil Won-ok standing alongside a fellow activist, Kim Bok-Dong, in 2016, next to a statue commemorating comfort women in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Woohae Cho/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
{snip}
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun
She led a tireless campaign for a formal apology and reparations from Japan for what it did to thousands of women like her — mostly Korean — during World War II.
Gil Won-ok, a Korean woman who was forced to work as a sex slave for Japanese soldiers during World War II, protested in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in 2012. Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Choe Sang-Hun
Reporting from Seoul
Feb. 18, 2025, 5:23 a.m. ET
Gil Won-ok, one of the last survivors of sexual slavery in brothels for Japan’s World War II troops, who campaigned to bring international attention to the suffering of thousands of women like her, died this week at her home. She was 96. ... Ms. Gil’s death at her home in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Sunday was confirmed by the South Korean government. The cause of her death was not revealed. Officials said that in her last years, Ms. Gil had suffered Alzheimer’s and a host of other ailments often associated with old age.
To her final days, Ms. Gil had fiercely criticized Japan, accusing the government of refusing to take legal responsibility for sexual slavery and offer compensation to the victims, euphemistically known as “comfort women.” She died with her tireless demand unmet, but she had said that the campaign for justice would continue after her death.
Despite the stigma, around 240 South Korean women came forward to report their painful past as comfort women since their government began accepting registration in the early 1990s. Now, only seven of them — with an average age of 95 — are still alive.
“They are wrong if they think it will be over when the last of us die,” Ms. Gil said in 2013. “There will be our descendants continuing to campaign as long as it takes to get the apology we deserve. It will not be over with our death.”
{snip}
Gil Won-ok standing alongside a fellow activist, Kim Bok-Dong, in 2016, next to a statue commemorating comfort women in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Woohae Cho/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
{snip}
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun