Young Yoon
Fair Lawn High School, Fair Lawn, New Jersey
2007 China Study Tour Participant
The first major educational part of
our trip was the meeting with the comfort woman at Shanghai Normal
University. When Lin Yajin started speaking and telling us her tragic story,
I could not help but to absorb every word. Her account of the multiple times
she was raped made me feel as though I was violated as well. My heart really
went out to her when she told us that she was not forced to stay with the
Japanese officers, but rather she was allowed to go home but had to return
the next day only to be tortured again. I could only think of what it must
have felt like for her as a young girl returning to what must have seemed
like hell. How scared she must have been, how many times she contemplated
turning around, what would happen to her family if she did? It is impossible
to imagine what it was like for her.
Another event during the China Study Tour was the
conference in Shanghai with the Japanese lawyers. Sitting in on this
conference drove home the feeling that we were making history. Throughout
the trip there was an underlining feeling of anti-Japanese sentiment, but
when we reached the conference and met with the Japanese lawyers, I came to
the realization that not all of the Japanese people are to be blamed. There
were people in Japan trying to make a difference and help the cause of the
Chinese victims.
This trip will be one of the most memorable occasions
of my life.