Women's Human Rights Museum & Halmoni's Weekly Protest

Last Wednesday, May 16th, our group was suppose to attend the weekly protest for the Halmonis, the "comfort women" during the Japanese invasion. We were not able to make the protest on time and ended up not attending at all. Then it was yesterday, May 22nd, that our group had a museum tour at the Women's Human Rights Museum in Hongdae which had just opened earlier in May. I was not sure what to expect during our time at the museum but since we needed a translator to help with translating the Korean words into English for our group, since there are not English subtitles yet, I had many thoughts about how the tour might be like during our visit. I thought that the tour may be boring and hard to understand, including the fact that translation may be even hard to find literal meanings to translate into English.

I would like to say that my previous thoughts to the museum tour of the Women's Human RIghts Museum were not  what I experienced. I was surprised to find out how hidden the museum had been and how small it was compared to other museums. There was a lot of information for such a small building; this information was not useless, it was all helpful in understanding the "comfort women" in Korea and all over the world. Before going on the museum tour I hardly knew about the situation of these "comfort women" but after experiencing the tour I feel as though I have a way better understanding of the topic. 

I am very glad that our group was not able to attend the weekly protest on May 16th before going to the Women's Human Rights Museum. The museum tour helped me understand what these situations are like from the past and to today as well and understand what the women are feeling. After attending the weekly protest I cannot believe how much this issue impacts me. The halmonis have been waiting many, many years to just receive a verbal apology from the Japanese government. These women have been offered money and other things in order for hte Japanese government to show their apology, yet all these women would love before their time in this world has gone is to receive a sincere, verbal apology.