Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly

[Age 15. Abused by thousands of soldiers – Based on a True Story]

A real truth about a 15-year-old 'comfort woman'

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This beautiful and sad story is about a 15-year-old girl who was forced into sex slavery by the Japanese Army during the World War II.

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1) Why we started this project.

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Can you believe it is true?

In the world, there are many uncomfortable truths. Truths that are covered up and hidden in hopes that they will fade and be forgotten. Wherever we go, everybody avoids talking about this reality. Whenever the topic is brought up, people become uneasy and uncomfortable. As a result, lies are told and false histories are taught to future generations. No matter how uncomfortable and embarrassing the past is, we must remember it and learn from past mistakes so that history never repeats itself.

In this story we see an example of an uncomfortable truth. A young girl, at the blossoming age of 15, was forced into sex slavery by the Japanese Army. Her life was disrupted and she found herself deserted merely because she was born at a time when Chosun (Korea) was a weak country. Through no fault of her own the girl was born in the wrong era and the wrong country, and her fate was miserable. The girl lived her life in seclusion, receiving only piercing glares from those around her. And this is only one case - tens of thousands of gray-haired women still haven't received any consolation or compensation, after having lived in pain for their entire lives. These women are still suffering and protesting, “We do not ask for money, we want an apology! A sincere apology!” The apology came years years later after most those women passed away.

2) Why we should start now.

Now is the time for the world to face this uncomfortable truth. We cannot wait any longer, and no one can bear this burden alone. Now is the time to take action. This distorted and hidden truth must be corrected so that the departed souls of the past, and the surviving women in this world, can find consolation. This is not only these women’s responsibilities. This is my responsibility, our duty, and that of future generations.

Please do not hesitate to join us so that we can help to offer solace to those who suffered, and for the sake of our own dignity. Even a small contribution will help bring peace to their souls, and will further the interests of truth and justice. Your donation will be used to publish a novel, ‘Flutter Flutter Butterfly,’ that is based on a real-world setting in the United States. From this, we will be able to raise awareness of this uncomfortable truth and correct distorted historical narratives. Please help, join us in order to protect our history and reveal the truth. Help wipe away the tears from the faces of the remaining survivors, before it is too late. Please help so that falsified histories do not remain in history books as if they were truthful facts.

3) About a book 'Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly'

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cover page

<Plot>

The main character, Soonboon, was a 15 year old girl who dreamed of meeting a kind husband, having children, and living happily ever after. one spring day when virgin birth rumors were common, Soonboon was met by a butterfly while bringing snacks to her parents who were working in the fields. Worried that their daughter might be taken away, her parents hid her all day in a haystack. However, she was discovered and dragged away by a Japanese soldier when she came out from the haystack in order to chase a butterfly.

Soonboon was sent to a police station and then put on a train and then a ship, both for the first time in her life. There she met Kumok, Bongnyu, and many other young girls who were in a similar position. None of them knew where they were being taken. While they were being transported to the comfort station the young girls witnessed Japanese soldiers using swords to kill young girls, drowning others in the sea, and taking girls away to commit sex crimes.

The girls only found out where they were being taken when they arrived at the comfort station. There they were raped countless times by numerous men every night. Whenever Soonboon was humiliated by soldiers, she met a white butterfly. She desperately wished that the butterfly she used to play with would take her back to her hometown, and she daydreamed about flying around the world. Butterflies were special to Soonboon as they were her only way to find some type of escape the hellish brothel.

When a girl conceived a child, her uterus was pulled out while she was awake and the child was taken out. When it was discovered that one girl had transmitted a syphilis to a soldier, her pubic area was burned with a steel rod so that her flesh peeled away. Some girls were given opium so they could forget their pains for a while.

Soonboon and Bongnyu attempted to escape, but unfortunately they were recaptured. In order to save Soonboon’s life, Bongnyu was forced to roll between a nail board filled with nails and an iron plate studded with nails. Her flesh was torn into pieces and she died. The other girls were given meat soup a few days later, not realizing that it was made with Bongnyu’s body.

Unable to forget the pain they were put through, some girls committed suicide. All girls had to take strong antibiotic drugs to prevent them from being infected with STDs, which shrunk their uteruses and made them sterile. They lived their lives day after day, knowing that they would never be able to bear children. Kumok died a gruesome death, committing suicide after becoming addicted to opium. By the war's end Soonboon was the only survivor.

Soonboon dearly wanted to go back to her hometown. She missed her parents, and dyeing her fingernails with the balsam flower petals that her father had planted under the fence. But she was a disgraced woman and a polluted body, and she could never go home again. Soonboon decided to float around the world with the butterfly and find a place where no one knew her. Until her final days on earth she would live like a flower petal in the spring breeze, floating around the world.

Do you really think the girls in the picture were well-paid prostitutes? We must ensure that the world will never forget the women and girls trafficked, raped, physically and emotionally abused, and imprisoned in an institutionalized system of sexual slavery by Imperial Japan.

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