This week, women gathered in downtown Chicago to advocate for justice for one of the darkest and least talked about legacies of World War II, the forced slavery of “comfort women.”
“Their stories are often forgotten, and when acknowledged, either discredited or thrown aside. The trauma that they faced is still alive and well, often passing intergenerationally as a remnant of horrible Japanese colonization and imperialism,” Twitter/X user @petaIsbough wrote in a 2021 thread explaining the experiences of “comfort women,” as the grandchild of one of the 200,000 girls and women were forced into “serving” Japanese soldiers during the war.
Many were lured by false promises of better job opportunities while others were abducted, most of the girls were Korean, while others were of Taiwanese, Chinese, Filipino or other Asian descent. According to researchers at Vassar College and Shanghai Normal University, they were forced to perform sex acts with up to five to 60 men per day.
“Each of us had to serve an average of 30 to 40 men each day, and we often had no time to sleep,” survivor Kim Tokchin recounted in the1995 True Histories of the Korean Comfort Women book. “Quite a few would rush straight to penetration without condoms, saying they couldn’t care less if they caught any diseases since they were likely to die on the battlefield at any moment. “
According to the Asian Women’s Fund, only 25% of “comfort women” survived the war. Those who did continued to face harsh conditions at home.
“Survivors who had come back to their home country were ostracized, they were victim-blamed, and were not accepted into the community,” said Ji-Hye Kim, executive director of Kan-Win, an organization focused on eradicating gender-based violence in Asian communities.
Because of the stigma, many survivors kept silent on the horrors they endured.
“In my family history, I don’t know [if any relatives were “comfort women”]. A lot of victims and survivors who came back home did not talk about it,” Kim said.
A 2016 documentary “The Apology,” highlights the stories of three survivors, two of which did not share their stories with their families.
“But there is a cost,” director Tiffany Hsiung told New Wave Zine in 2019. “The next generation would not know there if we refuse to tell them the truth.”
These family secrets may have harrowing effects on the children and grandchildren of the women who keep them. While the atrocities of WWII may seem like distant history, the trauma inflicted on these women continues to ripple through generations, impacting families across the United States and beyond.
A demand for justice
This week marked the 12th annual Global Day of Action for “comfort women” survivors, with advocates, descendents, and allies demanding acknowledgement by the Japanese government, and serving as a reminder that both their trauma and resilience continue on.
In 2019, Korean researchers studied the impact of trauma on the offspring of “comfort women” for the first time ever. They found that 5 of 6 participants experienced at least one psychiatric disorder, including depression, PTSD, insomnia, and alcohol use disorder. Descendents also faced similar symptoms of shame when discussing the issue.
“Although the participants had not been traumatized themselves, they showed symptoms of hyper-vigilance including increased irritability and problems with aggression control, resembling their mothers,” researchers wrote.
Dr. Natasha P. Trujillo, author of “And She Was Never The Same Again”, who specializes in grief, trauma, eating disorders, and performance psychology, says that generational trauma can trickle down from one individual to another, impacting more than just the initiative survivor.
“It can be made worse when those initially impacted aren’t able to seek help [or] find resources to move through their trauma in adaptive ways, which can then foster maladaptive cycles that lead to the generational effects,” she said.
In the U.S., organizations like KAN-WIN are working to provide resources and advocacy for survivors and their descendants, pushing for recognition, education, and reparations.
“The Japanese government never admitted officially that they did this,” said Kim. “It’s just a reflection also of current day sexual violence, where there’s survivors are facing so much backlash when they speak out, and a lot of times it’s victim blaming and there’s no accountability.”
How trauma impacts our offspring
While there isn’t an abundance of research specifically focusing on the experiences of children and grandchildren of individuals who were sexually abused or raped, several studies and resources shed light on the potential impacts:
- Intergenerational Trauma: Generational trauma, or intergenerational trauma, refers to this inherited trauma which can stem from cultural or economic events like racism and war, to personal experiences such as mental or physical abuse, leading to health conditions like anxiety, depression, heart disease, and PTSD. It has been observed in the descendents of survivors of long periods of oppression like slavery and the Holocaust, and can last through generations for hundreds of years, Sophie Cress, LMFT & Certified Gottman Therapist told Reckon in April.
- Secondary Trauma: Some studies suggest that children and grandchildren of survivors may experience what is called “secondary trauma” or “vicarious trauma,” experiencing trauma through the knowledge of an event, rather than experiencing it oneself, according to child welfare consultant Dr. Connie K. Hayek. This occurs when individuals are exposed to the trauma of others through stories, behaviors, or emotional responses, leading to similar symptoms as those experienced by the primary survivor.
- Epigenetics: Emerging research in the field of epigenetics suggests that trauma can leave a mark on a person’s genes, potentially influencing the gene expression of their offspring. In other words, we may inherit trauma, according to neuroepigentic researchers. This could explain why some descendants of trauma survivors may experience heightened vulnerability to certain mental health conditions. add line spacing
- Family Dynamics: Divorce coach Kate Anthony, who specializes in navigating separation and abusive relationships, told Reckon generational trauma can impact both our DNA and how we treat the people around us.
- “The trauma impacts the way we function in relationships, so a parent who suffers trauma will parent with that infusing their day-to-day actions, interrupting healthy attachment with their children or having shorter tempers,” she said.
- Studies have shown that the trauma of sexual abuse and rape can significantly impact family dynamics. This can lead to communication difficulties, emotional distance, and unhealthy coping mechanisms within the family unit. According to Children growing up in such environments may struggle with feelings of insecurity, shame, and a lack of trust.
- Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth: While the potential negative impacts are significant, it’s important to note that many descendants of trauma survivors also demonstrate remarkable resilience and post-traumatic growth, including the “comfort woman” and activist Kim Hak-Soon, who was the first to publicly share her story. They may develop a heightened sense of empathy, social justice advocacy, and a strong desire to break the cycle of trauma for future generations.
Moving past sexual trauma and Asian stereotypes
For many descendants, the path towards healing begins with breaking the silence. By sharing their stories and connecting with others, they are not only honoring their ancestors’ suffering but also reclaiming their family history.
According to Indiana University Health, identifying and treating trauma is key to preventing further generations from being impacted.
“[Adverse childhood experiences] tend to be passed down as if they were genetic, but it’s a culture that’s passed down from generation to generation within families,” IU Health psychiatrist R. Andrew Chambers, MD told Thrive.”If you have adequate mental health and addiction care delivered to the adult population—especially those who are having children and raising them—that is the best possible way to disrupt it.”
Trujillo argues that we don’t necessarily heal trauma, but integrate it into our lives.
“We don’t move on from significant trauma or loss, but we do figure out how to move forward. We are forever changed, and that is OK, but we don’t want to send the message that you heal and return to the former version of yourself. That sets people up to fail,” she said.
She also said having awareness of how traumatic events have impacted us or those around us, that helps to break cycles.
“When we understand the history of ourselves and those that have been impactful on our journey, we are able to make sense of things and integrate those experiences into our lives more fully. This allows for a more comprehensive view/understanding of why we are the way that we are and why our loved ones are the way that they are.
In Asian communities cultural taboos surrounding sexual violence prevent many from aknowledging the experience of “comfort women” and other survivors, further perpetuating the cycles of harm in in their own communities and beyond.
“Current day, even in America, conviction rates or even arrest rates for sexual violence perpetrators extremely low. So it’s the perpetration of these violence and lack of accountability that normalizes rape culture, and especially for Asian women,” said Kim.
Asian women continue to face racial and sexual-based harassment in the U.S. According to RISE, women experienced 60% of all hate crimes reported to Stop AAPI Hate from 2020 to 2022. A March 2022 National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum report also fund that 74% of AAPI women experienced discrimination that year, and 38% reported experiencing sexual harassment.
Kim told Reckon that this issue is often depicted as a nationalist Japan versus Korea issue, but the reality is much darker.
“Some scholars argue that if Chinese survivors were ever counted, then the standard 200,000 victims would increase to 400,000 victims. They’re victims and survivors in the Philippines, They’re victims and survivors who are in Dutch India and all these different territories that have been impacted,” she said. “It’s just trying to take the attention away from survivor stories and what they went through.”
The journey towards healing is long and arduous, but for descendants of ‘comfort women,’ it is a journey filled with hope, resilience, and the unwavering pursuit of justice. Their stories are a testament to the enduring power of family, memory, and the human spirit’s ability to overcome even the darkest of chapters.
