Listen in English - Korean Comfort Women

Directions

REVIEW the vocabulary.
LISTEN to the audio.
ANSWER the questions.
CHECK your answers (Show Answers)

Vocabulary

abduct [v] - steal someone, kidnap
a brothel [n] - a house where men can visit prostitutes
a comfort woman [n] - a woman or girl who was forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers between 1937 and 1945
critical [adj] - express negative comments
compensate [v] - give money for some loss or injury
adequately [adv] - enough
decades [n] - 10s of years, many years
campaigning [n] - work in an organized way toward a particular goal
enslave [v] -make into a slave
come out [phv] - reveal one's identity publically
an embassy [n] - a government office in a foreign country
detain [v] - keep or put in jail
in cahoots [exp] - work together
a village chief [n] - the leader of a village
conclude [v] - decide
a minister [n] - a government official
a gag clause [n] - a formal agreement not to talk about something
fora [n] - many forums
a forum [n] - a place or situation where ideas are expressed publically
incidents [n] - an event or happening
on the basis of [exp] - based on
a battering ram [n] - a tool to make something happen with force
a bludgeon [n] - a tool to make something happen with force
a dead duck [exp] - something that has no chance of success

[n] - noun, [v] - verb, [phv] - phrasal verb, [adj] - adjective, [exp] - expression

Questions

Who abducted Kim Bok Dong from her home?
The Korean military
The Japanese military
The Korean government
In what year was she abducted?
1914
1940
1944
How old was she when she was abducted?
4
14
40
In which countries was she forced to work in military brothels?
Japan
Malaysia
Taiwain
Indonesia
Singaore
China
Why did she become famous later in life?
She recently organized the first protest against Japan.
She was one of the first comfort women to escape.
She was one of the first comfort women to speak out publically.
Why was she critical of the Japanese government?
Japan denied abducting her.
Japan never offered a sincere apology.
Japan never compensated comfort women adequately for their suffering.
How old was she when she died?
19
90
93
What did Dr. Norma write a book about?
Comfort Women
Kim Bok Dong
Japanese military history
When did Kim Bok Dong register as a Comfort Woman survivor?
1949
1990
1992
Who helped the Japanese military official abduct Kim Bok Dong when she was a child?
The Korean president
The Korean military
Her village chief
What year was Kim Bok Dong born?
1925
1935
1945
What country did the Japanese military first send her to?
Japan
China
Taiwan
Who signed the agreement for $9 million in compensation for comfort women?
Kim Bok Dong
Park Geun Hye
Moon Jae-in
Who recently rejected this agreement?
The current Japanese Prime Minister
The previous Japanese Prime Minister
The current Korean President
The previous Korean president
Who negotiated and made the agreement?
Government officials from Korea
Government officials from Japan
Surviving Comfort Women
Organizations representing Comfort Women
Who did not participate in the negotiation of the agreement?
Government officials from Korea
Government officials from Japan
Surviving comfort women
Organizations representing comfort women
What was the main problem with the agreement?
It had a gag clause.
It didn't provide enough money.
It was unclear.
After the agreement was signed, what did the Japanese goverment complain about?
The agreement provided too much money.
Korean officials mentioned comfort women in public.
There were no surviving comfort women.
Who never (was given the chance to) accept or reject the agreement?
Comfort women
Moon Jae-in
Park Geun Hye

Script

Kim Bok Dong was abducted from her home in Korea by Japanese soldiers in 1940 when she was 14. She was sent to military brothels in Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. And in 1992, she became only the second so-called comfort woman to speak out about her horrific wartime experiences. And she was very critical of what she said was Japan's refusal to apologise sincerely to former sex slaves or to compensate them adequately for their suffering. Kim Bok Dong died yesterday at the age of 93 after decades of campaigning.

To find out more about her, Dan Damon spoke to Dr. Caroline Norma, an academic at RMIT University in Melbourne Australia who's written a book on the tens of thousands of former comfort women who were enslaved by the Japanese military.

Kim Bok Dong was and is a living hero. She came out registered as a survivor in South Korea very early on in 1992. And ever since she registered in January, every week she participated in, for example, the protest that's held outside of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. She did that after having experienced as a child, at age 14, being detained and taken away by a contracted Japanese civilian of the military in cahoots with her local village chief, which is not an unusual story.

She was born in 1925 and then was trafficked from the South Korean port of Busan across to Shimonoseki in Japan and in through Taiwan into a brothel in Guangdong in southern China.

There was an agreement between the last president in South Korea, Park Geun Hye, and the Japanese government to produce compensation of nine million dollars. But the administration now of Moon Jae-in, the new president, has rejected that. Why?

It was an agreement concluded between high level government officials, the foreign ministers of both Japan and South Korea, without consulting survivors or even the representative organizations of survivors.

And the primary problem with it was that it came with a gag clause for Korean government and public officials, diplomatic officials, mentioning the topic of the military sexual slavery during the China and Pacific Wars in public fora.

So very quickly after the deal was signed between the two governments, a couple of incidents occurred over the early months of 2016 where the issue was raised in various fora by South Korean officials. And that brought condemnation from the Japanese side over and over on the basis of, "We have signed this deal with you and giving you money, and therefore you are now gagged. Why you going back on the agreement?" So the agreement from its very signing was used as a battering ram and a bludgeon against South Koreans and was never accepted by survivors or their organizations. It was sort of a dead duck before it even started.

Korean Comfort Women

Published: 1.30.2018

Level 5 | Time: 3:05

Accent: Australian, British

BBC Global News Podcast (1.29.2019)

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Vocabulary

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Script