COMFORT WOMEN WANTED
Presented by Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation
Pre-inaugural Exhibit at The Comfort Women Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 2013
“Re-creation of a Military Comfort Station,” Multichannel Video Installation, Ad-like Prints, Public Art MRT Subway Light Box Displays in Multiple Languages
“The Comfort Women Speak” Taipei Times, 2013
“Taipei comfort station keeps memory of war crimes alive” China Times, 2013
Re-creation of a Military Comfort Station is based on historical references including welcome and regulation banners,kimonos, tatami beds, washing bowls, windows, and Japanese name plaques. Videos of former comfort stations in Asia are projected on elements in the room.
Outside, welcoming and regulations banners are hung from floor to ceiling, creating fabric walls. During the war, banners at the entrances of military comfort stations welcomed and attracted soldiers. The written texts in Japanese said such things as “ Official Military Hometown Comfort Station,” “Japanese Girls Dedicating Their Hearts and Bodies in Service,” and “Grand Welcome to Victorious, Courageous Soldiers.”
Inside, videos of former mililtary comfort stations in Asia, including Dai Salon in Shanghai, the first comfort station ever, and former Indonesian comfort stations, are projected on individual elements in the room. On the walls are hung Japanese name plaques. Girls were forced to wear kimonos and use Japanese names. The recreation explores the idea of erased ethnic identity. The artificial made-up Japanese names which the women were forced to use contrasts with their real Chinese names at the entrance to the exhibit.
