Lee Yong-soo, 96, stood defiantly in Seoul’s pouring rain this Wednesday – her voice trembling but determined – as she addressed 400 supporters demanding justice for WWII-era sexual slavery survivors. The rally marked three decades of weekly protests outside Japan’s embassy, where yellow ribbons and chants of “We remember!” filled the air.
💔 Lee is among the last surviving victims of Japan’s military-run “comfort women” system, which forced an estimated 200,000 women – mostly Koreans – into sexual slavery during the war. “Even now, I can’t forget their faces,” she told the crowd, recalling lost friends.
🌧️ Despite the storm, attendees held signs reading “History Can’t Be Washed Away” and sang solidarity songs. Lee tearfully thanked supporters: “You give me strength to keep fighting.” Activists renewed calls for Japan’s formal apology and reparations – a decades-long diplomatic rift.
📅 The protest coincides with South Korea’s “Comfort Women Day” (August 14), keeping global attention on wartime accountability. As Lee says: “Truth doesn’t disappear with time.”
