LEE Su-dan 이수단

LEE Su-dan

이수단

Born in South Pyonggan, Korea, Drafted year: 1940, 19y/o, foar 5 years. left in Dongning. China

I thought I would be paid money and clothes

for doing chores in Manchuria.

I received 480 won as an advance payment

for a 3-year contract,

which I gave to my step mother.

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It was a Japanese informant who took me away. He was wearing a uniform and a sword. I thought I would be paid money and clothes for doing chores in Manchuria. I received 480 won as an advance payment for a 3-year contract, which I gave to my step mother.

When I arrived in Manchuria, it was not a factory but a brothel type of place. The owner was a Japanese couple, and they called me Hidomiひどみ. 

8-10 soldiers came a day. When soldiers bought the ticket, the owner gave them condoms.

A military doctor examined for sexually transmitted disease and found that I had a serious venereal disease.

I was sent to a hospital in Dongning东宁 and treated there for 10 days. When I was discharged from the hospital, I came back to find a “Do not enter” sign on my door.

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All the cost for the medical treatment and the money I couldn’t make during the time became my debt.

After the war ended and liberation came, I decided not to go back because I didn’t think I’d feel comfortable in my hometown. I married a Chinese man near here.

He was so violent that all the neighbors told me to get a divorce. I couldn’t bear to live with him anymore, so I left and came to this nursing home alone.

* Since she couldn’t bear her own child, she became obsessed with baby. As she became schizophrenic, she put a picture of a baby in her room. The director of the nursing home gave her a baby doll. She treated it like her own baby that she talked to it and slept with it in her arms.