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STONEWALK KOREA 2007: Apology for the Occupation of Korea and the Suffering of Military Sexual Slavery Survivors – 2008 GRIEVING & HEALING FIELDWORK in Okinawa and Jeju Island, Korea

"Our journey for peace begins today
and every day.
Each step is a prayer,
each step is a meditation,
each step will build a bridge."
-- Maha Ghosonanda

Last spring, Japanese peace and reconciliation activists commissioned a memorial stone with the inscription "Unknown Civilians Killed in War" in English, and, below this, "In Apology, Friendship,and Peace" in Japanese and Korean. Joining together with Korean and American counterparts, they formed STONEWALK KOREA 2007. Pushing the one-ton stone in a cart in procession, they traveled through South Korea, starting in Pusan at the end of April and arriving in Panmunjeom, next to the DMZ, in June.

Their intention: to apologize to all Koreans for the Japanese occupation of Korea, with a special message for the aging survivors of Japanese imperial military sexual slavery.

Participants recorded their multilingual mission in Korean, and Japanese blogs. Others captured the walk on videos posted on YouTube: "The Start," and the "Departure from Seoul." Jeonlado.com blog (in Korean) has great photographs of the Stonewalkers of all ages, wearing yellow bibs emblazoned with "Stonewalk Korea 2007."

American participant Dot Walsh noted some of the journey's stops:

• the jail where people were protesting the imprisonment of Lee Si-Woo, who was released in January 2008. The photojournalist and peace activist was charged and detained by the South Korean government in April 2007, for disclosing reports on anti-personnel mines clearance and landmine casualties in South Korea, which Lee had examined for the Korean Campaign to Ban Landmines. Lee obtained explicit permission to do this from the government beforehand, according to Amnesty International. His photographs can be viewed online at his website, DEEP THINKING FOR PEACE.<>

• a makeshift peace museum in a building's basement

• the Japanese Embassy where military sexual slavery survivors have been holding Wednesday demonstrations since 1992

• The House of Sharing Museum that documents "comfort station" history

• a prison that held resisters during the Japanese occupation

• a U.S. military air base outside of Seoul that disturbs local residents because of noise pollution from jets and depleted uranium stored there.

• Heyri, an eco-conscious, international artist community

Japanese participant Mari Enzoe described their encounter with atomic bomb survivors in Hapcheon, known as "Korea's Hiroshima."

"The most memorable thing for me was to see and talk to Hibakusha in Hapcheon. We as Japanese didn't know what to say to them. I can't even speak Korean. If they had not been brought to Japan, they would never have become Hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings). But, Mr. Hirose spoke to them in Japanese and many of the Hibakusha spoke fluent Japanese and they seemed to enjoy talking to Mr. Hirose as they are from the same generation, and share the same burden that they have carried for a long time.

" We were welcomed to the Hibakusha's annual picnic and we sang Japanese songs. Many of them were crying, and when I waved my hands for the farewell many of them waved back to us and that made me so happy."

The Korean victims of atomic bombings have not received widespread English-language media attention, despite the fact that ten percent of the 700,000 casualties of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were Koreans. According to Korean victim advocates quoted in Andreas Hippin's 2005 Japan Times article, "The end of silence: Korea's Hiroshima Korean A-bomb victims seek redress," more than seventy percent of the Korean victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki came from Hapcheon. Most were brought to Japan by its wartime military regime as forced laborers. Others were desperate, landless farmers who went to Japan in seek of employment. Around 23,000 hibakusha returned to Korea after the war, where they faced incredible hardships.

Korean victims fought for decades, bringing numerous legal actions, seeking compensation and medical treatment from the Japanese government. Australian scholar David Palmer's February 2008 Japan Focus article, "Korean Hibakusha, Japan’s Supreme Court and the International Community: Can the U.S. and Japan Confront Forced Labor and Atomic Bombing?" evaluates the Japan Supreme Court's 2007 ruling in favor of Korean hibakusha medical compensation rights, which did not adequately remedy their injuries, in his view. Palmer concludes, "Resolving outstanding forced labor cases, as well as fully recognizing, apologizing and compensating all hibakusha, requires a broader international solution of “mutual apology and mutual compensation” by both Japan and the United States."

Fukuoka resident Tomoko Ueki described how a trial Stonewalk Korea began in Fukuoka prefecture at an Iizuka Cemetery memorial for unknown Koreans who died as forced laborers in coal mines during the Second World War.

American participant Andrea LeBlanc, a member of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a peace advocacy group composed of families of September 11, 2001 victims, participated in both Stonewalk Korea 2007 and the first Asian Stonewalk, the 2005 Hiroshima to Nagasaki Stonewalk. At the end of this journey honoring civilians killed in Japan during the Second World War, some of the Japanese participants conceived the idea for Stonewalk Korea 2007.

Japanese Stonewalker Takao Ogata recounted the latest placement of the memorial stone in early February, 2008.

"Now it’s in Hapcheon, located in Gyeonsangnam-do, in the southeast part of the Korean Peninsula. At first, Korean Stonewalkers were thinking of putting the Stone near the DMZ. But they found it very difficult to negotiate with authorities. Hapcheon is known as “Hiroshima in Korea” because many Korean Hibakusha (A-bomb victims) live in Hapcheon. So, Korean Stonewalkers are hoping to create a peace park and museum in Hapcheon in the future and put the memorial stone in the park."

Ogata described the healing and reconciliation activities that Korean and Japanese Stonewalkers are engaging in together in Okinawa from February 15-18, 2008, and Jeju Island, off the southern coast of South Korea from March 28 to April 3, 2008. "Each island has a similar sad history of war and today’s problem of military bases. Through the fieldwork, we’ll mourn unknown victims and step forward to peace together. Although we are not pulling a stone, we think it’s a peace pilgrimage, following the Stonewalk Korea 2007. Of course, participants from the U.S. are welcomed!" He added that details will be posted (in Korean) at the Korean Stonewalk web-site.

Peace Abbey, a spiritual retreat in Sherborn, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, purchased a one-ton granite memorial stone and inscribed on it the words “Unknown Civilians Killed In War" to honor all people killed in war. Mohammed Ali, a renowned war objector, unveiled the stone in 1994.

For centuries, countries have honored soldiers who have died in battle. The U.K. buried an "unknown warrior" from the First World War in 1920. Other nations followed suit, putting iconic spotlights on tombs of "unknown soldiers." However, national governments have paid little to the civilian loss of life in wars. Some experts say that in modern warfare, governments often intentionally overlook civilian deaths ("collateral damage") as not meriting close accounting.

Nine out of ten casualties of war are innocent civilians, according to the Peace Abbey leadership, which became concerned about the lack of an official place in the U.S. where citizens can mourn civilian victims of war – men, women and children. Dot Walsh, the Peace Abbey program director, explained, "The idea for Stonewalk was first suggested by a Cambodian Buddhist monk, Maha Ghosananda. He said, 'They don't have a memorial in Washington honoring civilians. Why don't you bring the one here (the Memorial Stone) at the Peace Abbey there?'"

To meet this gap, Peace Abbey created another memorial stone and transported it to Washington, D.C. in 1999, hoping it would be placed in Arlington Cemetery, home of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. However, the U.S. Congress refused to accept the stone. Their refusal resulted in globalizing the Stonewalk tradition, which has spread throughout the world, imbued with the interfaith peace activism of Peace Abbey. Thereafter, Peace Abbey decided to send it around the world to draw attention to civilians killed in war, and as a focal point for peace and reconciliation. Stonewalks took place in Ireland in 2000 and England in 2001, and the U.S. in 2004.

One of the Korean ministers who participated in Stonewalk Korea 2007 expressed hope that Japanese, Korean, and American people will join with Vietnamese people and initiate a future Stonewalk in Vietnam.

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