Silent Women

Why were the Korean Comfort Women “silent” so long? To answer this question, one thing you will need to think about is how much women’s “worth” is tied to their status as virgins or “sexually pure” and how women who are not “pure” are shamed in societies. You also need to reflect on how rape has been characterized as simply an “unfortunate consequence” of war—this is not true, of course; rape does not “just happen.”Why could the words and actions of Japanese officials and government be interpreted as attempts to further silence them?

The Korean women were silent for so long because they didn't want the word to get out that they had been "tainted". It was seen as a huge disgrace to have either sex before marriage or sex with one other than your husband. Rape was once claimed to be "inevitable, so you might as well lay back and enjoy it" but in todays society we know that that is not quite the case.