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Grandma Gil in South Korea, Grandma Cao in China, and Grandma Adela in the Philippines were amongst thousands of girls and young women who were sexually exploited by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

Synopsis

Grandma Gil in South Korea, Grandma Cao in China, and Grandma Adela in the Philippines were amongst thousands of girls and young women who were sexually exploited by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, many through kidnapping, coercion and sexual slavery. Some 70 years after their imprisonment, and after decades living in silence and shame about their past, the wounds are still fresh for these three former ‘comfort women’. Despite multiple formal apologies from the Japanese government issued since the early 1990’s, there has been little justice; the courageous resolve of these women moves them to fight and seize their last chance to share first-hand accounts of the truth with their families and the world, and to ensure that this horrific chapter of history is neither repeated nor forgotten.

“Given the rise of nationalism, xenophobia, and misogyny in the world today, the women’s stories in The Apology are very powerful reminders of why these attitudes are dangerous, and tell us how they destroy real people’s lives.” - Maya Wang, China researcher, Asia division, Human Rights Watch

To learn more on this topic visit HRW.org

Credits

Tiffany Hsiung

Director

Tiffany Hsiung is an award-winning filmmaker based in Toronto. Her approach to storytelling is driven by the relationships she builds with people. Since 2009, Hsiung has been documenting the lives of survivors of military sexual slavery during World War II, inflicted by the Japanese Imperial Army, for her first feature-length film, The Apology (2015). For the past six years, Hsiung has been advocating in communities and universities across North America for the grandmothers (survivors known as “comfort women”), as they fight for justice, by sharing their stories. Her most recent presentation at the United Nations in New York brought to light one of history’s greatest and unresolved injustices on the world stage for human-rights issues.