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Sandy poses with some of the women with whom she worked as she
researched her dissertation.Sandy Winter Moderated a Discussion
on Korean Comfort Women
As Part of Women's History Month 2005
As part of a series of events commemorating
Women's History Month in March of 2005, Rev. Sandy Winter was
invited to lend her expertise to a program about Korean Comfort
Women. The following is an article that appeared in "Our
Voice," the newsletter of UA's Women's Resource Center...
During World War II, 100,000 to 200,000 Korean
young women were taken from their homes by the Japanese military
and made to serve as sexual slaves. Due to the horrendous conditions
these women endured, many did not survive. Those that did led
miserable lives and kept silent about their ordeal until the
early 1990’s. The Reverend Sandy Winter of Tuscaloosa’s
University Presbyterian Church interviewed several of the surviving
‘comfort women’ and documented their sufferings in
her dissertation.
“I felt a need to tell about the terrible
experience of these women so others would be aware of one of
the worst cases of sexual violence against women in history,”
Winter said. “I respect and honor these women, and I am
so moved by their courage and strength to continue with their
lives.”
Winter said the purposes of the ‘comfort
women’ were: to be an exciting gift from the Japanese emperor
to the troops, to prevent the damaging of the Japanese military’s
reputation due to widespread rape, to keep the troops’
morale high, to keep venereal disease low, and as an attempt
by Japan to destroy the nation they had colonized by destroying
the reproductive capabilities of its women. Official documentation
of the capture of these women exists, even though the Japanese
government, the Korean people and the survivors kept silent
on the issue for 50 years.
The goal of Winter’s dissertation is to raise
consciousness of people in churches in the United States concerning
the Korean military ‘comfort women’ and to seek a
faithful and just response. When people read her dissertation
or hear about the Korean ‘comfort women’s’ experience,
Winter said she wants them to feel “honor, respect and
appreciation for the women and to make a deeper commitment to
stopping sexual violence wherever it is happening.”
Winter has served the Presbyterian community since
1962, when she worked
as a church educator for Central Presbyterian in Chattanooga,
TN. She
recently earned her Doctorate of Ministry from the San Francisco
Theological
Seminary, where she studied with a number of Korean women, leading
to her
study of the Korean ‘comfort women’.
Winter has been ordained for almost twenty-three
years and loves to read and
teach about women in the Bible and feminist theology. Winter
spoke on Korean ‘comfort women’ and introduced “Silence
Broken”, a video on the issue, in a Women’s Resource
Center Brown Bag program on March 8, 2005, at noon in the Ferguson
Center.
For more information, about UA's WRC, visit http://wrc.ua.edu
or call 205-348-5040.
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