comfort women

the imperial japanese army forced hundreds and thousands of women across asia into sexual slavery during world war ii. many of the women were captured from occupied countries, including korea, china, and the philippinnes, and were stationed at amy bases in japan, china, the philippines, indonesia, malaysia, thailand, burma, new guinea, hong kong, macau, and french indochina. there are only a handful of comfort women survivors left, and tonight we learned a little more about our asian history through a recently launched off-off-broadway musical at the st clemens theatre, comfort women.

through his musical, which is based on real-life accounts of the women who were abducted and trafficked into sexual slavery, director dimo kim enlightens and urges his audience to address and seek closure for the survivors of the horrific tragedies, their stories, and unresolved human rights issues.

it is the first musical to employ an almost complete asian cast of +50 actors. and with the exception of a minor, but memorable, line blunder in the first five minutes of the performance, it was well-directed and i found myself inspired by the music and voices, and eyes filled with tears for some of the sad scenes. it's amazing how much work must go into a performance like this - scripts, music, rehearsals, set design, lighting, musicians, and plenty more. and inspired by our friend, janet, associate musical director, who spent countless hours working with the music and the actors in the months leading up to and during their performances.