This essay traces the formation of the comfort women narrative through activist networks and legal campaigns.
By examining links between civic movements and media reporting, it explores how postwar historical discourse was constructed and disseminated.

January 10, 2019
“Aoyagi joined with Song and was the central figure who initiated lawsuits against the Japanese government demanding apology and compensation” (Tsutomu Nishioka, An Easy Guide to the Comfort Women Issue).

From this sequence of events, one can see the activist network among resident Koreans in Japan linking Bae Sun-hui, Song Du-hoe, and Atsuko Aoyagi.
The chapter I published on February 16, 2018 under that title is now ranked number one in goo search results.
The following continues from the previous chapter.
“Atsuko Aoyagi of Oita, the wife of a doctor, admired Song Du-hoe, a resident Korean activist against discrimination.
Aoyagi joined with Song and became the central figure initiating lawsuits against the Japanese government demanding apology and compensation” (Tsutomu Nishioka, An Easy Guide to the Comfort Women Issue).
Aoyagi served as secretary-general of the organization “Official Apology to Korea and Koreans: Committee of One Hundred,” and in 1990 traveled to South Korea distributing leaflets recruiting plaintiffs for lawsuits against the Japanese government.
Along the extension of this activism, Ms. Kim Hak-sun came forward, leading to Asahi Shimbun reporter Takashi Uemura’s article stating that she had been “taken to the battlefield in the name of the Women’s Volunteer Corps” (Asahi, August 11, 1991).
From this chain of events emerges the activist network linking Bae Sun-hui, Song Du-hoe, and Atsuko Aoyagi.
Moreover, Song was involved not only in the comfort women issue but also in activism regarding Koreans left behind in Sakhalin.
In other words, the origins of the comfort women issue are connected with the Sakhalin issue.
An Asahi Shimbun article on the construction of an apology monument titled “A Single Apology” noted “Seiji Yoshida kneeling before bereaved families of Koreans left in Sakhalin” (December 23, 1983).
This account will continue.