Memorial gathering for Grandma Lee Ok-seon in Glendale

CARE @ CCSS 2025 Study Tour for Teachers!!

March 5, 2025

Thank you, Glendale! Memorial photos and video! 글렌데일 시의회 추모메세지. 사진과 동영상

May 27, 2025

Published by CARE at May 14, 2025

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Dear friends,

Our beloved Grandma, LEE Ok-seon, passed away in Korea on May 11, 2025 (local time). We would like to get together to pay respect to her in Glendale. Please come and pray for her with us! Like last time, students from Hwarang Youth Foundation will lead the ritual.

Please watch a video in memory of Grandma Lee (By Sogang University “Eternal Testimony” team): https://youtu.be/AO-exfGbO00?si=Q4c8AQq9b3B0hAPi

BBC Korea report a few years ago: https://youtu.be/smtH2gjHix4?si=IUwt5H_shP5VLubr

사랑하는 이옥선 할머니께서 지난 5월11일 한국에서 별세하셨습니다. 글렌데일 소녀상에서 모여서 함께 할머니를 위해 추모제를 지내려고 합니다. 이번에도 화랑 소속 학생들이 추모제를 이끌어 줄 예정입니다.

서강대 “영원한 증언” 팀이 제작한 이옥선 할머니 추모 영상: https://youtu.be/AO-exfGbO00?si=Q4c8AQq9b3B0hAPi

몇 년 전에 방영된 BBC 보도입니다: https://youtu.be/smtH2gjHix4?si=IUwt5H_shP5VLubr

Grandma Lee was born in 1928 and she was 14 when she was abducted on the street in Ulsan and taken to China on a military truck. After suffering as a “comfort woman” for about three years, the war ended, but she didn’t have any means to return home. She stayed and formed a family in China. She became a Catholic in China and lived there until she came to Korea in 2000. Grandma Lee was part of a committed core of activists among the survivors. She came to the United States many times to raise awareness about the “comfort women” issue and demand formal apology and acknowledgement from the Japanese government. In 2014, she came to Glendale to help the City when a lawsuit was filed against Glendale to remove the Peace Monument. She met with Obama administration at the State Department and the White House to ask the US government to urge the Japanese government accept historical responsibility for the Japanese military sexual slavery. she severely condemned the 2015 Japan-Korea Agreement. She was one of the two Grandmas who recorded the “Eternal Testimony,” an interactive video testimony where you can ask her about her life experiences, created by Sogang University in cooperation with CARE, sponsored by the Research Institute on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery. She lived in the House of Sharing until last year when she was admitted to a nursing home. Her last act was to sign onto a petition urging the UN’s Committee Against Torture to investigate the war crimes committed by the Japanese government. We shall remember and honor her activism.

이옥선 할머니는 1928년 부산 태생이시고, 14살때 (한국 나이로 15살) 울산에서 일본군 트럭에 납치되어 중국으로 끌려가셨습니다. 중국에서 3년간 고초를 겪으시고 해방을 맞았지만 집에 돌아올 돈도, 방법도 없어서 중국에 남으셨습니다. 중국에서 가정을 꾸리고 사시다가 천주교 신자가 되셨고, 2000년경 한국에 와서 가족을 찾았지만 모두 돌아가신 후였다고 합니다. 2014년에는 글렌데일 시가 소녀상 철거 소송을 당했을 때 강일출 할머니와 함께 오셔서 글렌데일을 위한 공술서를 법원에 제출하셨습니다. 또 오바마 정부때 국무부와 백악관 관계자들과 만나 일본이 ‘위안부’ 문제에 대한 책임을 인정하도록 촉구할 것을 요청하기도 하셨습니다. 2015년 한일합의에 대해서는 혹독한 비판을 하셨습니다. 할머니는 일본군위안부연구소에서 지원하고 서강대학교가 위안부행동(CARE)와 공동으로 진행한 대화형 증언 비디오 프로젝트인 “영원한 증언”의 주인공 중 한 분이셨습니다. 늘 돈이 문제가 아니라 잘못을 인정하는 것이 가장 먼저라고 하셨습니다. 한국 시간으로 오늘 (5/14) 영결식을 마치고 천안에 있는 국립 망향의 동산에 묻히셨습니다.