Stolen Truths
Chloe Han
Trigger Warnings: Physical Violence and Sexual Assault
CHARACTERS:
HELEN: One voice, girl in her early twenties
CHONG OK-SUN (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
HWANG SO-GUN (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
KUM JU-HWANG (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
KIM BUN-SUN (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
KIM SANG-HI (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
MRS. K (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
YI YONG-NYO (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
KANG DUK-KYUNG (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
KUHMA LIM (Comfort Woman): Old woman, Asian
PARIS: One voice, male in his late twenties
ASTYANASSA: One voice, female in her late teens
INTERVIEWEE 1: One voice, white male
INTERVIEWEE 2: One voice, white female
INTERVIEWEE 3: One voice, black female
GUARD 1: One voice, male
GUARD 2: One voice, male
MESSENGER: One voice, male
SCENES:
Scene 1: Hear Our Names
Scene 2: New Beginnings
Scene 3: There Are Holes In My Safety Blanket
Scene 4: Piecing Together Shards Of Glass
Scene 5: Home Is…
Scene 6: A Breakthrough
Scene 7: Say Our Names
Scene 8: The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Scene 1: Hear Our Names
(LIGHTS UP. No one is on stage except for the COMFORT WOMEN. They are standing in a line downstage. They are only lit when they speak individually.)
COMFORT WOMEN: “Comfort women” is a euphemism that is used to refer to women that were victims of sexual slavery during the Japanese occupation of Korea.
CHONG OK-SUN: It was a hot day in June and I was asked to go prepare lunch for my parents who were working hard in the field. I had gone to the village well to fetch water and a Japanese garrison soldier surprised me there and took me away. My parents never found out what had happened to their daughter. I never got to say goodbye. I was taken to the police station in a truck, where several policemen forced themselves onto me. When I shouted, they put socks in my mouth and continued. That was the day I lost the vision in my left eye after getting hit by the head of the police station. I was 13.
COMFORT WOMEN: Some historians estimate up to 200,000 Korean girls and women were subjected to provide sexual service to Japanese troops.
HWANG SO-GUN: The head of our village came to our house and promised me that he would help me find a job in a factory. Because my family was so poor, I gladly accepted this offer of a well-paid job. I was taken to the railway station in a Japanese truck where 20 or so other Korean girls were already waiting. Who could’ve known that would happen? Before we knew it, we were sitting in our own little rooms, separated from each other. Suddenly, a Japanese soldier in an army uniform, carrying a sword, came into my room. When he left, I saw there were 20 or 30 more Japanese soldiers waiting outside. I was 17.
COMFORT WOMEN: Many of these young girls were forcefully taken from their homes. Some never saw their families again.
KUM JU-HWANG: The Japanese village leader’s wife had ordered all unmarried Korean girls to go and work at a Japanese military factory. I thought I was only being drafted as a labour worker. I spent three years there, until one day I was asked to follow a Japanese soldier into his tent. He told me to take my clothes off. I resisted because I was so scared, but that didn’t stop him. He ripped my skirt and cut my undergarments from my body with a gun which had a knife attached to it. At that point I fainted. When I woke up again, I was covered with a blanket and there was blood everywhere. I was 17.
COMFORT WOMEN: Our lives were never the same.
(LIGHTS OUT.)
Scene 2: New Beginnings
(LIGHTS UP. The lights come up and everything else is dark except for two SPOTLIGHTS on stage, one far left and one far right. HELEN stands in the SPOTLIGHT on stage right and the COMFORT WOMEN stand in a group on stage left. HELEN is facing house left and the COMFORT WOMEN are facing house right. They all do not acknowledge or interact with each other.)
HELEN: I was sitting in my room on the ship, trying to make sense of what was happening. Was it really just this morning that I had dined with Menelaus and discussed plans for Agamemnon’s visit to Sparta? It feels like it’s been years since I spoke to the chefs about which meals to prepare.
(HELEN, sitting, looks around the room. HELEN has a blank stare on her face and is numb.)
COMFORT WOMEN: (each sentence is spoken by a different woman) I heard that a Korean man was in the area recruiting more girls to work in the Japanese factories. I went to Pyongchon to meet him and promised him I would go to Japan to work. He gave me the time and place of my departure and I returned home to ready myself to leave. In those days people were rather simple, and I, having no education, didn’t know anything of the world. All I knew—all I thought I knew—was that I was going to work in a factory to earn money. (in unison) I never dreamed that this could involve danger…
HELEN: How was it that I had ended up here? Had I done something to upset Menelaus? Had he sold me to Prince Paris of Troy? Just thinking about that made my stomach churn. He hadn’t seemed unhappy when we were planning for his brother’s arrival. So what had happened? Why was I taken away from my home and my husband and whisked away by some man I had only heard of by name?
COMFORT WOMEN: We traveled by trains, boats, and trucks until finally…we arrived. We passed through disordered streets and arrived in a suburban area. There was a large house right beside an army unit, and we were to be accommodated there.
HELEN: It wasn’t until I was crying that I truly realized what was happening—I was being kidnapped.
COMFORT WOMEN: The house was pretty much derelict and inside was divided into many small rooms.
HELEN: Stuck on a ship, being taken away from my home and everything I own with no knowledge of when or if I was ever going to return.
COMFORT WOMEN: There were around 50 women in total, living in that house.
HELEN: Who knew what awaited me at Troy? Who knew what Prince Paris was going to do with me?
(HELEN doubles over as if she is about to throw up.)
COMFORT WOMEN: It all happened so fast.
HELEN + COMFORT WOMEN: My home was gone.
HELEN: My chances of survival were close to none.
COMFORT WOMEN: I could not return.
HELEN + COMFORT WOMEN: My family was gone.
HELEN: Had Menelaus realized I was missing?
COMFORT WOMEN: They would never know what happened to me.
Scene 3: There Are Holes In My Safety Blanket
(SPOTLIGHT on COMFORT WOMEN turns back on, SPOTLIGHT on HELEN stays on. PARIS walks on and stands next to HELEN.)
HELEN: I looked around the room Paris had brought me to and couldn’t help but admire the beauty of it.
PARIS: This will be your room for now. Make yourself comfortable.
(PARIS goes in to kiss HELEN’S cheek, but HELEN moves away. PARIS smirks to himself before he exits stage right.)
COMFORT WOMEN: (each sentence is spoken by a different woman) It was not a ‘comfort’ station. It was a slaughterhouse! I worked for five years as a ’comfort woman’, but all my life I suffered from it.
HELEN: For the first time since I was taken from Sparta, a genuine smile unconsciously made its way onto my face. I would never fall in love with Paris or forgive him for taking me away from my beloved home, but maybe I could get myself to fall in love with Troy and maybe, just maybe, make it my temporary home.
COMFORT WOMEN: (each sentence is spoken by a different woman) That night as we slept, soldiers came to my room. I resisted with all my might. The first soldier wasn't drunk and when he tried to rip my clothes off, I shouted "No!" and he left. The second soldier was drunk. He waved a knife at me and threatened to kill me if I didn't do what he said. But I didn't care if I died, and in the end he stabbed me.
HELEN: Feeling the golden glow of the sun begin to creep over my body, I slowly opened my eyes.
COMFORT WOMEN: (in unison) We often had no time to sleep.
(ASTYANASSA enters from stage right. ASTYANASSA does the actions that HELEN narrates.)
HELEN: I saw Astyanassa walking around my room, opening the curtains one by one as she did every morning since I had been here. She turned when she heard me getting out of bed and hurried to my side with my robe in her hands.
COMFORT WOMEN: When the soldiers came back from the battlefields, as many as 20 men would come to my room.
ASTYANASSA: My lady.
(ASTYANASSA bows.)
ASTYANASSA: Prince Paris is waiting for you in the dining hall.
HELEN: Astyanassa, please, call me Helen. I’ve been asking you for a year now!
(HELEN and ASTYANASSA laugh and turn to exit stage left. ASTYANASSA exits first and HELEN follows, but stops as the COMFORT WOMEN are saying their line.)
COMFORT WOMEN: Each of us had to serve an average of 30 to 40 men each day. (HELEN turns back to face the audience.)
HELEN: It was hard to believe that a year had passed since I had been taken from Sparta. (HELEN exits, SPOTLIGHT turns off stage left)
COMFORT WOMEN: They had stripped me of everything. They had taken everything away from me, my youth, my self-esteem, my dignity, my freedom, my possessions, and my family. The war never ended for the comfort women. We lived for years in one small room with a straw bag to sleep on, reduced to the single number on our door. Nobody could escape.
(BLACK OUT. There is a scene change, with two large fruit stands from a market brought on and placed perpendicular to the audience, opposite each other on stage left and stage right.)
Scene 4: Piecing Together Shards of Glass
(LIGHTS UP. HELEN is standing upstage center, and walks through the fruit stands as if in a market. The scene is bright and warm as if it were a sunny day. COMPANY minus the COMFORT WOMEN can stand behind the stalls and act as stall owners in the market. They are loud and chaotic and there is a lot of noise in this scene.)
HELEN: I had grown to like the city of Troy. I hadn’t forgiven Paris for what he did and everything he took from me, but I didn’t allow myself to hold that grudge against the whole city. I’d learned the ins and the outs of the city and even found a few areas that I liked to call my “secret spaces,” as they’re tucked into little nooks and crannies hidden away from the big, bustling mainstreets. I’d formed bonds with some of the townspeople like Isidore, who ran the flower stall right in front of the palace; Philo, who delivered fresh seafood to the royal kitchen every morning; and Myron, who was the head chef in the royal palace. (pause, inhale a shaky breath. She stops walking. The COMPANY stops making noise. The light reduces to a SPOTLIGHT on HELEN.) But I still held the memory of Sparta close to my heart, and nothing was going to change that. Despite Paris’ attempts to make Troy my home and no matter how many relationships I formed here, I had realized early on that I could trust no one but myself. At the end of the day, if the time comes, I’m going to fight. I’m going to fight even if that means getting cuts and bruises along the way. If Paris had expected me to leave Sparta and my old life behind, I wasn’t going to let it happen without a fight. I’m not going to back down. Not this easily.
(LIGHTS OUT.)
Scene 5: Home Is…
(INTERVIEWEES, HELEN, and COMFORT WOMEN all walk together in a clump center stage, but they do not acknowledge each other or touch each other. Their responses all overlap with each other. INTERVIEWEE 3 is walking in the crowd, but then she stops and stands in the middle. Everyone else continues to move around her.)
HELEN: Home…what is/home?
INTERVIEWEE 2: /A place where I feel safe.
INTERVIEWEE 1: /A place where you can truly be yourself…
HELEN: /Sparta.
INTERVIEWEE 2: /And loved.
COMFORT WOMEN: /Korea.
INTERVIEWEE 1: among whom you feel comfortable?
HELEN: Where my husband is.
COMFORT WOMEN: But a place long gone.
INTERVIEWEE 3: Home is the place where if you go…
INTERVIEWEE 1: …I have no idea.
HELEN: Unreachable.
COMFORT WOMEN: Lost.
INTERVIEWEE 3: They have to open the door.
(INTERVIEWEE 3 bursts through the crowd, everyone freezes. She is now downstage center. There is a SPOTLIGHT on her.)
INTERVIEWEE 3: I…I don’t know if I can anymore. Define home. A book once told me that “home is the place where if you go they have to open the door.” But for me lately, home is this place I don’t feel like I’ll ever be able to go back to.
(COMFORT WOMEN slowly begin to turn and “see” her. COMFORT WOMEN slowly begin to gather around INTERVIEWEE 3.)
COMFORT WOMAN (Kim Bun-Sun): When I got home, my father was deceased, and my mother was having a hard time alone with small children. For four years she had no idea of my whereabouts; she assumed I was dead. She was very surprised and happy to have me back home. Occasionally, she asked me about those four years I was away. I vaguely told her that the Japanese authorities sent me to Japan where I worked for four years. I could not tell her the details…I could not tell her the truth.
COMFORT WOMAN (Kim Sang-Hi): My family didn’t ask me about my past; they must have just guessed. I was 24 years old, still a marriageable age. So my parents tried to arrange my marriage, and this was the most painful thing. How could I get married? My body had been used over and over.
INTERVIEWEE 3: Home is the thing I want the most…but knowing who I am and knowing the ways that I’ve changed, home is the one thing I don’t think I’ll ever have again in the way that I wanted to.
COMFORT WOMAN (Kim Sang-Hi): My heart was ripped and torn so many times
COMFORT WOMAN (Mrs. K): I decided not to go back to my home because of the potential harm to my family…and I couldn’t bear the shame.
COMFORT WOMAN (Yi Yong-Nyo): /I never married. I have no children. INTERVIEWEE 3: /I’m not married, and I don’t have children.
COMFORT WOMAN (Yi Yong-Nyo): All these years I have earned my
living, working as a maid in others’ homes or in restaurants. I sorely miss
the ordinary life that most women enjoy: getting married and having a
family. The Japanese took that away from me.
INTERVIEWEE 3: For me home is…home is the bittersweetness and beauty that exists in memory.
COMFORT WOMAN (Kang Duk-Kyung): Over the years, I had several marriage proposals. But I did not have enough strength to get married and raise a family.
COMFORT WOMAN (Kuhma Lim): My life can never return to the time before I was taken by the Japanese to the comfort station, at the age of 17.
COMFORT WOMEN (in unison): And my wounds cannot be healed.
(LIGHTS OUT.)
Scene 6: A Breakthrough
(HELEN is stage left. There is a door that is placed on stage right. It is angled so that the door opens to where HELEN is standing. GUARD 1 and GUARD 2 are placed on either side of the door, guarding it.)
HELEN: How much longer could this possibly go on for? After a decade of fighting, wouldn’t it be easier for both sides if they just stopped? Regardless of what people think, I had given up. I’d stopped dreaming about returning home to Sparta, or even being reunited with Menelaus. Just as I was about to return to my bed for what was probably my fifth nap of the day, I heard
murmuring coming from the other side of my door.
(MESSENGER enters from stage right and murmurs with GUARD 1 and GUARD 2.)
HELEN: There was more murmuring back and forth before I heard three sharp knocks on my door. (GUARD 1 knocks on the door three times) I regained my composure and tried to act as if I hadn’t been eavesdropping on the conversation outside just Scenes before.
(HELEN clears throat and becomes a part of the scene.)
HELEN: Come in.
(GUARD 1 opens the door and steps in with GUARD 2 and the MESSENGER.)
GUARD 1: A messenger sent from the King. He says he has a confidential message to relay to you.
HELEN: Thank you. Please excuse us then.
(GUARD 1 and GUARD 2 exit and return to their positions in front of the door. HELEN makes her way back to where she was on stage left. MESSENGER follows behind her. HELEN stops when she is back where she was and turns to the MESSENGER.)
MESSENGER: Queen Helen. I have a message to you from our king. Your king. (LIGHTS OUT except for a spotlight on HELEN. HELEN turns to address the audience.)
HELEN: Queen Helen. My heart stopped. The last time I had been addressed by that title was 10 years ago, and there was only one place where I was queen.
(Lights return to normal.)
HELEN: (whispers) Menelaus?
MESSENGER: Yes. I told the guards that I had news from the King, but I didn’t specify which king. (smiles) My queen, tonight is the night that the Greeks are going to end this war once and for all.
(LIGHTS OUT except for spotlight on HELEN. HELEN steps back in disbelief. The joy on her face is evident. She takes a few moments to express her happiness before composing herself and stepping back to where she was standing before the SPOTLIGHT on her.)
(Lights return to normal.)
MESSENGER: We have been working to construct a large wooden sculpture of a horse, which we call the Trojan Horse. Tonight, we are going to place the horse in front of the walls of Troy as a fake show of defeat and have half of our ships start the journey back to Sparta. But, what the Trojans don’t know is that the remaining half of our troops will be lying in wait inside the stomach of the horse. After the city has finished celebrating their so-called victory and gone to sleep, our troops will drop out of the horse and end the war once and for all. However, before we do that, we need to make sure that you are safely out of the city. We have been ordered by King Menelaus to lead you out before our troops exit the horse, and we will do that by using the soldiers we have planted inside the Trojan Palace to act as guards. A guard will knock five times, five short knocks, and once he does all you will need to do is open your doors and follow him and the others out of the city. Once we receive word that you have safely evacuated, we will launch our final mission.
(LIGHTS OUT except for spotlight on HELEN. HELEN turns to address the audience.) HELEN: I couldn’t believe my ears. I was getting out. I was going home. I was going to be free. (Lights return to normal.)
MESSENGER: I’m sorry it took us so long, Queen Helen
HELEN: (clasps MESSENGER’S hands) Thank you.
(LIGHTS OUT)
Scene 7: Say Our Names
(LIGHTS UP. No one is on stage except for the COMFORT WOMEN. They are standing in a line downstage. They are only lit when they speak individually.)
COMFORT WOMAN (Chong Ok-Sun): It was a hot day in June and I was asked to go prepare lunch for my parents who were working hard in the field. I had gone to the village well to fetch water when my life changed forever. A Japanese garrison soldier surprised me there and took me away. They never found out what had happened to their daughter. I never got to say goodbye. I was taken to the police station in a truck, where several policemen forced themselves onto me. When I shouted, they put socks in my mouth and continued. That was the day I lost the vision in my left eye after getting hit by the head of the police station. I was 13.
COMFORT WOMAN (Hwang So-Gun): The head of our village came to our house and promised me that he would help me find a job in a factory. Because my family was so poor, I gladly accepted this offer of a well-paid job. Who would’ve known that the decision I made that day would change my life forever. I was taken to the railway station in a Japanese truck where 20 or so other Korean girls were already waiting. None of us knew what would happen. Who could’ve known that would happen? Before we knew it, we were sitting in our own little rooms, separated from each other. Suddenly, a Japanese soldier in an army uniform, carrying a sword, came into my room. When he left, I saw there were 20 or 30 more Japanese soldiers waiting outside. I was 17.
COMFORT WOMAN (Kum Ju-Hwang): The Japanese village leader’s wife had ordered all unmarried Korean girls to go and work at a Japanese military factory. I thought I was only being drafted as a labour worker. I spent three years there, until one day I was asked to follow a Japanese soldier into his tent. That was the day that I knew my life would never be the same again. He told me to take my clothes off. I resisted because I was so scared, but that didn’t stop him. He ripped my skirt and cut my undergarments from my body with a gun which had a knife attached to it. At that point I fainted. When I woke up again, I was covered with a blanket and there was blood everywhere. I was 17.
COMFORT WOMAN (Chong Ok-Sun): My parents never got their water. (All COMFORT WOMEN are lit.)
COMFORT WOMAN: Once it started, it never stopped. There was no way out. So many women caught diseases and had to have surgery. Their lives were changed forever. The stories of women like us who were
COMFORT WOMAN: victimized,
COMFORT WOMAN: abused,
COMFORT WOMAN: and taken advantage of,
COMFORT WOMAN: are countless. But so many are still afraid to speak out, unable to make themselves relive the horrific events they had to endure.
COMFORT WOMEN: But we will not be forgotten.
COMFORT WOMAN: Chong Ok-Sun.
COMFORT WOMAN: Hwang So-Gun.
COMFORT WOMAN: Kum Ju-Hwang.
COMFORT WOMEN: Remember Us. Say our names.
(LIGHTS OUT.)
Scene 8: The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
(HELEN stands center stage, surrounded by COMFORT WOMEN on either side.)
HELEN: As I stood on the deck with the wind in my hair and the waves crashing against the ship, I stared back at the city that had been my home for 11 years as it glowed all shades of red, orange and yellow. I could see the flames burn brighter and stretch closer towards the sky with every extra inch of the city it devoured. I could feel my heart squeeze and turned away from the scene before the tears had a chance to fall. It was then that I realized it was finally over. After those 11 long years, I was finally going home.
(COMFORT WOMEN take a few steps towards HELEN.)
HELEN: I was safe. My heart broke as I thought of all the innocent lives that would be lost to the wrath of the flames, but I had finally made a decision for myself.
(COMFORT WOMEN move to stand right beside HELEN.)
HELEN: Maybe I would go down in history as the villain. Maybe some stories of the war would paint me as a selfish murderer. Maybe some would even call me a traitor as if it had been my choice to come to Troy in the first place. But, no matter what happens…
HELEN + COMFORT WOMEN: There will always be those who know the truth.
(LIGHTS OUT)
END
Chloe (she/her) is currently a junior at a boarding school in Massachusetts. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and the Storm King School Poetry Festival. Over long breaks, you'll probably find her back home in Seoul catching up with friends and spending time with her family, working through her "books to read" list, or curled up in her bed watching K-dramas.