Drama documents life of a WWII 'comfort woman'

Lee Chun-young (right) and Zhao Ruitai at Lee's home in Anhui province in 1994. Lee performed a Korean dance with a washbasin on her head while posing for the picture. Provided to China Daily

The Qintai Theater in Wuhan, Hubei province, was filled to capacity one evening in May for a performance of Don't Forget Me, a play based on the story of Lee Chun-young who was forced by the Japanese to become a "comfort woman" during World War II.

As the emotional drama and destiny of the two main characters unfolded, many in the audience were wiping tears from their eyes.

Lee was born in South Korea in 1925. She was captured by the Japanese at the age of 13 and brought to Harbin in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province in 1938.

She was forced to follow the Japanese army and was taken to other places, including Shandong province, Hong Kong and Wuhan, where she managed to escape.

She spent the rest of her life in China, but was continually haunted by those years of abuse as a comfort woman.

She became the first woman to talk publicly about enduring the experience of being a comfort woman in the Chinese mainland. Her courage to sue the Japanese brought her into the media spotlight, which prompted other comfort women to face the cameras to demand Japan's formal apology and compensation.

Don't Forget Me is the second drama based on Lee's life by Zhao Ruitai, a 73-year-old playwright in Wuhan. The play was jointly directed and acted by Chinese and South Koreans.

"The plot of the drama comes from Lee's real experience. And the story happened at Jiqingli community, in Hankou district, where the Japanese established a military brothel," Zhao said.

Today Jiqingli community is home to some 400 people, and its roads and architecture have remained the same since the days of Japanese occupation.

According to Zhao, Lee married twice after her escape. The first marriage only lasted a few years because she was unable to have children after the years of abuse at the brothels.

She met her second husband, Guan Chaoxin, in 1957 and they settled down in a village in Anhui province for more than three decades.

Zhao visited Leeat her home in 1994. "More than 20 years have passed, but the day of the interview is as clear as if it happed yesterday," Zhao said.

"She was optimistic and did not avoid recalling her suffering. She even danced for a while, a dance she learned as a child when in South Korea," Zhao recalled.

After gaining so much firsthand information, Zhao felt obliged to write her story for the stage in order that it reach a wider audience.