Grass

GRASS by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim is a graphic memoir about Lee Ok-sun, a Korean woman who was forced to be a "comfort woman" for the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. This graphic novel is totally devastating - from Lee's tough childhood filled with poverty and responsibilities beyond her age to the moment when she becomes a sexual slave, I couldn't feel anything but outrage. By using an interview style, Gendry-Kim delivers an unbiased report of a cruel reality of Korea under the Japanese occupation from a Korean woman POV. The author's brushwork is both beautiful and heavy. While painting the war atrocities against Korean women forced into sexual slavery, Gendry-Kim highlights Lee’s strength in overcoming all the tragedies that she experienced. GRASS is a powerful and painful true story that I highly recommend, especially for readers wanting to learn about Korean "comfort women". TW: sexual enslavement, war, rape, trauma

It's a cliche to say a picture is worth a thousand words but this Graphic Novel chronicling the experience of the marginalized and forgotten "Comfort Women" of Korea (Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Military but also included women from countries such as China, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Manchukuo, Taiwan. As well as the Dutch East Indies, Portuguese Timor, and New Guinea.) It is unsparing in its presentation of the unremitting rape and sexual violence brought upon Korean Women by The Japanese military. With Okseon Lee the narrator giving her life story but also standing in as a representative of the women and their experiences who were violated by The Japanese. While also avoiding the cloying sentimentality found in the idea of "the good Japanese soldier" who could serve as a "star crossed lover" figure. No instead the Japanese who in an expert touch by artist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim to obscure or never show the solder's faces. This shows the anonymity that the sexualized violence and objectification that no token gesture of condescending kindness by a Japanese Officer could make up for. Also, this is work that knows that the imagination is often better at chronicling horrors and atrocities inflicted on victims. So there are mercifully no graphic or "lovingly crafted" or "artisanal" depictions of rape ala Kentaro Miura's Berserk. Instead, I find its use of the audience's imagination comparable to how Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas never explicitly shows Juli's abuse but only obliquely references it by noting scars and emotional states. Leaving the audience to have to ponder what made him so emotionally remote. This is welcome as a Grand Guignol of Japanese atrocities would not only be off-putting but distasteful to the larger narrative of how one processes such trauma and gains restitution and justice from an often willingly blind governmental entity. In short if one wants to get to the emotional core of the modern debate of Comfort Women this is the book to read.

Before reading Grass, I wasn’t aware of “comfort women”. I wasn’t aware of how they were treated by Japanese soldiers. These women were largely Korean and were forced into sexual slavery during the Japanese Occupation of Korea before and during World War II. This is the account of how the atrocity of war ruins women’s lives – no matter the country, no matter the place – the suffering of women is universal. Men go to battle. Women get raped. Men go to battle. Women must bear all consequences. Grass is the story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee (becoming Granny Lee Ok-sun) – from her childhood to how she became a comfort woman to depicting the cost of war and the importance of peace. The “comfort woman” experience was most traumatic for Korean women that took place from 1910 to 1945, till they were liberated from the Japanese. This book is painstakingly honest and brutal. It moves the reader but does not take away from the story and the truth, as should be the case. It is as I said before a woman’s story as a survivor – undergoing kidnapping, abuse, and rape in time of war and imperialism. Grass opens at a time in Granny Lee Ok-sun’s life when she travels back home to Korea in 1996, having spent fifty-five years as a wife and a mother in China. Kim’s interviews with Granny is what forms the base of this book. Some memories surface clearly, some don’t, and yet it doesn’t take away from the book at all. To tell such a story through the graphic medium doesn’t reduce the significance or the emotional quotient of the narrative. I found myself most moved so many times in the course of this read. Just the idea that these women were not given the agency to think or feel for themselves, and treated with such brutality, made me think of PTSD and how they didn’t even have the vocabulary to explain this or understand what they were going through. All they knew was they had to be alive, no matter what. In the hope of either being saved by strangers, or finding ways to escape “comfort houses”, to get away from conditions where getting a proper meal is a luxury, where your child is taken away from you, where men constantly enter and exit at will, and ultimately to feel human. The artwork by Kim is brilliant. The scenes that are tough to digest are portrayed with such beauty – in the sense that it exists, hovers above you as you read it, and yet somehow makes you understand, keeping the dignity of the women. I think also to a large extent, the book is what it is because of the translation – which is so nuanced and on point when it comes to brevity and communicating what it has to. Grass is a book that needs to be read to understand how people get away with the utmost damage to the human soul. Given the fight of haves and have-nots, of gender differences, of how unequal society is, this book should be read, and reread to understand where violence and also empathy comes from.

Okseon Lee lives a life with very little happiness, from a childhood in poverty to being captured and forced into sexual slavery at fifteen. Like all Korean Comfort Women she is forced to service Japanese soldiers, a subject that Grass neither sensationalizes, nor glamorizes. There are no detailed scenes of of assault. The artwork merely fades to black. In addition, the book resists the urge to divide the soldiers into good and bad rapists. Over the course of the book, the writer Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (who plays a role in the story as well), asks Okseon Lee if any of the Japanese soldiers were kind, or if she may have fallen in love with anyone. In these moments, Okseon Lee remains steadfast, adding that while some may have been nicer (those that did not beat her), that it was all ultimately all bad. The artwork for Grass, completed in stark brushstrokes, is well suited for this tale, going back and forth between more detailed and abstract to suit the mood. Gendry-Kim also continues to tell Okseon Lee's story beyond World War II. While her suffering can feel relentless, I thought this decision was wise, as it doesn't define Okseon Lee purely by her time in sexual slavery, but shows how she continued to survive. Grass is not an easy read, but the story told here is so important. A worthy choice for anyone who wants to learn more about the lives of Korean women and girls during World War II.

This is a beautiful graphic novel that tells the story of Oksun, who was forced into sexual slavery during the Japanese Occupation of Korea before and during World War II. Gendry-Kim's artwork is absolutely beautiful, and her sense of pacing was great. There are many moments where her storytelling and visual pacing align perfectly to create intense and evocative images. The storyline can be somewhat jumbled at times, where the timeline between Gendry-Kim's own story, and varying timelines within Oksun's story, get a bit confused. Even so, I think it is clear how much emotion, passion and thought went into the creation of this graphic novel, and it is one that everyone should read. I think it would serve as a suitable introduction to the topic of comfort women, and definitely create an emotional reaction in the reader, and hopefully a curiosity to learn more about the subject in the future.

This was a heart wrenching story of a time period in a country I knew little about, we often hear about the European side of WWII but not from the Asian perspective, this shows the miss use of human life in a devastating way and even now it is a little mentioned event in Japanese/Korean history, stories like these should not be pushed under the blanket!

While reading, I had to stop several times to breathe in and out. It is so devastating and heartbreaking. The level of violence and brutality of Japanese military soldiers to minor young women is beyond any words describable of mine. *Just one correction required in the English version though - apparently, there is an error in the translation of Korean to English. The word of 'compensation' should be corrected to 'reparation'. I hope it can be corrected in the future bookprint.

Good.

Like a qualitative interview in a wonderful illustration Such a touching story

Before reading Grass, I wasn’t aware of “comfort women”. I wasn’t aware of how they were treated by Japanese soldiers. These women were largely Korean and were forced into sexual slavery during the Japanese Occupation of Korea before and during World War II. This is the account of how the atrocity of war ruins women’s lives – no matter the country, no matter the place – the suffering of women is universal. Men go to battle. Women get raped. Men go to battle. Women must bear all consequences. Grass is the story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee (becoming Granny Lee Ok-sun) – from her childhood to how she became a comfort woman to depicting the cost of war and the importance of peace. The “comfort woman” experience was most traumatic for Korean women that took place from 1910 to 1945, till they were liberated from the Japanese. This book is painstakingly honest and brutal. It moves the reader but does not take away from the story and the truth, as should be the case. It is as I said before a woman’s story as a survivor – undergoing kidnapping, abuse, and rape in time of war and imperialism. Grass opens at a time in Granny Lee Ok-sun’s life when she travels back home to Korea in 1996, having spent fifty-five years as a wife and a mother in China. Kim’s interviews with Granny is what forms the base of this book. Some memories surface clearly, some don’t, and yet it doesn’t take away from the book at all. To tell such a story through the graphic medium doesn’t reduce the significance or the emotional quotient of the narrative. I found myself most moved so many times in the course of this read. Just the idea that these women were not given the agency to think or feel for themselves, and treated with such brutality, made me think of PTSD and how they didn’t even have the vocabulary to explain this or understand what they were going through. All they knew was they had to be alive, no matter what. In the hope of either being saved by strangers, or finding ways to escape “comfort houses”, to get away from conditions where getting a proper meal is a luxury, where your child is taken away from you, where men constantly enter and exit at will, and ultimately to feel human. The artwork by Kim is brilliant. The scenes that are tough to digest are portrayed with such beauty – in the sense that it exists, hovers above you as you read it, and yet somehow makes you understand, keeping the dignity of the women. I think also to a large extent, the book is what it is because of the translation – which is so nuanced and on point when it comes to brevity and communicating what it has to. Grass is a book that needs to be read to understand how people get away with the utmost damage to the human soul. Given the fight of haves and have-nots, of gender differences, of how unequal society is, this book should be read, and reread to understand where violence and also empathy comes from.

GRASS by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim is a graphic memoir about Lee Ok-sun, a Korean woman who was forced to be a "comfort woman" for the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. This graphic novel is totally devastating - from Lee's tough childhood filled with poverty and responsibilities beyond her age to the moment when she becomes a sexual slave, I couldn't feel anything but outrage. By using an interview style, Gendry-Kim delivers an unbiased report of a cruel reality of Korea under the Japanese occupation from a Korean woman POV. The author's brushwork is both beautiful and heavy. While painting the war atrocities against Korean women forced into sexual slavery, Gendry-Kim highlights Lee’s strength in overcoming all the tragedies that she experienced. GRASS is a powerful and painful true story that I highly recommend, especially for readers wanting to learn about Korean "comfort women". TW: sexual enslavement, war, rape, trauma

It's a cliche to say a picture is worth a thousand words but this Graphic Novel chronicling the experience of the marginalized and forgotten "Comfort Women" of Korea (Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Military but also included women from countries such as China, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Manchukuo, Taiwan. As well as the Dutch East Indies, Portuguese Timor, and New Guinea.) It is unsparing in its presentation of the unremitting rape and sexual violence brought upon Korean Women by The Japanese military. With Okseon Lee the narrator giving her life story but also standing in as a representative of the women and their experiences who were violated by The Japanese. While also avoiding the cloying sentimentality found in the idea of "the good Japanese soldier" who could serve as a "star crossed lover" figure. No instead the Japanese who in an expert touch by artist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim to obscure or never show the solder's faces. This shows the anonymity that the sexualized violence and objectification that no token gesture of condescending kindness by a Japanese Officer could make up for. Also, this is work that knows that the imagination is often better at chronicling horrors and atrocities inflicted on victims. So there are mercifully no graphic or "lovingly crafted" or "artisanal" depictions of rape ala Kentaro Miura's Berserk. Instead, I find its use of the audience's imagination comparable to how Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas never explicitly shows Juli's abuse but only obliquely references it by noting scars and emotional states. Leaving the audience to have to ponder what made him so emotionally remote. This is welcome as a Grand Guignol of Japanese atrocities would not only be off-putting but distasteful to the larger narrative of how one processes such trauma and gains restitution and justice from an often willingly blind governmental entity. In short if one wants to get to the emotional core of the modern debate of Comfort Women this is the book to read.

Before reading Grass, I wasn’t aware of “comfort women”. I wasn’t aware of how they were treated by Japanese soldiers. These women were largely Korean and were forced into sexual slavery during the Japanese Occupation of Korea before and during World War II. This is the account of how the atrocity of war ruins women’s lives – no matter the country, no matter the place – the suffering of women is universal. Men go to battle. Women get raped. Men go to battle. Women must bear all consequences. Grass is the story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee (becoming Granny Lee Ok-sun) – from her childhood to how she became a comfort woman to depicting the cost of war and the importance of peace. The “comfort woman” experience was most traumatic for Korean women that took place from 1910 to 1945, till they were liberated from the Japanese. This book is painstakingly honest and brutal. It moves the reader but does not take away from the story and the truth, as should be the case. It is as I said before a woman’s story as a survivor – undergoing kidnapping, abuse, and rape in time of war and imperialism. Grass opens at a time in Granny Lee Ok-sun’s life when she travels back home to Korea in 1996, having spent fifty-five years as a wife and a mother in China. Kim’s interviews with Granny is what forms the base of this book. Some memories surface clearly, some don’t, and yet it doesn’t take away from the book at all. To tell such a story through the graphic medium doesn’t reduce the significance or the emotional quotient of the narrative. I found myself most moved so many times in the course of this read. Just the idea that these women were not given the agency to think or feel for themselves, and treated with such brutality, made me think of PTSD and how they didn’t even have the vocabulary to explain this or understand what they were going through. All they knew was they had to be alive, no matter what. In the hope of either being saved by strangers, or finding ways to escape “comfort houses”, to get away from conditions where getting a proper meal is a luxury, where your child is taken away from you, where men constantly enter and exit at will, and ultimately to feel human. The artwork by Kim is brilliant. The scenes that are tough to digest are portrayed with such beauty – in the sense that it exists, hovers above you as you read it, and yet somehow makes you understand, keeping the dignity of the women. I think also to a large extent, the book is what it is because of the translation – which is so nuanced and on point when it comes to brevity and communicating what it has to. Grass is a book that needs to be read to understand how people get away with the utmost damage to the human soul. Given the fight of haves and have-nots, of gender differences, of how unequal society is, this book should be read, and reread to understand where violence and also empathy comes from.