This museum is located in a residential area under Seongmi Mountain in Seongsan-dong, Mapo-gu. In 2012, he won the Grand Prize at the Seoul Architecture Awards. The museum records the painful history of the survivors of the Japanese comfort women. A building built with bricks is not overwhelmed by its scale and is not decorated with splendor.

Demand protests are held every Wednesday in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. It is a place to urge the Japanese “comfort women” problem. Victims of the comfort women, members of the Korea Mental Problems Countermeasures Council (Jung Dae-hyup), citizens, and students participate. The protest, which began on January 8, 1992, reached its 1,000th on December 14, 2011. On that day, the Peace Monument (Girls' Award) was established. The girl statue wears a raincoat on rainy days and a shawl in winter. The War and Women's Human Rights Museum opened on May 5, 2012, the following year. The spirit of space is an extension of demand demonstrations. It contains a willingness to remember the painful history of comfort women survivors and to solve the problem. Going one step further, we aim for a world without war and violence against women.
The process of building the museum was not only smooth. In 1994, the Preparatory Committee for the Construction of Feed Museums was established. In 1999, a small educational center was established to inform the history of the Japanese comfort women near Seodaemun. It was in 2004 that discussions on building the museum took place in earnest. Chung Dae-hyup launched the War and Women Human Rights Museum Establishment Committee, and the government life support fund raised by 17 comfort women grandmothers became the cornerstone. Initially, it was planned to be built in Seodaemun Independence Park. However, in March 2009, the first shovel had to be stopped. Unexpectedly, the defamation of the Sunkuk Seonyeol was the reason for opposition. It wasn't until August 2011 that the site was purchased at the foot of Seongmi Mountain. The cost of construction was raised through donations and fundraising activities by citizens such as the “10,000 Won Donation Relay Campaign”. Japanese citizens also joined. It was a process that took 8 years to complete after the construction committee was established. Sometimes it is not easy to take for granted the fact that it is so natural.

The War and Women's Human Rights Museum is less than 1 km from Hongik University Station. It is a street corner of the residential area that entered the alley toward Seongmisan Mountain at the intersection of Gyeongseong High School. If you turn the wall of gray brown bricks, you will see the entrance. On the wall, there are letters written on yellow butterfly-shaped paper. It is the trace of citizens who visited the museum. A 23-year-old woman wrote, "I hope that this will never happen again." It is mostly about cheering up comfort women and pledge themselves. The yellow butterfly is a symbol of Jeong Dae-hyup's activities, meaning hope and solidarity. As I turned around the corner along the wings of a butterfly, the building beyond the wall was a bit clearer. The color of the dark exterior walls surrounding the whole is solemn. In the alley, it was the part that was covered by fences and trees. The brick house is a little more realistic.

The War and Women's Human Rights Museum is the work of Wise Architects Young-cheol Jang and Jeon Suk-hee. They received the Young Architect Award from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2010. Participated in projects such as ABC Office, Y House, and Lee Sang-Ho. The Museum of War and Women's Human Rights won the Grand Prize at the Seoul Architecture Awards. Their architecture is not a game of scale. It is also characterized by developing various architectural and cultural activities together.
The museum has no historical connection with Seongmisan. This is a remodeling of a two-story house of about 344m2, which is the home of an ordinary person. The comfort women issue is a tremendous event that has shaken the lives of ordinary people. In that sense, the first impression of a dark gray-brown house and a house that sits at the end of a narrow alley makes the meaning reminiscent. It is a symbol of a space without a symbol.

Open the door and enter the room. Dark space, the beginning of the journey. Buy a ticket at the right side of the entrance. It is different from the existing admission ticket. By purchasing a ticket, you have a relationship with a woman who is a comfort woman. It is the process of going to see him, and through him, we look into the life of a comforting woman. First, we face the interaction video on the wall of the reception room. It is a butterfly that flies out of the frame. It is a wing that goes beyond the wall of violence and discrimination. The first step goes out there again. Rather than going straight into the exhibition room on the first floor, it is a movement that experiences an external space and goes up to the ground building through the basement.

When you open the door to the outside, you can hear the boots. The crushed stone road now opens. The narrow passageway at the edge of the building leads to the basement. The road about 1m wide was laid with crushed stone and artificial gravel. On the left is a picture of a black girl, and on the right is an old man's face and hand relief. Visitors walk through the gaps of time in the meantime. It is a history of war madness and violence that they had to go through. The pebble echo spreads in a narrow space, knocking on the door of the heart A few steps by the comfort women were drawn by the stairs going down the ground after passing through the crushed stone path. This is also awesome.

The underground exhibition hall reconstructed the comfort station with a yoke. It was originally used as a boiler room for a house. In the photo of the ticket received when entering, the grandmother interview is shown. This day is the testimony of Hong Kang-rim's grandmother. Born in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province in 1922, he was taken to Bongcheon, China in 1938. She ended her life in China without stepping on her homeland. “I ca n’t go, I ca n’t come… . ” Following that lonely confession, she looks back on her life. In the middle of a cryptic underground room, hair shoes and shoes are placed neatly like a store.

Head to the 2nd floor from the underground exhibition hall. It is a copper line that goes down from the basement to the first floor after going through the second floor. The walls of the landing are concrete bricks. It is a smooth, unbroken deadline like the remains of a ruins. The skeleton revealed when the walls were torn to remodel the house into a museum was left untouched. It feels like a long history of fighting for comfort women. In the meantime, pictures and bricks of comfort women were placed. The core in the chest remained a text for each brick. A bloody voice echoes along the stairs. Nevertheless, the more you climb the stairs, the more hopeful it is. I hope that the same pain will not be repeated to someone else. It is a wish in the name of the Museum of War and Women's Human Rights. Before facing the exhibition space on the second floor, a work called "Flowers Blooming in the Border" by artist Jun-Hwa Ryu took. He wanted women not to be seen as simple victims. Think briefly about the life that will bloom across the border.

The exhibition room on the second floor is a little clearer. The ceiling on the first floor is open to the second floor. On the left and right, the list of donors remained as a donor wall. Around the perimeter, there are exhibition spaces, such as a history hall, a sports hall, and a life hall. The History Museum displays Japanese military documents and related materials. The first sentence is the term ‘comfort women’. It was written from the point of view of the perpetrated man, but it was written in quotation marks to reveal the historical concept. Beneath it was a comfort card and a condom named “Assault No. 1”, which was given to soldiers, and a diary describing the contents of the Japanese troops going to the comfort station. The exercise academy looks at the footsteps of efforts to resolve the comfort women problem. The scene of demand demonstrations that continue every Wednesday is also reproduced. The Peace Monument girl statue was also present. The Life Hall displays the remains of victims. Now go to the memorial hall connected to the balcony on the second floor.

The memorial hall is a striking exterior of the museum when viewed from the outside. Bricks were piled up intentionally and carefully to allow light and wind to pass. For each brick, the faces, names, and date of death of the grandmothers who were victims of 170 women were recorded. Victims who failed to leave their names and faces are honored with black bricks. In the gap between the bricks, flowers of memorial were placed. Next to the entrance, there was a donation box. The donation will be used for the next visitor's wreath. Then he goes back to the first floor.

The first floor is close to the exhibition hall. There is a permanent exhibition on the theme of world conflict and violence against women. A space for participation was also prepared. You can also go out to the museum front yard. In the yard, the exterior of the museum is clearer. A total of 45,000 bricks are piled up to form a complete body. It is the sum of some winds. Which brick to treat easily? Which death will pass easily? Even if you don't try to interpret it, the hidden meaning is clear.

Eight years is an hour of hard work. It is a sincere and solidarity that has been piled up one by one with donations and donations. It is an earnest desire and a wish. Above all, it is a footprint of pain and suffering that cannot be expressed in words. It is a message of architecture that is revealed at once.

War and Women's Human Rights Museum
Address: 20 World Cup Buk-ro 11-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Contact: 02-365-4016

www.womenandwar.net

1.Nearby Restaurants

Retre Campane: Pizza and Pasta / 46 Hongik-ro 5-gil, Mapo-gu / 02-336-3378

Santi: Curry and Tandoori Chicken / 9, Wausan-ro 23-gil, Mapo-gu / 02-325-1779

2.Accommodation

Hotel Seogyo: 130, Yanghwa-ro, Mapo-gu / 02-330-7777

http://www.hotelseokyo.co.kr/asp/view/main/main.asp

Stay Korea: 60-5 Donggyo-ro 27-gil, Mapo-gu / 02-336-9026

http://www.staykorea.co.kr/

※ The above information was created in June 2013, and may be changed later, so be sure to check it before you travel.
※ Information, such as text, photos, and videos used in this article, is copyrighted by the Korea Tourism Organization, and unauthorized use of the article is prohibited.