Korean director in U.S. receives two awards for ¡°comfort women¡± documentary

Female movie director Kim Dae-Sil, 62, who works in the United States, received two internationally-recognized awards in a row for disclosing the Japanese atrocities during World War II in her documentary (¡°Silence Broken¡±) about Korean ``comfort women¡¯¡¯ forced to serve Japanese soldiers as sex slaves.

The film vividly shows the miserable lives of the Korean comfort women and Japanese soldiers¡¯ atrocities through the unfortunate women¡¯s testimony, newly discovered material and the confessions of the then Japanese recruiting officers.

Kim received the ¡°Steve Tatsugawa Memorial Award,¡¯¡¯ one of the most authoritative awards of Asian-American society, on Oct. 21.

She said, ¡°It is more significant that I can let more people know about the real conditions for comfort women through my acceptance speech than receiving the award itself.¡±

She also said that her receiving the award proves that mainstream U.S. society is concerned about the comfort women issue and that a campaign to resolve the issue should be launched again in Korea.

Earlier, Kim received the ¡°Multinational Prism Award¡¯¡¯ from Minorities in Business, an economic magazine based in Los Angeles, along with 20 other people, including Magic Johnson, Oct. 9.

Kim went to the U.S. in 1962 and received a PhD in religion from Boston University. She served as an associate professor of religion and philosophy at Mount Holy York University in Massachusetts until she became an independent moviemaker in 1988. Her documentaries focus on social irregularities.