Kim Hak-sun (1924–1997) was a Korean human rights activist who campaigned against sex slavery and wartime sexual violence.

Kim was one of the victims who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army between the early 1930s up until the end of the Pacific War.

[5] She was the first of what would become hundreds of women from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Netherlands who came forward to tell their stories of their enslavement to the Imperial Japanese military.

[2] She was inspired to finally take her story public after 40 years of silence by the growth of the women's rights movement in South Korea.

While living in Pyongyang, Kim attended a missionary school where she held fond memories of "lessons, sports, and playing with my friends.

She had a difficult time becoming accustomed to her stepfather and eventually rebelled, causing her mother to send her to live with a foster family who trained kisaeng.

[1] She attended the academy for two years where she learned many forms of entertainment, including the art of dance, song, and pansori, among other things.

After four months had passed, Hak-sun managed to escape the comfort station she was being held at with the help of a Korean man who later became her husband and the father of her two children.

Some time after 1953, her husband died due to wounds incurred when the roof of a building he had been working in collapsed on top of him.

When he was drunk and aggressive, because he knew that I had been a comfort woman, he would insult me with words that had cut me to the heart (...) He had tortured me mentally so much that I did not miss him a lot.

[3] Kim could disclose the truth of Japanese military's comfort station and disastrous life of the victims.

Together with other 4 young Korean women, she had to be a "hygienic tool used by Japanese soldiers to satisfy their sexual desire.

"[9] In the comfort station, the victims aged between 17 and 22 had to deal with about 7 to 8 Japanese soldiers a day in small rooms that were separated from one another by cloth.

Encouraged by Kim's testimony, other victims of Japanese military sexual slavery declared themselves as comfort women and began to share their ordeal.

The plaintiff delegates also included "13 former soldiers and civilians who were attached to Japanese military, 1 prison guard, 3 widows, and 15 survivors."

In the complaint, they claimed that both Japanese government and military were responsible for operation of comfort stations and damage inflicted on the victims, and also they ignored their "mental and physical suffering.

The monetary compensation by private organization was viewed as a means for the government to avoid to fulfill its duty.

"[11] Kim and other victims raised their voices to refuse to get the money and demanded Japan atone and legally compensate them.

Also, 191 Korean congressmen issued a public statement requiring Japan to admit that sex slavery had been an inhumane war crime, initiate the duty to punish the criminal, and provide legal restitution, and repeal the Asian Women's Fund which blurred the nature of the problem.

I live in an apartment provided by the government, and I receive 250 thousand won of support fund monthly.