Painter's work a reminder of Japanese military sex slaves

With his latest painting, Cry of Pain in Nanjing, French artist Christian Poirot aims to remind people of the Japanese military's sex slave victims.

Altogether, four of his works on the same subject were presented on Nanjing Massacre Commemoration Day, which falls on Dec 13.

"I created this painting to draw the attention of the international community to the actions of certain countries that try by all means possible to erase the somber pages of their history. The work of remembrance on the subject of 'comfort women' has only just begun," Poirot said during a recent interview given at his home in Mulhouse, eastern France.

"I don't like this euphemism 'comfort women' used to designate the victims, very often underage, sometimes very young, of the mass sexual slavery system organized throughout Asia by and for the imperial Japanese army and navy, in particular during World War II," the artist said.

The exact number of victims is still difficult to evaluate due to the absence of precise records, but it is known that several hundred thousand women from Asia, of whom a great number were Chinese, were forced to become comfort women during the war.

In June 2017, thanks to his friend, the curator of the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, Poirot could paint in the museum dedicated to comfort women, which was created on the same site as a Japanese brothel.

"I immersed myself in this place which runs chills down your spine, where we have the impression that the walls weep, as if the tears of the women which were trapped there are still falling, where I was assailed by violent emotions," he said.

"This painting, due to its tragic subject, was difficult to complete," the artist confessed. "I was plunged into a storm of emotions, from disgust to hate, rage, shame as well ... faced with this crime against humanity," he said, while presenting the painting during the interview.

The painting comprises three sections, which tell the different scenes of the history of comfort women.

For the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Poirot made a poignant and massive painting on the Nanjing Massacre called Deliverance, which he presented as a gift to the Memorial Hall in Nanjing.

For more than six weeks, from Dec 13, 1937 to January 1938, more than 300,000 Chinese were murdered by Japanese invaders.

Xinhua

(China Daily 01/10/2018 page14)