By Hanna Nam, Writer

To plan for their fundraising concert, National Honor Society (NHS) members met once a week in room 209A.

The concert was planned in order to raise money for a specific cause. NHS members held meetings in advance to organize and plan for the concert. In these meetings, members discussed the focus of the concert. There were many possible options, such as Save the Children, VASE trips, and more. Despite the vast variety of options, NHS focused on the comfort women issue.

President Yerim Kim explains, “Because of the majority vote, the focus of NHS concert was to raise awareness in our school about the Korean comfort women.”

During World War II, Korean women, ‘comfort women’ were forced to work as sex slaves for the Japanese Army. After decades of silence, former comfort women came forward to demand an apology.

Justine Hong, part of the performance team, explained her personal connection to the comfort women. “I felt personally connected to the women because I’ve volunteered at this placed called House of Sharing (나눔의 집). It’s a refuge and museum for the former comfort women.” She continued, “It’s a issue that is unique to Korea. You can’t really volunteer for something like that in any other country. I thought it would be a good opportunity to volunteer.”

When asked about the importance of the funds, Justine replied, “With regards to funding, the Japanese government never officially compensated for the comfort women. They only set up places where they can send in private funds, but the government did not provide actual compensation. Considering that, I think it is important that these funds are going to the comfort women.”

Yerim said, “I don’t think many students know about how serious it is compared to poverty and other issues. I hope the concert was more than just the a simple concert. Our students are mostly Koreans, so I hope that our students would think more seriously about this issue.”

As the NHS concert came to its grand end on Jan. 27, NHS was able to increase awareness about the comfort women of Korea. The NHS concert ended in success, with 200,000won worth of funds to donate.

NHS is a selective group of academically proficient students from grades 11 and 12 who strive to serve the local and global community.