Nanum-Jip means the house of sharing in the Korean language. Since former-comfort women began to identify themselves, they didn稚 have a place to go, or, could not live with their family anymore. Nine former-comfort women lived together in the house of sharing.

There are 203 former-comfort women who have stepped forward as of March 2002 and of which, 61 have passed away.

<"You have come too late.">

On March 9th, I visited Nanum-Jip in northern Seoul after the 499th demonstration was wrapped up.

I am a Japanese man in my late thirties and 180cm tall. My purpose of visit was not to take care of halmonis voluntarily, but to make a report. Indeed, I was worried whether halmonis would accept my stay.

"A Korean journalist from a newspaper company came to stay for a week. I heard he had a difficult time although he didn't have any language barrier. But don't worry. There are few halmonis who speak Japanese. You will have to spend some time with them, although some have a very strong personality." Ms. Nungwang, a nun in-charge of the house tried to cheer me up.

There is a living room on the first floor of a house where halmonis and staff resided. There I saw three halmonis watching television. I tried to identify them from the documents I had looked through before my visit. However, I could not match either the names or faces, probably due to my nervousness.

"Annyo'nghaseyo? (Hello in Korean language)" I managed to greet, but I knew my voice was cracking. "Konnichiwa.", when I heard a reply in Japanese, I was totally worn out.