While Korea groaned under the harsh colonial rule of Imperial Japan from 1932 to 1945, the Japanese military coerced, tricked, and forced more than two hundred thousand women of Korea into a brutal and systematic form of sexual slavery. Forbidden to leave the rickety shacks hastily constructed near the front lines of Imperial Japan's aggressive wars, often with a blanket as the room's only “furniture,” they were forced to have sex with some thirty to forty men every day. Behind Forgotten Eyes presents the stories of a few brave Korean women who have come forward and broken the silence exposing a past that many wish to keep buried.

To this day, the Japanese government has yet to formally apologize or offer compensation to these women. Along with firsthand accounts from Korean women, viewers hear from the Japanese soldiers who used and abused them. With the expert testimony of academics, social activists, and professionals from Japan, Korea, and the United States, the film offers a candid look into an issue that has been ignored for far too long.

Amnesty International Film Festival. 2008
San Francisco Asian American Film Festival, 2008
Tiburon Film Festival, 2008
Best Film, Conflict and Resolution Competition, 2008