CHALLENGES IN DISCOVERING STOCKED FOOTAGE

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Now this video was found at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, which preserves all the videos, photographs and documents filmed or obtained by the U.S. military during the war. Quite a significant amount of historical materials that holds great meaning to Korea, just as we saw, is predicted to be stocked but finding them is apparently not that easy. Here's why.

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​Several men believed to be Japanese soldiers are huddled together inside a small fenced yard. They are likely the prisoners of war taken by the U.S. forces in Okinawa, Japan in June 1945. The footage shows a few women but it cannot be determined whether or not they are the victims of wartime sexual slavery. That’s because no records are left at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Many such videos are kept in storage without proper descriptions.

[Soundbite] KIM HYOUNG-SUK(PRODUCER, KBS DOCU INSIGHT(FOUND VIDEO)) : "I thought it would take forever to find only the videos we needed. So, we searched for anything related to Korea, the Korean War, and Joseon and brought back as much material as possible."

A team of KBS reporters made copies of some 9,000 video files running 1,500 hours in total, which are believed to have been taken during the Korean War. This particular video was found in the batch.

[Soundbite] KANG SUNG-HYUN(PROFESSOR, SUNGKONGHOE UNIV.) : "It’s not something that an individual researcher or a research group can do by themselves. That’s why it’s important for the state to provide an adequate foundation for research."

Last August, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family tabled a bill that proposed the establishment of a women’s rights and peace foundation that would've overseen research activities on the so-called comfort women issue. But the bill was scrapped even before it was introduced in the 20th National Assembly.