As part of my Computer Science Independent Research project, I worked with Professor Radhika Nagpal to create a kinetic origami memorial to spread the stories of Korean comfort women on the Princeton campus.

During the Asia-Pacific War, an estimate of around 200,000 young women were captured and forced into sexual slavery as “comfort women” for Japanese troops. These women came from many different countries under Japanese occupation, but most were from Korea. As “comfort women”, they were subject to extensive physical and sexual abuse, and to this day, the surviving women are unable to find peace from the trauma.

The objective of this project was to create a kinetic memorial to honor the strength and resilience of the Korean comfort women, thereby fostering conversation around the complex narratives stemming from the intertwined histories of East Asian countries.