Uncovered Volume 1

Dear readers,

EDITOR’S NOTE

Welcome to the first issue of Uncovered! We are a student-run newsletter that aims to educate stu dents our age on important historical issues - especially those that have impacted marginalised groups - that have gone unnoticed, forgotten or even rewritten over time.

I’m sure you’re all too familiar with all history teachers’ favourite expression that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. But truly, the importance of this cannot be stressed enough! Marginalised groups still suffer great injustices today; and that can significantly be attributed to the fact that simply not enough people care to learn about their history. That too many classrooms are so dominated by Eurocentric worldviews that leave little to no room for diverse voices.

For our very first publication, we really wanted to delve into an issue that encapsulates what Uncov ered is all about. Uncovered stories, uncovered voices, uncovered atrocities that need to be given a platform now. So, after some consideration, we decided to dedicate our first issue to the stories of the comfort women: women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese army before and during WWII.

The issue of comfort women is one that is highly, highly contentious… in the political sphere, at least. In terms of general public knowledge? For the most part, it’s obscure. In fact, a quick survey of my friends and classmates revealed that most had never heard of the issue at all! So, we wanted to provide you with some insight into the terrible, horrific treatment that these thousands of women endured, and hopefully help you to understand why it’s still such an important topic today.

A huge thanks needs to go to the Uncovered researchers, writers and editors who brought this all together. Collaborating (mainly on email) from across the globe was challenging but worth it!

Comfort women have been shamed, silenced and suppressed for decades. We hope this small student publication can amplify their voices. So, sit back, open your minds, and listen to their stories.

Sincerely, Eujiny Cho

THE RUNDOWN

The comfort women of World War 2 is a topic that is somehow at once obscure and controversial. They are widely discussed among political activists and civil rights leaders, but for the average citizen, the term “comfort women” may not mean anything. In fact, for many history students, the term may not have come up in the class room even once. This is unfortunate, for held in the tragic history of comfort women is a powerful story to be told to generations current and emerging.

During the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), which was fought between China and Japan and was part of the Pacific theatre of WW2, Japan launched large-scale invasions of many major Chinese cities in order to pursue its imperialistic ambitions. In a short amount of time, the Japanese had captured Shanghai and Beijing. Then, in De cember 1937, Japanese soldiers captured the Chinese capital of Nanking. During their occupation of the city, im perial Japanese soldiers took part in a massacre that would become known as the Rape of Nanking. For six weeks, they massacred Chinese men and raped thousands of Chinese women, devastating the city’s population. This

atrocious event shocked the world and presented the Jap anese in a strongly negative light, as well as intensified anti-Japanese sentiment in occupied colonies. Japanese officials were desperate to dilute the negative perception of the army, but they were hesitant to cut off the soldiers’ access to sexual intercourse, for fear that it would worsen their morale. To reconcile this dichotomy, they thought of something no less abhorrent: comfort women.

Comfort women were young girls, often in their teenage years, who had been taken by Japanese soldiers into becoming sex slaves for their army. Thousands of young girls were taken between 1932 and 1937, with an approximate number of about 200,000. Most girls were Korean or Chinese, and were either taken by force or lied to. Soldiers would tell the girls, most of whom came from destitute backgrounds, that there were job opportunities that they could use to support their families. Due to a lack of other options, a large number of girls complied and followed the soldiers to their fate.

Women at a ‘comfort station’

The Japanese army saw the use comfort women as a way to reduce both the incidence of widespread wartime rape and the spread of STDs amongst soldiers. While the practice of having comfort women existed before the Rape of Nanking, the number of brothels increased dramatically as army officials worked to prevent public atrocities similar to the Rape of Nanking in the future. Comfort women were also seen as a way in which to perversely boost the mo rale of Japanese soldiers and keep their spirits up.

The comfort women endured the ruthless treatment of Japanese soldiers, who would beat or kill them if they resist-

ed. Oftentimes, Japanese soldiers would also systematically torture the women if they rejected the soldiers’ advances. Many of the women were brutally raped up to 40 times a day, facing agonizing pain and permanent physical damage from the relentless treatment. The repeated rapes and beatings, along with the physical and mental toll that the women had to endure, led to the death of the vast majority of comfort women - many of whom were minors. By the end of the war, 90% of the thousands of girls who had been taken to be comfort women had died. Most died from the harsh conditions and cruel treatment, while others were killed or forced to commit suicide near the end of the war. Moreover, although comfort women were at first intended to slow the increase of STDs, the spread of disease actually accelerated, killing many more women after the war ended. Although comfort women were widely used by Japanese soldiers throughout the war, it was relatively unknown among other nations that these atrocities were occuring. The issue as a whole was not addressed or even brought to light for decades. It was when South Korea democratized, that the atrocities that occurred during the war were finally exposed, leading to public outcry among the Chinese and Korean communities. Today, comfort women have become a symbol of violence against women and a striking warning against these terrible war crimes.

Rape of Nanking

Rescue of a comfort woman by Allied forces

MARIA ROSAHenson

Maria Rosa Henson was a Filipina comfort woman. At the age of 15, she was taken from her small village in the Philippines by Japanese soldiers to become a comfort woman. For nine months, she experienced the horrors of being a comfort woman of the Japanese armies and endured the physical and emotional abuse that thousands of women around her were also suffering. After decades of keeping her “shameful” story a secret from most people around her, she finally decided to speak up and publicly tell her story by authoring an autobiography called Com fort Woman: Slave of Destiny. This bold choice led many other comfort women, both from the Philippines and other countries, to speak out about the abuse they suffered as well. For the rest of her life, she fought for the pub licity of comfort women’s stories, challenging the Japanese to apologize for their actions and teach about these events in their history books. She died on August 18, 1997, as an advocate sharing the story of comfort women.

KIMHak-Sun

Kim Hak-sun was a Korean comfort woman. Her family had moved from Korea to China to avoid the oppression of the Japanese before she was born. After her mother remarried when she was 14 years old, she went to live with a foster family. However, at the age of 17, she was taken by soldiers who brought her to a Japanese comfort station in China, where she experienced the brutal treatment of the soldiers for months along with four other women. After a few months, she was able to escape with the help of a Korean man, who later became her husband. For decades after her experiences as a comfort woman, she finally decided to step forward and speak about her story, becoming one of the first comfort women to speak on this topic. She was the first to demand Japan to take responsibility for their actions and to call for compensation for all the victims. She and two other comfort women took up a lawsuit to demand compensation for the atrocities committed towards comfort women. She died in 1997, with the court case still in progress.

ZHANGXiantu

Zhang Xiantu was a Chinese comfort woman who had been taken from her home and her marriage at the age of 16. She endured the same brutality that thousands of other girls faced alongside her: the repeated rapes, beatings, and torture. Her family was able to buy her back from the Japanese army within a month with money they had gathered after selling many of their belongings. Although Xiantu was only a comfort woman for a relatively short time, she still suffered permanent gynaecological issues and lived as an outcast from society. Many decades after the war had ended, Zhang Xiantu became the first Chinese comfort woman to speak out about her experiences along with Wan Aihua, another comfort woman from China. Together, they demanded compensation from the Japanese government and fought for the rights and acknowledgement of comfort women. Zhang Xiantu would spend the rest of her life fighting for this cause, dying from her long-lasting gynaecological disease on November 12, 2015.

often, the issue of the “comfort women” is just looked upon as a sad issue of the past. We can’t let that happen. Instead we should use the issue of mass gender violence to examine how gender violence was used to colonize in the past and how it is being used during conflict today.”

– Judith Mirkinson

“Too

The atrocities committed towards women by the Japanese Imperial army during WWII cannot be isolated to the tumultuous and extreme circumstances of war alone. Instead, they speak to a broader, more deep-rooted issue of gender inequality in Japanese society that still remains intrinsically intertwined in the way that the na tion functions today: the perception and treatment of women as inherently sub-human, as transactionary objects devoid of the rights that men can freely enjoy. Whilst inequality has certainly improved in the last 70 years in Japan, significant progress must still be made. For example, in 2017, a study from the World Econom ic Forum placed Japan as the 114th-worst performing country out of 144 countries in gender equality. There are still significantly few numbers of women in leadership across government, and in the private sector as well. Even when they do manage to break through the ceiling and access those higher-level positions, ingrained at titudes about the shocking ways in which women can be treated continue to plague them: a survey from the Osaka International University, for instance, indicated 150 cases in the last month alone in which women work ing in the government, police, and media sectors reported being sexually harassed without recourse on their employers’ part. The laws that underpin Japan itself also still fail to protect and assert women’s basic human rights, falling considerably behind international standards. In the country’s penal code, the definition of rape is still extremely narrow, which can be seen in the fact that the code does not explicitly criminalise marital rape.

THE ISSUE, TODAY Gender Inequality in Japan Government Response

The Japanese government has had a thorny and controversial history when it comes to reckoning with the atrocious legacy of the Imperial army in WWII - typically dabbling in what has been criticised as ‘half-hearted apol ogies’ and ‘scant aid programs.’ The issue of apologies and reparations has long been a source of friction in dip lomatic relations, most especially between Japan and South Korea. In 2007, the US government called for the historical recognition of comfort women and called on Japan to publicly apologise, in response to which Shinzo Abe (the prime minister at the time) refused. It took the nation’s government another eight years before prog ress was made: this time, in the form of an agreement between Japan and Korea that involved Japan donating 1 billion yen (about $7 million USD) in reparations for surviving comfort women, and a public apology (made by the foreign minister on behalf of Abe). Even this agreement itself was viewed as insufficient by the majority of the Korean public - however, the controversy was intensified just three weeks later, during which Abe told the Japanese National Assembly that ‘there was no document that found that comfort women were forcibly taken away.’ About nine months later, when the Korean government called for a letter of apology be written directly for surviving comfort women, Abe rejected the demand once again, stating he had ‘no intention of apologising again.’

Japanese School Curriculum

The Japanese education curriculum has been historically notorious for effectively erasing the actions and atrocities committed by the Imperial army before and during WWII. It was only in 1993, as part of the Kono Statement in which the government pledged to use education to prevent the repetition of atrocities, that comfort women were mentioned at all in classrooms. After the statement, it took several years for the labelling of these women in textbooks to progress from the over-sanitised ‘well-paid prostitutes’ to what they truly were: sex slaves. However, in April 2021, the Japanese government overhauled their education system, doubling down the censorship on the most controversial segments of the history curriculum. According to a decision made by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, textbooks used by juniors and seniors in high schools could no longer specify that comfort women served the Japanese military, or that relocation of these women was ‘forceful.’ A recent analysis by the Asia Peace and History Education Network, in fact, reveals that the expression “comfort women for the Japanese military” has now disappeared from all seven of the Japanese history textbooks that cleared the government’s review.

Academia

The issue of comfort women has not only been rewritten and watered down in school classrooms, but also in the most prestigious and esteemed academic circles. Let’s explore a recent case study. In February 2021, Harvard Law School professor J. Mark Ramseyer published a paper that disputed the historical consensus that comfort women were coerced, deceived and extorted into sex work: instead, his paper, titled ‘Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War’ and published by the International Review of Law and Economics, claims that comfort women were actually ‘re cruited, contracted sex workers.’ According to a letter signed by historians and economists at Harvard and other institutions, Ramseyer fails to provide any actual evidence of such contracts and instead makes ‘assertions out of thin air’. However, despite the international uproar surrounding the publishing of this paper and the signing of a petition by hundreds of Harvard students demanding an apology from Ramseyer and a response from the law school, both parties failed to comment. In fact, Ramseyer remains all the more protected by academic tenure.

Protests in Korea in response to Abe’s ‘insincere apology’

STOP CALLING THEM PROSTITUTES: WHY HISTORICAL REVISIONISM IS HARMFUL

“The rewriting of history must stop.” This was the first line of a speech made by a girl in my school. For the first few minutes, I listened in awe as she advocated for justice for a number of marginalised groups impacted by his torical revisionism - including comfort women. But my admiration abruptly soured when she labelled them with this single word: prostitutes. Surely it had to be a slip of the tongue? But she said it twice. Three times. Soon, the whole speech became haunted by this one word. This one word, that implied that the horrific and brutal and atrocious treatment of comfort women was consensual - that these women were paid instead of coerced, deceived and extorted. It was so darkly ironic that a speech so opposed to the rewriting of history was itself grounded in such blatant - and offensive - inaccuracies. And went on to win a prestigious, international speaking competition.

When it comes to comfort women, negative revisionist history is all too prominent. And like the story of the girl in my school so concerningly encapsulates, even the most socially aware of us are not immune to preaching inac curate, harmful narratives.

The most glaring manifestation of historical revisionism around the comfort women issue can be seen in Japanese school curriculums. Despite ‘acknowledging’ the realities of comfort women and pledging to use ‘the teaching of history… to face squarely the historical facts’ in the Kono Statement of 1993, the Japanese government has only doubled down on their decades-old fight against truth, pushing for sanitised - or non-existent - narratives that only serve to bolster its own sense of warped dignity. Shinzo Abe’s administration fiercely lobbied against the inclusion of comfort women history in school textbooks, and by 2014 no government-authorised textbook included any mention of them at all. The role of physical coercion in mobilising comfort women has been denied, as has the role of the Japanese military in conducting the atrocity. According to Abe’s education minister, including such ‘concerning narratives’ about comfort women would only create a ‘misunderstanding.’ What an ironic word choice. Misunderstandings occur when falsities are taken as truths, not when truths are grappled with and accepted in the way that they need to be. By concealing the most contentious parts of history, the Japanese government is able to achieve two goals: remove the precedent that they need to take responsibility for past actions, and protect the reputation of an imperial government that conducted one of the largest cases of institutionalised sex slavery in the 20th century.

However, this kind of historical revisionism doesn’t just stop at censorship - it lends itself to overt glorification. Japan is littered with memorials that recast Japan’s role in the war in a glaringly exalting light. The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo honours a staggering 1000 war criminals, shrine, the Yushukan War Museum completely omits any mention of atrocities in Korea and China, and even goes as far as to claim that ‘soldiers were welcomed with open arms’ by occupied nations. What a harrowing experience it would be to walk through these memorials. To confront these institutions that not only conceal, but seem to defend, a horrific past.

So, it is not surprising that such actions by the Japanese government have significantly distorted the attitudes of its people. An opinion poll by newspaper The Japan Times in 2020 revealed that 64% of respondents felt that the comfort women issue had ‘seen full closure.’ Only 4.6% felt that the Prime Minister should formally apologise or offer compensation. By erasing negative histories, and positioning the victims as somehow in the wrong, young people remain completely ignorant about their nation’s past; unable to make sensible decisions about their coun try’s future that would deliver justice to communities that have been stigmatised, silenced and ostracised. But the hand of historical revisionism reaches far outside Japan. A quick survey of my classmates found that, whilst about half had heard of ‘comfort woman,’ barely any could understand why nations like South Korea continued making demands when Japan ‘already apologised.’ Hadn’t treaties already settled everything? Nor could many draw the line between coercion and consent. Were they sex slaves or ‘just prostitutes’? By disseminating revisionist narratives on such a massive scale, the Japanese government cultivates the perfect breeding ground for emboldened misog yny and racism. It bars students from learning the history to avoid abusing it in the future; to prevent ongoing occurrences of similar violence.

When it comes to comfort women, history has been warped into a manifestation of the politics of the generation of which it belongs. A tool that can be weaponised to deify one group and vilify the other. It is time to lower the veils and reveal the truths. For the Japanese government to spit out the history that they have so conveniently swallowed. And maybe then, our conversations would be different. Maybe that girl in my school would write a speech that really was as aware as it claimed to be.

A little insomnia is rather conventional true

Yet not like anything she went through

By nightfall demandingly sleepless, reminiscing her day A day, A week a month all but the same way Relentlessly overpowered, a contention for breath, raped once more her fate exclusive in perpetuity extinguishing her from the core For She, is merely a side effect of war

She was only a girl, Deceived, manipulated or taken by force Now here she stands, her blood exuding, bound to endorse Appallingly halting her unappealing disquieted tears

The soldiers touch, she desperately resits the worst of her fears Yet the only fulfilment is the sting of a rod Hopeless and defeated by a Japanese sod Never clothed and forever unshod

Seized, pinned, bruised and forced down She sinks in a pool of emotion, as if she were really to drown If only she were so serendipitous as to belong to one, Instead, she’s shared, over 40 times between man and son She begs and petitions for she is only fifteen, Though her desperate cries go unseen

Met with a slap

As A soldier from Japan forces her to his lap Yes, we’ve hearkened to Hitler many times before the thousands he’s killed the families he tore Anne Frank and the annex where once she hid But what of these women, there dignity forbid Of which most have never heard Day in and Day out abused in a manner absurd For resistance punishment they incurred

The day came and the story was told But only by the 10% who weren’t already cold

COMFORT ME

by Jade Rogers

RAYS OF HOPE

Organisations/Charities

— House of Sharing: Founded in June 1992, the House of Sharing is a shelter in Gwangju for surviving comfort women in South Ko rea. Whilst it began as a somewhat dilapidated, small rental house, with continued funding and support it has been able to expand into a modern compound that provides its residents with the facilities and privileges that they deserve. It includes living quarters for the survivors, but also an education centre (the Museum of Sexual Slav ery by Japanese Military) for visitors who wish to educate them-

Images

from the Museum

selves on the subject, as well as a memorial and exhibition hall that showcases the artwork created by the surviving comfort women.

— The Butterfly Fund: This non-profit organisation was founded in 2012 by two former Korean comfort women, Gil Won-Ok and Kim Bok-Dong, with the support of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. Both women selflessly donated the funds given to them in the form of reparations by the Japanese government, to extend justice and support to women who have also been victims of sexual violence and war crimes across the world. These have included victims of the Second Congo War and the Vietnam War - but also women who are still suffering today, as the result of conflicts in nations such as Uganda.

— Comfort Women Justice Coalition (CWJC): This San Francis co-based, multi-national organisation has been monumental in bring ing about many positive changes in regards to the comfort women issue. These include pushing for the passing of a resolution by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to denounce Mark Ramseyer’s article, and organising webinars with notable school board members in San Francisco to discuss amendments and additions to the state curricu- San Francisco Museum lum - however, perhaps the most significant action that they have taken is funding the installation of the Comfort Women Memorial in San Francisco, the only such memorial of its kind in the US.

— Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International (CATW): This non-governmental organisation works to end the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and young girls across the globe, but has also done specific work on the matter of comfort women: this has included raising public awareness through its social channels, and advocating for stronger laws in Japan that oppose censorship and historical denialism. Its most successful campaign has been a petition to the Japanese government to end any efforts to revise or remove references to the history of comfort

women in textbooks, to officially affirm the Japanese army’s engagement in the issue, and to apologise to survivors and bereaved families. Titled ‘Take Responsibility for Wartime Crimes of Sexual Slavery and Human Trafficking’, the petition has received an impressive 48,000 signatures to date.

Tangible action

— Education curriculums: In California, the curriculums for high school history and social science were revised in 2017 to include the teaching of comfort women. Created in consultation with the CWJC, comfort women survivors, and academic experts, the California school board created a nearly 1,000 page ‘History / Social Science Framework’ for this new curriculum that represented a positive injection of marginalised history into classrooms traditionally dominated by European and American history. However, this change has received little public at tention and has gone largely unreported in mainstream media - moving forward, discussion around this kind of progress must be amplified in order to create momentum for other states and countries to follow suit.

— Petitions and individual action: In recent years, there have been countless petitions calling for progress on issues related to comfort women. For example, a 2020 petition to ban the Rising Sun flag - used by the Japanese Imperial army - at the Tokyo Summer Olympics garnered a staggering 100,000 signatures and pressured FIFA and the Asian Football Champions League to ban the flag at their events as well. Whilst not directly about comfort women, the banning of a flag that symbolises the terrible atrocities and war crimes committed by the imperial army represents a positive direction in progress for the women impacted. Additionally, in response to the Mark Ramseyer controversy, students at Harvard Law School, the Harvard Korean Association, and beyond created a petition that has since received about 35,000 signatures. It calls on Ramseyer to publicly apologise, for the Review of Law and Economics to withdraw his publication, and for the Dean of Harvard Law School and the President of Harvard to take disciplinary action against Ramseyer. This petition has been accompanied by on-campus protests by students, Korean associations, and passionate citizens. These are just two of many examples of the ways in which we all can utilise our political voices to take action on the issue.

Protests in Harvard

— Preserving the legacy: The Institute for Digital Archaeology - a col laboration between Harvard University, Oxford University, and the Museum of the Future in Dubai - has been working on an important project since 2021 that involves recording and archiving the voices of still living comfort women across the globe. It is the hopes of the proj ect leaders that preserving such crucial stories and championing these women’s voices will increase international awareness on the issue, po-

tentially combat denialist sentiment in Japan, and also provide invaluable educational resources with which stu dents (and generally curious citizens) can learn about the atrocity.

RAYS OF HOPE

— Statues: In December 2011, the first statue of a comfort woman was unveiled directly across from the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Korea - an act of remembrance, but also one of seeming defiance that symbolised that Korea and other impacted Asian nations would not stop seeking a sincere apology from the Japanese government or justice for survivors. Despite calls from Japanese government officials to tear down this statue, three successive Korean administrations have refused these demands - in fact, momentum on the issue only seems to have accelerated.

Since the erection of the first ‘statue of peace,’ over 40 similar statues have been built in Korea, the US, China, Australia, Germany, and Canada. Whilst these memorials show some variations - the Shanghai statues also feature a Chinese comfort woman, and the San Francisco memorial features a trio of a Korean, Chinese and Filipina woman - they all feature the same short-haired girl, dressed in a scarf and wrapped in a shawl, who symbolises the inerasable suffering endured by thousands of comfort women.

INTERVIEW WITH JUDITH MIRKINSON, PRESIDENT OF THE COMFORT WOMEN JUSTICE COALITION

1. Would you be able to give us a brief rundown of your mission / the work that you do?

Our mission was first to build the memorial, then to do mass education, as well as advocate in many ways for justice. We also work extensively to refuse the rise of historical denialism that is taking place. Our memorial is the first of its kind in any major US city, that is specifically about what happened to Asian women and girls. As such it both stands against gender violence and anti-Asian violence which is on the rise here.

Despite the fact that the Japanese government did everything it could to stop the statue being built and then tried to have it torn down (the Mayor of Osaka broke the 60 year old sister-city” relationship over its existence), we were able to build it quickly and maintain it because we had a broad coalition of Asian Americans (Japanese, Korean, Chinese ,Filipino) as well as peace activists, veterans, human rights workers and social justice advocates.

2. How is the issue of comfort women talked about, looked upon, or taught today?

The sexual enslavement of hundreds of thousands of women and girls is looked upon as a human rights issue, a crime against humanity and a war crime. It is also a prime example of femicide - violence against women specifically. This systematic system of sexual violence was instituted and carried out by the Japanese Imperial Army and as such was also a crime of racism and colonialism. This is shown clearly by the attitude of the Japanese towards women who were not of Japanese descent such as Koreans, Chinese and Filipinas and others.

3. The issue of comfort women is one that has been notoriously rewritten, forgotten and overlooked. Why do you think that is?

As you know, the patriarchy is a cornerstone, an elemental aspect of most societies, certainly fundamental to the development and existence of capitalism. Although rape has been outlawed in most legal systems historically, it is rarely punished (a prime exception is how rape was used to criminalize enslaved and formerly enslaved Black people in the US). Rape has always been considered to be a “normal” aspect of war - “sad, but necessary.” Ironically, it is women who are most often punished and stigmatized for being raped. It is only recently, that this aspect of society has come to be questioned, but the assumption that it is women’s own fault if we get raped is still very widespread.

The stigma attached to rape is why the “comfort women” survivors did not speak out for decades. It took the devel opment of a pan-Asian women’s movement for them to have the strength to speak up. In that they were the first #Me Too activists.

INTERVIEW WITH JUDITH MIRKINSON, PRESIDENT OF THE COMFORT WOMEN JUSTICE COALITION

Japan, unfortunately, has refused to officially apologize through their Parliament and in fact is in full denial that their military and government were directly responsible for the “comfort women” system. They have taken all references out of their textbooks and have made every effort to prevent any remembrance - such as statues to be built or take place.

The right wing is rising in many parts of the world. And in many countries the issue of women’s rights is being pushed back, along with those of LGBTQUI people. The attacks on queer and trans people is particularly acute. And of course, here in the US, abortion is no longer a a legal right. Justice for the “comfort women” is part and parcel of demanding gender rights.

4. What do you think, as students, we can all do to shed more light on the issue? Further, on an institutional level, how do you recommend progress should be made?

Too often, the issue of the “comfort women” is just looked upon as a sad issue of the past. We can’t let that happen. Instead we should use the issue of mass gender violence to examine how gender violence was used to colonize in the past and how it is being used during conflict today. As students you can make those connections. You can also talk about the “comfort women” survivors not just as victims but as actors themselves in the struggle to end gender vio lence world wide.

You can add your voices to those demanding an apology and acknowledgement of the crimes committed by Japan. As students you can reach out to Japanese students and those in all the countries occupied by Japan during WWII and build alliances to bring knowledge and ultimately justice to the “comfort women.”

Japan is also blocking the admittance of many documents (yes, although the denialists claim there are none - there are thousands of artefacts and papers and testimonies) to UNESCO’s Memory of the World. This would be an import ant step in the establishment of real facts and real history concerning not only the “comfort women” but the issue of gender violence in general.

5. On the topic of progress, have there been any recent steps made in a positive direction in regards to comfort women that we should know about?

In the 1990’s and 2000’s, culminating in the Rome Statute, the “comfort women” and their supporters helped the world establish that rape during war was a crime against humanity and a war crime. Now rape is also considered a form of torture by the international community.

conducted by Eujiny Cho

An example of the strength of this can be found in the fact that women are coming forward to talk about sexual en slavement or mass rape. Examples of this are the Yazidi and Rohingya women.

There is more widespread education happening here in the US and in many other countries in regards to what hap pened to women and girls in Asia in WWII. Statues are being built, books are being written. At the same time Japan continues to deny reality and has made inroads into the international community - one example of this is the 2015 agreement between Japan and Korea in which the two countries decided among themselves, without consulting the “grandmas,’ that the issue was resolved. This has gotten more credit as the US/Japan/Australia etc build up military alliances in the Pacific region. So it’s an up and down process.

MEDIA REFERRALS

Podcasts

— Time to Say Goodbye - The Real History of Comfort Women: a deep dive into the academic article written by Mark Ramseyer, which argues that comfort women legally consented to sex work without evidence, and its implications; the panelists discuss a wide range of topics, from a rundown of the history of comfort women and its impacts on the Korean diaspora, to the prestige of legal academia and the rampant far-right communities in Japan - but most importantly, why we all should care about an issue seemingly confined to South Korea and Japan.

— Speaker for the Living ‘Human Trafficking’ Podcast - WWII Japan’s Military Sex Slaves: a gritty ep isode that shines light on the horrific abuse experienced by comfort women experienced, and also calls on the Japanese government to take proper responsibility for the war crimes instivtuted as official pol icy before and during WWII (content warning: contains graphic descriptions and explicit content).

— Behind the Bastards - The Slavery Loving Fascist Who Built Modern Japan: a broader exploration of the actions of imperial Japan before and during WWII, zeroing in on the controversial figure of Nobu suke Kishi, who served in the wartime cabinet of Prime Minister Tojo; it dives into smaller issues such as Asian labour in the wartime Japanese empire, stories of Chinese comfort women, and revolutionary efforts .

Fiction books

Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller: a novel told from the dual perspectives of Beccah, a Korean-American woman, and her mom, Akiko, a former com fort woman; the story of Akiko’s horrific years in a comfort sta tion, and her eventual immigra tion to America, is reconciled with Beccah’s uncovering of these stories in an effort to better understand her mother; heart wrenching prose is masterfully combined with elements of fantasy and East Asian mysticism.

White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht: this novel follows the lives of two sisters: Hanawho is kidnapped and forced to become a comfort woman for the Japanese - and Emi - who is able to enjoy a life of freedom and privilege because of her sister’s sacrifice; a moving exploration of the transcendent bond of sisterhood and its ability to prevail over the grim atrocities of war.

Non-fiction books

— The Comfort Women - Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan by C. Sarah Soh: written by a Korean-American professor of Anthropology at San Francisco State University, this book provides a unique and nuanced perspective of the comfort women issue that argues that it is, at its core, a result of the deep-rooted issues existent in Japanese and Korean patriarchal societies; it assesses the lack of accountability of male-dominated governments, and the role that East Asian conservatism and tradition play in failing to protect women and young girls.

— Comfort Woman - A Filipina’s Story of Prostitution and Slavery Under the Japanese Military by Maria Rosa Hen son: if you missed our ‘Fact Files’ section, flip back and take a look, as this is a memoir written by Maria Rosa Henson herself; she gives readers access to the brutal treatment she suffered as a comfort woman, and her eventual escape; however, her time as a comfort woman forms only a very small part of the book, and the majority follows the backlash she received from telling her story and her courage and perseverance in continuing to do so despite the criticisms.

Film / Documentaries

— The Apology by Tiffany Hsi ung: this documentary follows the journeys of three former comfort women - Korean Grandma Gil, Chinese Grandma Cao, and Fil ipina Grandma Adela - some 70 years after their imprisonment in Japanese comfort stations; after decades of having to live in silence and shame, they are now inspired to step forward and use their voic es to seek justice, reconciliation and healing in their final years.

— Herstory by Min Kyu-dong: this drama film is based on the true story of the Shimonoseki tri als of the 1990s - a six-year long legal conflict between 10 comfort women and 13 attorneys against the Japanese government, for the treatment of and Korean comfort women and forced labourers during WWII; it serves as a firm reminder of a history that should not be forgotten, and is at its heart a testament to the strength of all the women who have told their stories.

— Comfort by Park Moon-chil: this 2022 film is somewhat different to other documentaries on the topic; it follows the life of the late Kim Soon-ak, a former comfort woman, but captures the limin al time between her actual years as a comfort woman and her years as a protestor in old age - from her rela tively quiet life as a housekeeper to the many beautiful artworks she created, Park’s film explores the real ‘human’ side of comfort women, and reminds us that they are so much more than merely victims.

CONTRIBUTORS

Writers and Researchers Michaela CHEN Eujiny CHO Alara JOHN Jade ROGERS Editor Karina GUNAWAN Illustrator Lola JOHN