Abolitionism in the history of the transnational ‘Justice for Comfort Women’ movement in Japan and South Korea

Abstract

This chapter describes a parallel history of individual and women’s group campaigning against prostitution in South Korea and Japan going back to the 1970s. It suggests that the abolitionist campaigning intersects with the history of the ‘comfort women’ justice movement in terms of timing, perspective and participants. The transnational ‘justice for comfort women’ movement in North-East Asia that has been operative since 1990 is seen as an unprecedented success in the history of international women’s organising. The understated abolitionist contribution to the ‘comfort women’ justice movement in South Korea and Japan in both the 1970s and 1990s; recognising the transnational movement’s early and sustained abolitionist history also has important implications for its future sustainability. The ‘justice for comfort women’ movement in its guise emerged in South Korea in the early 1990s, and at its heart was a new organisation, the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.