Comfort Women Research Articles

Breaking the Dehumanization and Shaming of Asian Comfort Women : Theology of Social Sin and Guilt Shame

The silencing and shaming of Asian comfort women by Japan represent prime examples of dehumanization through female objectification. The Japanese government’s World War II-era sinful and evil predatory actions towards these women have been perpetuated in the years that have followed through the government’s political efforts to silence this history of women’s enslavement. Recognition of two faces of shame—the shame of the perpetrator, guilty of structural and social sin and evil of Japan, and the shame of victims, innocent but wrongly imposed upon by the perpetrator and their culture —can be a pivotal theological line of discussion and reflection. The shame of the formerly subjugated women, and the guilt shame of the Japanese government can only be alleviated with a substantive response to the growing call of social justice activism. This can be supported by theological and psychological reflection for the restoration of Asian comfort women’s human rights and by Japan’s proper apology and compensation directly for the victims and their families. The implications—of a theology of shame and guilt shame—promote awareness of the seriousness of dehumanization through the sex slavery system of sex-trafficking orchestrated by imperial Japan and invite comfort women, Japan, and their communities to move forward in reconciliation. It is through breaking the hold of tendencies of silencing and shaming that perpetuate the dehumanization of these women. Furthermore, this critical reflection can advance calls for social justice on behalf those who are victims of human-trafficking— particularly sex-trafficking—in modern days and a restoration of their full human rights from the dehumanization process of sex slavery.

Factors affecting Japan in resolving the issue of jugun ianfu with South Korea through a ‘finally and irreversibly’ agreement between Japan and South Korea in 2016

Jugun ianfu or comfort women is a term for women who are used to meet the sexual needs of Japanese soldiers during the colonial period until the end of World War II. After rejecting the program from the Asian Women’s Fund (AWF) which was formed by the Japanese government to resolve the issue of jugun ianfu, activists and the South Korean government urged Japan to resolve the issue again. However, the Japanese government did not give a positive response. In fact, in 2014 the investigative team under Shinzo Abe stated that the statement acknowledging the direct or indirect involvement of the Japanese military in the creation and management of the comfort station was not based on facts and was the result of negotiations with South Korea. However, in November 2015, the Foreign Ministers of Japan and South Korea met and agreed to resolve this issue by drawing up a 'Finally and Irreversibly' Agreement. The author uses a qualitative method with the main data source in the form of literature to analyze why the Japanese government finally softened and agreed to resolve the issue of South Korea's jugun ianfu by compiling a ‘Finally and Irreversibly’ Agreement. The changes that occurred on the part of the Japanese government were caused by various internal and external factors, such as economic problems faced by Japan, decisive action from South Korea, pressure from the United States, the strengthening of the economy and defense from China and the increasing nuclear capabilities of North Korea.

Court Decisions in the Republic of Korea on Japan's Accountability for Sexual Slavery of the Comfort Women

Abstract On January and April of 2021, two contradictory decisions on the comfort women issue were ruled by two courts in the Republic of Korea (ROK), stirring much controversy on the various legal issues concerning the comfort women. In the January decision, the court held Japan accountable for the acts committed against the comfort women and denied Japan’s immunity in the courts of the ROK because these atrocities constitute crimes against humanity when Japan illegally occupied Korea. On the other hand, the April decision, which was a case for another group of comfort women victims, dismissed the suit by ruling that Japan was rather immune on this issue in ROK courts because state immunity is considered to be part of customary international law. The court specifically referred to the Jurisdictional Immunities case before the International Court of Justice which found that violations of jus cogens as a substantive norm could not trump over procedural matters such as state immunity. As the April case has been appealed by the victims, this article aims to examine the historical background of the issue of comfort women and the main legal issues of these domestic decisions. The first issue concerns whether Japan is immune in ROK courts for even alleged violations of jus cogens, and the second issue is whether the individual claims of the comfort women are still valid today or whether they have been, as a matter of law, extinguished or waived through the 1965 Claims Agreement and the 2015 Agreement signed by both the ROK and Japan.

The visual chronopolitics of ‘comfort women’ narrative films in South Korea

ABSTRACT The military ‘comfort women’ films go beyond homogeneous groups, but instead speak to an inherently singular human existence to construct affects that lend themselves in creating a public memory that is both collective and political. In examining the chronopolitics of South Korean ‘comfort women’ films, the essay looks beyond the notion of linear and homogeneous history and underscores the power of imagination in reviving historical memories from the present perspective. Especially, it pays attention to the contemporary narrative films such as Spirits’ Homecoming (2016), I Can Speak (2017), and Herstory (2018) and their distinctive strategies of melodramatic sensibility and imagination.

‘위안부’ 문제의 세계시민주의적 접근

This study aims to analyze the ‘comfort women’ researches conducted in Korea after the 2015 Korea-Japan ‘Comfort Women’ Agreement, thinking that the Agreement served as important momentum to trigger an increase in ‘comfort women’ research in Korean society. ‘Comfort women’ researches in Korea were classified largely into the three following subject areas: First, the comfort women issue as a Korea-Japan political, diplomatic conflict. Second, the comfort women issue as a reconstruction of historical memory. Third, the comfort women issue as a social practice. Then the challenges and directions for ‘comfort women’ research were presented as follows. First, oral history about the testimony of victims should be studied. Second, ‘comfort women’ discourse, which reproduces confrontation between countries should be overcome. Third, discussion on political responsibility is required in comfort women issue. To get closer to solving ‘comfort women’ issue, further studies on political responsibility of community that tolerated structural injustice and epistemic violence as well as judicial and moral responsibility for direct violence such as war crime, cruel treatment, and violation of women’s rights are also required.

Inmunidad de jurisdicción y derechos humanos: dos astillas no hacen fuego

During 2021, two domestic courts – the District Court of South Korea and the Brazilian Supreme Court– ruled on two cases related to States’ immunity from jurisdiction and the violation of human rights. Both courts decided that immunity was not applicable due to the fact that the acts covered by the dispute were affected by violations of human rights. In both cases the courts appealed to their constitutional norm and to the evolution of international practice in order to put protection of human rights before the principle of sovereign immunity of the States. While the District Court of South Korea in the Comfort Women against Japan case based its decision on the protection of victims of crimes against humanity and the victims’ right to judicial protection; in the Changri-la against Brazil case, the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court applied human rights laws in broad terms in order to support the exception to immunity. This article questions the legal foundations that both tribunals used in their application of the exception to immunity from jurisdiction.

The Conflictual Legacy of the Korea-Japan Joint World Cup

There has been a confrontational structure to the relationship between Korea and Japan for several years, as the South Korean government reneged on the Japanese military “comfort women” agreement, and the Supreme Court’s ruling on compensation for forced laborers led to Japanese restrictions on Korean exports. In tandem with these developments, anti-Japanese sentiment in Korean society has been growing stronger, as have anti-Korean attitudes in Japanese society. This article suggests that the experience of the 2002 Korea-Japan joint World Cup was not conducive to better relations, but was rather the starting point of the current xenophobia within each country in relation to the other.

The motif of tears: representations of activism and suffering in the Liji Alley Museum in Nanjing

ABSTRACT Although the International Military Tribunal for the Far East condemned and prosecuted rape crimes, there was only limited justice for victims of militarised sexual abuse. This goes especially for the majority of victimised Chinese women. The court’s focus was on the so-called Rape of Nanking rather than on the sexual enslavement in military brothels. After the Second World War, the stories of the Chinese women used as military sex slaves by the Japanese military were soon excluded from the heroic Chinese master narrative. Outrage over mass rape was not primarily concerned with violence towards women, but rather with the ‘humiliation’ of men as nationalist subjects. In this article, I will focus on the Liji Alley Former Comfort Station Exhibition Hall in Nanjing and analyse how the museum moves in politically contested arenas and how activism and suffering is represented in the exhibition. How are the personal stories of former ‘comfort women’ used to evoke emotional reactions in the visitors and to what end?

The Corporality of Trauma and Testimony: Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman

The history of sexual violence taken into consideration for the present study goes back to the period of Second World War, where hundreds of thousands of young girls, euphemistically called the ‘comfort women’ from different Japanese colonies of the time like Korea, China, Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan, were abducted and rounded up by Japanese Imperial Army to provide sexual services to the Japanese soldiers at the military camps before and during the war. The most heinous acts of sexual violence, multiple gang rape, vaginal mutilation, venereal diseases and suicides are manifested in the testimonies and autobiographies of many former comfort women who after fifty years of silence finally found their voices to talk about their ordeal and the trauma they suffered. For the present work, Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman (1997) is studied with a psychoanalytic lens to explore the traumatic history of the real comfort women or the victims of sexual violence. Further, the essay is divided into three other parts where in the first part, the significance of the survivors’ testimonies is investigated through Wendy S. Hesford’s essay “Reading Rape Stories: Material Rhetoric and the Trauma of Representation” (1999). The second part of the paper discusses the rise of trauma theory that has provided novelists with new ways of conceptualising trauma and has shifted attention away from the question of what is remembered of the past to how and why it is remembered charted out by Cathy Caruth’s 1996 published work, Unclaimed Experiences. And the final part is devoted to the transmission of intergenerational trauma as represented in fictional narratives studied through Anne Whitehead’s Trauma Fiction (2004).

Nora Okja Keller’s Fox Girl: Biopolitics, Necropolitics and a State of Exception

This essay aims to discuss the effects of the Korean government’s hygiene policies on the lives of prostitutes and their families in a U. S. military base village, or kijichon in Nora Okja Kelle’s Fox Girl from the viewpoints of Achille Mbembe’s necropolitics and Michel Foucault’s biopolitics. When it comes to prostitution, it can be said that kijichons were in a state of exception, from Georgio Agamben’s perspective. Using sexually transmitted diseases testing (STD testing) as an example, Fox Gil shows how the hygiene policy pushes ex-Japanese comfort woman and kijichon prostitute Duk Hee into a worse life condition, as a prostitute in a show window, “a fish tank,” while also leading her daughter Sookie into prostitution. Because the policy was unconcerned with the test subjects and their families as a biopolitical attempt to ensure the health of the U. S. soldiers, all of the damage goes to them. The biggest problem is that the completely biased policy was implemented, even though state-regulated prostitution in Korea was abolished in 1948, and the Anti-Prostitution Law was enacted in 1961. The terrible result of the government’s policies was that such policies turned kijichons places where women cannot normally live, as we can see when Hyun Jin Kong, another victim of Korean blood- related culture, runs away to America with Sookie’s daughter Myu Myu. (Chosum University)

Korean “Comfort Women”: Military Brothels, Brutality, and the Redress Movement

Korean “Comfort Women”: Military Brothels, Brutality, and the Redress Movement

State Immunity as applied to the Japanese Military as Purchaser and Joint Tortfeasor : Case of Korean ‘comfort women’

The redress and reparation efforts for the “comfort women” of the Japanese military during the Pacific War have been hampered in their home countries by the state immunity doctrine. In this paper, we first evaluate the current state of jurisprudence on state immunity doctrine, especially as expressed in the seminal 2012 Ferrini ICJ decision. There the concept of “armed forces” has been emphatically commandeered to bolster the strict application of state immunity, and a full legal analysis under the state immunity doctrine, namely, that of the putative exception of “territorial torts,” was cut short by the court upon their finding of the element of “armed conflicts”, “armed forces”. However, the reason for making exceptions to state immunity is that state actions are sometimes not exercises of sovereignty but private commercial acts such as e.g., hiring, contracting, property owning or private civil acts such as negligently causing damages inside the forum state, etc. Japan’s mobilization and maintenance of ‘comfort women’ and ‘comfort stations’ does not constitute ‘armed conflicts’, the quintessential exercises of sovereignty. It was the result of colonialism whereby men and women of occupied territories within the empire were forced into most subservient and inhumane roles in the intra-empire economy supplying its imperial war efforts. The evolution of jurisprudence on exceptions to state immunity should not be shut down easily with respect to ‘comfort women’ issues on the ground of a nexus to “armed forces”, “armed conflicts.” For subject matter relevance, the less well-known 1992 Weltover decision of the US Supreme Court interpreting the American codification of the state immunity doctrine is instructive, where it characterized purchase of bullets and other military supplies as a commercial act exempt from state immunity. Such shut-down of the full analysis is especially worrying because it is during ‘armed conflicts’ that worst tragedies especially against women take place and they happen at the hands of ‘armed forces’. The Japanese military, as the end-customer of ‘comfort services’, solicited/procured and paid for ‘comfort services’ to reduce the cost of the war. These private legal acts incentivized the private contractors into recruiting Korean women already impoverished under colonialism by deceit and into treating the Korean women thus recruited harshly and inhumanely during the ‘comfort services’. Throughout the relevant periods, the Japanese military set the specifications of the services to be delivered, exercising its prerogative as the end-customer and primary contractor. It is for this role as a joint tortfeasor in the “territorial tort” of fraudulent human trafficking and also as a purchaser in the “commercial activity “ of purchasing ‘comfort services’ that the modern Japanese government should be held accountable in a Korean court of law despite state immunity.

Networking for Historical Justice: The Application of Graph Database Management Systems to Network Analysis Projects and the Case Study of the Reparation Movement for Japanese Colonial and Wartime Atrocities

Using the reparation movement for Japanese colonial and wartime atrocities as a case study, this paper explores the applicability of graph database management systems to network analysis research and teaching in the field of digital humanities. Since the late 1980s, Asian victims of Japanese colonial and wartime atrocities (such as the infamous “comfort women” system) began to sue the Japanese government and corporations with the help of local and Japanese lawyers and activists. This paper uses the plethora of publicly available court materials produced by the movement to study social networks in this transnational historical justice movement and illustrate how graph database management systems can upgrade traditional network analysis methodologies in digital humanities. By inputting the data about lawsuits and lawyers in the movement into graph database applications like Neo4j and GraphXR, the paper demonstrates the advantages of managing network data in graph database structure in terms of scalability, modifiability, intuitive visibility, query efficiency, and analysis potential over relational database structure, which is the mainstream in network analysis research.

The Kuntilanak Image in Mangkujiwo Movie: Roland Barthes Semiotics Analysis

Many of Indonesia's horror films raise myths that are very strong among the public, such as the myth about the Kuntilanak ghost. Kuntilanak, the ghost of a woman who is pregnant is often featured in films, this ghost is often described as a ghost who has a lot of grudges and is usually abused by irresponsible people such as being used for pesugihan. By researching the film Mangkujiwo, which tells how the Kuntilanak ghost was born. This study also aims to describe how Kuntilanak is portrayed in the film both during his life and after becoming a Kuntilanak ghost figure. The type of research used in this research is descriptive qualitative, this research uses Roland Barthes' semiotic research methods, markers, signifiers that exist at the denotative and connotative levels. In addition, data collection was carried out by means of observation and documentation. The results showed that the image of Kuntilanak in the film Mangkujiwo shows the existence of violence both physically, mentally and sexually, spiritually, besides that it also shows that during his life he was described as a comfort woman and even used as a sacrifice for knowledge. black. Where the violence is mostly done by the figure of Kuntilanak both before and after death.

History Is Not Destiny: Colonial Compensation Litigation and South Korea–Japan Relations

AbstractRecent colonial compensation lawsuits reflect the metamorphosis of historical grievances in collective public memory into tort claims in private law. This article provides a synthetic view of the nexus of colonial law and history in South Korea–Japan relations, focusing on cross-border litigation brought by former forced laborers and victims of sexual servitude known as “comfort women” during World War II. The concept of public policy (ordre public) in Korea, which has colonial origins, has long served law courts as the standard for deciding the validity of a juristic act. But of late heavy reliance on the general clauses of law in legal proceedings has risked turning history and law into handmaids of national spirit, muddling historical accountability and legal liability. Improvement of South Korea–Japan ties should start from a more accurate understanding of colonial laws and a rounded appreciation of their shared legal history.

반인도불법행위에 대한 국가면제이론의 적용과 소송법적 과제 - 위안부 사건에 관한 하급심 판결을 중심으로 -

Since World War II, legal remedies for war crimes made during the Japanese colonial period have not been adequately provided. Comfort women victims filed a lawsuit for damages for illegal acts directly against Japan on August 8, 2013, and December 12, 2016. As a result, in January and April 2021, the lower courts reached the opposite conclusions. The judgment in favor of the plaintiff was confirmed because of Japan’s inaction. On the other hand, the victims appealed against the judgment they lost. Attention is being paid to the decision of the appeal in the future. The above two sentences concluded other solutions whether customary international law that recognizes the exception of state immunity in the case of unlawful acts against humanity had been established, whether or not the existence of jus cogens norms under international law, and whether superiority over customary international law can be recognized.<BR> It may be judged that it is premature to recognize the customary international law that allows the exception of state immunity in the case of torts against humanity, considering the current state of international conventions and the level of implementation of most countries. The jurisprudence that excludes the grant of state immunity in case of violation of jus cogens norms under international law has been repeatedly adopted in several countries, including Italy and Greece, though. Even if it is not adopted, many judges continuously support it with minority and dissenting opinions, so the judgment seems quite transitional. It is judged that the above legal principle of exclusion of state immunity is a process that is steadily building up the national practice until it is established as international customary law, accompanied by legal conviction. In addition, given the specificity of the relationship between Korea and Japan and Japan’s awareness and response level for the relief of the comfort women, if the victims’ direct claims for damages to Japan through the civil court are blocked by the state immunity, the way to recover of the victims’ damage is going to be distant.<BR> The 2016 Gahap 580239 case of the Seoul Central District Court, which concluded that the plaintiff lost (dismissed), failed to reach an advanced conclusion in the process of grasping the current valid customary international law on state immunity. It is only a relatively safe interpretation within the existing framework of state immunity, and it is regrettable to develop its logic.<BR> In judging customary international law in this case, the jus cogens norm under international law should be considered as the superior norm. Human rights are a universal concept and should be treated as guaranteed regardless of each country’s political, economic, or cultural differences. If a government violates the jus cogens norms, it is outside the boundaries set by the international community itself, so the privileges granted to that country should be confiscated. In addition, in this case, the exclusion of state immunity would be a conclusion consistent with the right to a trial guaranteed by Article 27 of our Constitution and the dignity and value of human beings guaranteed by Article 10 of the Constitution.<BR> On the other hand, the legal basis of our Supreme Court decision is vaguely based on customary international law, international law, or international practice, so it can be seen that the legal stability is weak. Therefore, like many other countries, Korea should consider membership in UNCSI and prepare relevant domestic legislation.<BR> Finally, even if customary international law judges that it has not reached the level that excludes state immunity, in this case, the court can suspend the litigation procedures by applying or analogically applying the provisions for stay of litigation under the Civil Procedure Act. This can be a way to protect the victims’ interests to interrupt the statute of limitation and prevent them from severely infringing the right to request a trial.

A Review of Modern International Law on the Expansion of Colonies

The study begins with questions about Japan s colonization of the Korean Peninsula under international law. Currently, the international community is actively debating the establishment of comfort facilities for Asian women, including the peoples of the Korean Peninsula, who were colonized by Japan during the Sino-Japanese War, and were put into forced labor following the national recruitment order. In South Korea, the research focuses on the treaties signed between Japan and South Korea from the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1914 through 1910, as well as comfort women, and forced labor. However, Japan continues to argue that while its annexation of Korea was unjustified, it was not a violation of international law due to the absence of multilateral treaties on colonial expansion and few judicial bodies or international conferences. In order to elucidate the Japanese annexation of the Korean Peninsula, which is closely linked to Korea s identity, international law research on colonial expansion in the 19th and early 20 centuries is needed. Furthermore, given the fact that international law evolved in the process of the expansion of European colonies, such research is crucial for the correct understanding of contemporary international law. This study analyzes the “European International Law” of colonial expansion by examining 19th and early 20th-century bilateral treaties, state practice, and the views of international jurists. The definition of colonies as defined in international law at the time is explored, and the concept of territorial acquisition and trust to colonial peoples of European countries are also discussed. Additionally, it reviews a non-annexation declaration agreed upon at the Paris Peace Conference. In addition, it examines the human rights norms applied to the mandate system, a territorial management system operated by the League of Nations. Furthermore, this study applies the international law on colonial expansion discussed in Chapter 2 to cases involving Japanese colonial expansion. Japan began colonial expansion at the end of the 19th century when it joined the “Family of Nations”, comprising “European Christian countries.” The international community criticized Japan s ambition to expand its colonies against European international law for its colonization of the Korean peninsula, the Manchurian Incident, the Sino-Japanese War, and the mandate of the South Sea Islands.

A Legal Study on Compulsory mobilization of comfort women for the Japanese military and Human Rights Violations - Focusing on comments on related precedents -

2021년 초 미국 하버드 로스쿨의 램지어 교수는 일제에 의하여 강제동원되었던 일본군 위안부에 대하여 경제이론을 토대로 위안부가 자발적으로 계약을 통하여 수입을 얻은 것이라고 주장하여 일제의 불법성을 희석한 바 있었다. 일제강점기의 대표적인 강제동원행위로는 강제노역과 일본군위안부를 들 수 있다. 두 가지 경우 모두 제2차 세계대전 종전 이후 체결된 대한민국과 일본 사이의 국제적 협정 혹은 합의가 국가면제에 해당되는지, 그리고 그로 인하여 불법적인 강제동원행위에 동원된 피해자들의 위자료청구권이 제한되는지가 쟁점이 되었다. 일본군위안부 징집과정에서의 인신매매와 취업사기적 요소, 위안소에서의 강요된 성 착취 등의 사정에 비추어 볼 때, 민법 제103조에 반하므로 성 매매 계약은 절대적 무효가 된다. 또한 역사적 사실 속에서 일본군위안부 피해자들이 일제의 행위로 인하여 정신적 고통을 입었다는 것을 인정할 수 있으므로, 일본에 대하여 불법행위에 근거한 위자료를 청구할 수 있다. 한편 일본군위안부 문제가 사회적으로 부각된 이후에 상당한 시간이 흘렀음에도 불구하고 여전히 일본군위안부 피해자들의 피해는 충분히 회복되지 못한 상태이다. 이러한 상황에서 램지어 교수의 논문이 발표되면서 피해자들의 명예와 인격권을 훼손하고 사건의 진실이 와해되고 있다. 이와 관련하여 국민인 일본군위안부 피해자들의 인격권을 보호하여야 할 국가의 의무에 대하여 살펴 보아야 할 것이다. 일본군위안부 피해자들의 일본에 대한 손해배상청구와 관련된 문제를 해결하기 위해서는 해당 피해자들의 직접적인 목소리를 경청하는 것을 비롯하여 우리나라의 적극적이고 전향적인 조치가 필요하고, 이것은 국가의 국민에 대한 기본권 보호의무의 발동일 것이다.

Toward a Humanistic Discourse: Approaches to Gaining Public Support for Taiwanese Comfort Women

Abstract The socio-political context of Taiwan has long impeded the full recognition of surviving Comfort Women and the issues they face. This paper examines the public discourses with which activists have engaged to gain public support for survivors in such a challenging environment. Besides the dominant discourses centred on nationalism and women’s human rights, there is also a ‘humanistic discourse’ that has been undertheorized. This article discusses how activists in Taiwan initiated a humanistic public discourse that emphasizes the individual human characteristics of Comfort Women survivors, resisting the collective image reinforced by other narratives. By reflecting on the author’s professional experience of arts-based social activism in this field, the paper offers new perspectives on Comfort Women discourses and the implications for human rights practice.

The 2015 South Korean–Japanese Agreement on ‘Comfort Women’: A Critical Analysis

Abstract Before and during the Second World War, Japan established a legalised system of sexual slavery, in which approximately up to 200 000 women, euphemistically known as ‘comfort women’, were exploited. Although the victims came from all the regions of the Japanese Empire, the majority of them were Korean. While initial reconciliation attempts were met with refusal, a seemingly positive step was taken in December 2015, when South Korea and Japan announced that they had reached an agreement which would ‘finally and irreversibly’ resolve this issue. The main argument developed throughout the present article is that the agreement does not do justice in addressing the victims’ needs and rights in many ways, with the need for acknowledgement and memorialisation being primarily neglected. A critical evaluation of the 2015 agreement is particularly important in light of its suspension due to the dissolution of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation.