Comfort women: an ongoing battle for justice

  Articoli (Articles)
  Graziana Gigliuto
  28 December 2022
  10 minutes, 38 seconds

Written by Gopiga Arulchelvam and Graziana Gigliuto

The notions of comfort women and comfort stations appeared primarily during the Second World War in reference to those houses in military camps where women were coerced to practise sexual activities with Japanese soldiers.

In 1932, following the Manchurian incident (September 1931), Japanese army opened in Shanghai one of the earliest comfort stations. In 1937, the amount of comfort stations increased in China with the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war. Then, comfort stations expanded rapidly to the South-East Asia with the Pacific war (Imperial Japan against British Empire, USA, Netherlands…). The number of comfort women is hard to determine and is a frequent source of debate.

Today, the Japanese government is reluctant to recognize the issue and to give formal apologizes. Consequently, comfort women's memories are present through culture and by the activism of protesters all around the world. The issue is also often source of diplomatic tensions between Japan and concerned Asian countries.

Comfort stations’ spread in Asia

The creation of comfort stations were justified formally by the Japanese government to serve two main objectives: 1) to counter rape and 2) to avoid the transmission of sexual diseases. The purpose was also to reward soldiers for their work. This official discourse and system completely disgraced women’s dignity and rights. Indeed, they were sexually abused by Japanese soldiers and even by medical workers that initially had to control their health (for STDs). Most of these women were only aged between 14 and 18. Furthermore, there were two types of comfort women depending on their connection with the Empire of Japan.

The first group included Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese women who were subjects of the Imperial Japan. Thus, they were perceived as accomplishing “a patriotic duty in supporting Japan’s war effort”. The recruitment process of those women were different. Indeed, Japanese women were generally prostitutes. Concerning, Korean and Taiwanese women, they were deceived through advertisements for jobs like nurse, waitress and ended up in military camps as sex slaves. Korean women enrolled in comfort stations were drastically higher than Taiwanese because of the demography.

The second group was composed of women from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. They were considered as “spoils of war” and Japan’s adversaries. These women were compelled or kidnapped by the Japanese army in occupied areas. Hence, they were treated even more terribly than the first group of women.

Comfort women in popular culture, denounce through art.

Although the harrowing comfort women’s stories represent one of the many historical cases of intersectionality between gender issues and colonization issues, they have been ignored for a very long time by public opinion.

Only in 1991, after the South Korean Kim Hak-Soon broke over 50 years of silence by testifying about the effective abuses she had suffered at a young age, the issue became popular and other women found the courage to overcome the ashamed feeling that characterized sexual abuse victims and denounce the terrible actions that the Japanese military army committed.

In the absence of institutional support and recognition, Art can be a useful instrument to vehicular strong messages and sometimes to relieve pain; the House of Sharing (Nanumi Jip) a nursery home for still-living comfort women situated in the outskirts of Seoul, for instance, with the collection of paints exposed in The Museum of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, has given voices and faces to these women traumatic experience.

Not only in South Korea but also in China, other cultural sites such as the Nanjing Museum have paid tribute to the history of comfort women by opening new areas only dedicated to this human rights violation that happened during the Second World War, which, unfortunately, too many years passed without being denounced.

Films recently released, documentaries, art exhibitions, and museums are all important ways to fight historical revisionism promoted by some scholars and historians and even not too thinly veiled supported by the Japanese Government, which tends to cancel or cover the inconvenient issues that can stain the National image, while a full recognition of war crimes and keeping the memory alive of past mistakes, not only must be a human responsibility but should also represent, precious though brutal, teaching lessons for the future generation.

Comfort women today, protesting to not be forgotten.

The great embarrassment of denouncing the sexual acts of violence suffered and the fear of being ostracized by their own families and societies were not the only struggles that comfort women had to experience during their lives.

The difficulties in being recognized as victims still matter today. The ‘Comfort Women’ Protest Movement is one of the longer-lived in South Korea, started as a peaceful protest in 1992 and still going on after about three decades.

The ‘Comfort Women’ Protest Movement began with the survivals demand the Japanese government to officially apologize to Korean victims who were forced into sexual services to Japanese military personnel before and during the Second World War, by adopting an institutional resolution and condemning a revisionist history proposed by certain professors, historians, and conservative civil groups.

Many academic reports and international articles have observed as this movement has spread among South Korean cities, especially in Seoul, but also in other Asian countries such as the Philippines, China, Indonesia, and even Japan where other women have experienced the “Japanese comfort housed”, but also in western countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, mainly interested in Korean diaspora.

The noise generated by this Protest Movement, which attired the support of many organizations, especially the ones concerning women’s rights protection, and stimulated the interest also of the youngest generation, is the cause of many frictions between the South Korean and Japanese Governments. On one hand, the Japanese Institutional Representatives are reluctant to admit the involvement of the Japanese Government in the management of the “comfort houses” and on the other South Korean Council has been accused of instrumentalizing the victims’ stories to fuel the anti-Japanese sentiment in the country.

In conclusion, besides the political games that often do not really care about the human and social components of an issue, comfort women were and still are just women from whom their innocence was stolen, frequently at really young ages, that did not expect the violence they would have to face, the recognition of their suffering will not pay them back, but their alive memory could return back the respect that they deserved, and remind us that such violations of human rights still happen today all around the world and did not concern only truly dark times as the Second War World was.

Comfort women in popular culture, denounce through art.

Although the harrowing comfort women’s stories represent one of the many historical cases of intersectionality between gender issues and colonization issues, they have been ignored for a very long time by public opinion.

Only in 1991, after the South Korean Kim Hak-Soon broke over 50 years of silence by testifying about the effective abuses she had suffered at a young age, the issue became popular and other women found the courage to overcome the ashamed feeling that characterized sexual abuse victims and denounce the terrible actions that the Japanese military army committed.

In the absence of institutional support and recognition, Art can be a useful instrument to vehicular strong messages and sometimes to relieve pain; the House of Sharing (Nanumi Jip) a nursery home for still-living comfort women situated in the outskirts of Seoul, for instance, with the collection of paints exposed in The Museum of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, has given voices and faces to these women traumatic experience.

Not only in South Korea but also in China, other cultural sites such as the Nanjing Museum have paid tribute to the history of comfort women by opening new areas only dedicated to this human rights violation that happened during the Second World War, which, unfortunately, too many years passed without being denounced.

Films recently released, documentaries, art exhibitions, and museums are all important ways to fight historical revisionism promoted by some scholars and historians and even not too thinly veiled supported by the Japanese Government, which tends to cancel or cover the inconvenient issues that can stain the National image, while a full recognition of war crimes and keeping the memory alive of past mistakes, not only must be a human responsibility but should represents also, precious though brutal, teaching lessons for the future generation.

Comfort women today, protesting to not be forgotten.

The great embarrassment of denouncing the sexual acts of violence suffered and the fear of being ostracized by their own families and societies were not the only struggles that comfort women had to experience during their lives.

The difficulties in being recognized as victims are still a today matter. The ‘Comfort Women’ Protest Movement is one of the longer-lived in South Korea, started as a peaceful protest in 1992 and still going on after about three decades.

The ‘Comfort Women’ Protest Movement began with the survivals demand the Japanese government to officially apologize to Korean victims who were forced into sexual services to Japanese military personnel before and during the Second World War, by adopting an institutional resolution and condemning a revisionist history proposed by certain professors, historians, and conservative civil groups

Many academic reports and international articles have observed as this movement has spread among South Korean cities, especially in Seoul, but also in other Asian countries such as the Philippines, China, Indonesia, and even Japan where other women have experienced the “Japanese comfort housed”, but also in western countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, mainly interested by Korean diaspora.

The noise generated by this Protest Movement, which attired the support of many organizations, especially the ones concerning women’s rights protection, and stimulated the interest also of the youngest generation, is the cause of many frictions between the South Korean and Japanese Governments. On one hand, the Japanese Institutional Representatives are reluctant to admit the involvement of the Japanese Government in the management of the “comfort houses” and on the other South Korean Council has been accused of instrumentalizing the victims’ stories to fuel the anti-Japanese sentiment in the country.

In conclusion, besides the political games that often do not really care about the human and social components of an issue, comfort women were and still are just women from whom their innocence was stolen, frequently at really young ages, that did not expect the violence they would have to face, the recognition of their suffering will not pay them back, but their alive memory could return back the respect that they deserved, and remember us that such violations of human rights still happen today all around the world and did not concern only truly dark times as the Second War World was.


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L'Autore

Graziana Gigliuto

IT

Graziana Gigliuto è nata e cresciuta in Sicilia. Ha conseguito la laurea magistrale in Relazioni Internazionali Comparate, curriculum Global Studies presso l'università Ca' Foscari di Venezia. Ha conseguito la laurea triennale in Lingue,Culture e Società dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea, curriculum Cina presso il medesimo ateneo.

Durante i suoi studi non solo ha sviluppato un forte interesse per l'apprendimento di lingue straniere, consolidato durante i soggiorni di studio all'estero, ma anche una spiccata curiosità verso tutto ciò che riguarda la cultura, le dinamiche sociali e la politica estera, in primo luogo dell'Asia, per poi estendersi ad altre aree geografiche.

All'interno della stimolante realtà di Mondo Internazionale ricopre il ruolo di Caporedattore per l'area tematica Società.

EN

Graziana Gigliuto was born and she grew up in Sicily. She graduated in Master degree in Comparative International Relations, curriculum Global Studies at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. She obtained a Bachelor Degree in Language,Culture,Society of Asia and Mediterranean Africa, curriculum China at the same university.

During her studies, besides developing a strong interest for the process of learning foreign languages, consolidated during her periods of studies abroad, she also developed a particular curiosity regarding culture, social dynamics and foreign policy, initially of Asia, and later of others parts of the globe.

She is working as the Editor in Chief for the Society thematic area in the stimulating reality of Mondo Internazionale.

Categories

Eastern Asia Società

Tag

Japan Korea war Women second world war Seconda Guerra Mondiale exploitation harassment abuse sexual coercion slavery arts protest human rights sexual violence revisionism History