Unraveling the ‘Comfort Women’ Issue
*Trigger Warning: this episode includes content dealing with upsetting, sensitive and potentially triggering themes including sexual violence, torture, and death.
The Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, known as the “Comfort women” history refers to the system of sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese government during World War II. From 1931 and 1945, between 50,000 and 200,000 girls and women across the Asia Pacific, were forced into sexual servitude where they were raped and abused by the Japanese military. Despite the history having gained international attention as survivors came forward to share their stories, it remains largely unknown and silenced. Regardless, survivors and human rights activists have fought to raise awareness and have demanded appropriate redress, aiming not only for future generations to be accurately educated about this dark history, but also so that this crime against humanity is not repeated.
Guests:
Woohee Kim is a scholar-activist interested in thinking about & advocating at the intersections of activism, remembrance, and education on the Japanese military sexual slavery issue. Her interest in the Japanese military sexual slavery issue led her to study Korean youth activism on the issue with the support of Davis Foundation’s Projects for Peace grant in 2016. Most recently, she has been conducting research on transnational youth activism on the Japanese military sexual slavery issue in Korea, the U.S., and Canada through the generous support of a research grant from Harvard University Asia Center. This research project is sparked by her experience leading transnational youth organizing initiatives as an activist in the movement for justice on the Japanese military sexual slavery issue prior to starting her doctoral studies. Woohee is currently a PhD student in Education at Harvard University studying youth activists’ civic and pedagogical practices.
Phyllis Kim is the executive director of CARE that focuses on raising awareness about “comfort women” issue, a massive-scale institutionalized wartime sexual slavery during the Pacific War and WWII by Imperial Japan. As a community-based organization, Kim’s group joined the movement through the campaign to pass US House Resolution 121 in 2007, and has been leading a number of campaigns to raise awareness about the “comfort women” issue in the US, including, building the first “Girl Statue” in the United States in 2013 in the City of Glendale, fighting the subsequent lawsuit to remove the Glendale Statue, working with a multi-ethnic coalition to build “San Francisco Comfort Women Memorial,” campaigning to include the “comfort women” history in California 10th Grade World History curriculum, providing teaching materials for the high school history teachers, collaborating with Sogang University to create “Eternal Testimony” – interactive, conversational video with surviving Grandmas, establishing a “comfort women” online archive at UCLA and more. www.ComfortWomenAction.org, www.ComfortWomenEducation.org
Miki Dezaki is a graduate of the Graduate Program in Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. He worked for the Japan Exchange Teaching Program for five years in Yamanashi and Okinawa before becoming a Buddhist monk in Thailand for one year. He is also known as "Medamasensei" on Youtube, where he has made comedy videos and videos on social issues in Japan. His most notable video is “Racism in Japan,” which led to numerous online attacks by Japanese neo-nationalists who attempted to deny the existence of racism and discrimination against Zainichi Koreans (Koreans with permanent residency in Japan) and Burakumin (historical outcasts still discriminated today). "Shusenjo" is his directorial debut. In his film, Miki sheds light on the most contentious debates and uncovers the hidden intentions of the supporters and detractors of ‘comfort women.’ Most importantly it finds answers to some of the biggest questions for Japanese and Koreans: Were ‘comfort women’ prostitutes or sex slaves? Were they coercively recruited? And, does Japan have a legal responsibility to apologize to the former ‘comfort women’?
Further Resources:
A compiled list of resources on the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery issue: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mFfRsEkUBMXXL9SjVxxJDamgU3XbcRGHcCmZkrKBKA4/edit?usp=sharing
CARE (Comfort Women Action) and their work: https://comfortwomenaction.org/
Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace: https://wam-peace.org/en/
Miki’s film, Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue: https://www.amazon.com/Shusenjo-Comfort-Women-Japans-History/dp/B08SHLLN9T
Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of Comfort Women IssueApple TVhttps://tv.apple.com › movie › shusenjo-the-main-battl…
For insights into the movement: Embodied Reckonings: “Comfort Women," Performance, and Transpacific Redress by Elizabeth Son
For insights into the history: Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II by Yoshimi Yoshiaki
For survivors’ testimonies: Stories That Make History: The Experience and Memories of the Japanese Military Comfort Girls-Women
Producers:
Elena Villabona Palomero, Yunji Hwang
