Overview

This is an important and controversial work, hitherto available only in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, a book which has been subject to court cases attempting to have some parts deleted. The author reconsiders the issue of the “comfort women,” that is the Korean women who were compelled to provide sexual comfort to Japanese troops during the Asia-Pacific War. She explores the human complexity of the experiences of these women, who despite terrible exploitation, she feels, cannot and should not only be considered as passive victims. She sets the issue in context, revealing how Korean society played a role, with patriarchy and middlemen being significant factors in the procurement of comfort women, and how alongside the comfort women there were volunteer labor corps of Korean young women supporting the Japanese war effort. The author highlights Korea’s colonial status, different from the territories Japan invaded and conquered, discusses how relations between colonizers and colonized in an empire are not straightforward, and argues that people should work to understand more fully the mindset of those at the time, and refrain from forcing values from the present to resolve indignities of the past. Aiming to find a way to pursue reconciliation while looking more closely at the history, the book provides substantial consideration of key issues to do with empire, memorialization, and censorship. It is an uncomfortable read for those seeking simplistic interpretations and easy solutions.

Full Product Details

Author:   Park Yuha
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.630kg
ISBN:  

9781032566443

ISBN 10:   1032566442
Pages:   216
Publication Date:   29 July 2024
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Figures Prologue from Volker Stanzel, former German Ambassador to China and Japan Author’s Preface to the English Translation Translators’ Introduction Author’s Introduction to the Japanese version Part I: Who were the comfort women? State control of the body, civilian engagement Chapter 1: Forced transport or national mobilization Chapter 2: The erosion of memory at the comfort station Chapter 3: Immediately after defeat – Return of the Korean comfort women Part 2: “Colony” and the Korean Comfort Women Chapter 4: Korean perceptions of the comfort women Chapter 5: The battle over memory: the South Korean side Chapter 6: Thinking About South Korean support groups Chapter 7: Reading the Korean Constitutional Court ruling Chapter 8: Examining “what the world thinks” Part 3: The conflict of memory: the collapse of the Cold War order and the comfort women issue Chapter 9: The colonial consciousness that supports the thinking of deniers Chapter 10: Considering Japan’s apology and compensation actions in the 1990s Chapter 11: Expectations placed on the Japanese government once again Chapter 12: Facing the supporters’ potential Part 4: Beyond the empire and the Cold War Chapter 13: Comfort women and the nation-state Chapter 14: For a new Asia: Seventy years since defeat, seventy years since liberation In place of an afterword: why we must reconsider the comfort women issue Index

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Author Information

Park Yuha is a Professor Emeritus at the College of International Studies, Sejong University, Korea

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