The other-granted self of Korean “comfort women”

Bringing together “identity as agency” (Schiffrin, 1996; De Fina, 2003), Bamberg’s (1997) three-level positioning, and Tannen’s (2008) narrative types, I analyze three interview narratives of Korean women coerced into the Japanese military’s sexual slavery during World War II, commonly known as “comfort women”. Through an eye toward “others” – e.g., Japanese soldiers, “comfort station” managers, interviewers, and sociocultural and sociopolitical forces – I investigate the manipulation of the women’s agency with their identities positioned as victims, rather than survivors. Meaning-making strategies, such as “constructed dialogue” (Tannen, 2007[1989]), repetition, deixis, and third turns, present the ways in which various others objectify and marginalize the women as well as control their stories. These illuminate how the women’s identities are granted and defined by others. This other-granted identity work reinforces aspects of language ideologies and ideologies of being silenced.

The Demand to Listen to Korean “Comfort Women” and to Two Biblical Women

Correlated to the experiences of Korean comfort women, the story of Solomon’s judgment (1 Kgs. 3:16–28) becomes a resistance narrative to hegemonic powers. The interpretation discusses the literary strategies of the women’s identities and naming, the emerging reversal of power, the issues of mimicry, mockery, ambiguity, and the conspiracy of readers. The Japanese military comfort women of World War II serve as the geopolitical context with which the interpretation justifies its focus on the two biblical women. It becomes apparent that colonizing and patriarchal powers ignore victim-survivors of sexual violence and abuse whether in the biblical text or in recent Korean history. Biblical texts and recent wartime events illuminate each other.

A study on feminist scholarship and human rights activism against practices of gendered-based violence: focused on Korean comfort women movement

This article focused on the Korean comfort women issue(Chongshindae issue).The Chongshindae issue is not just a question, which was silent for about 50 years. It has an important influence on contemporary times in Korean and other Asian societies. Moreover, it can prevent future problems related to social class, gender issues, violations against women and the impact of patriarchal organizations. This article argues, first, the issue of the comfort women system during the war between Japan and South Korea evolved into a universal dispute in the contemporary world. Moreover, not only Korean feminists, but also feminist scholars and human rights activists from different countries were involved. In otherwise, it is important to note that the gender hierarchy and patriarchal society in both countries of Japan and Korea limited the opportunities of feminists and human rights activists over the comfort women issue. The Controversial AWF seemed like a tool of Japan to avoid their legal responsibility and official apology. Nevertheless, the Chongshindae movement had achieved remarkable success regarding the comfort women issue, despite the controversies between the two countries, especially in establishing the historical monument. Moreover, a feminist national context helped to raise the issue of comfort women as a political issue, and made it symbolic.

Japan’s Reconciliation in the Issue of Comfort Women with the Netherlands and South Korea: Pragmatic and Reflective Reconciliation

Reconciliation among states tends to be pragmatic, based on cost/benefit national interest calculation. But it can be reflective, involving the perpetrator’s responsibility and remorse and the victims’ forgiveness, thus enhancing their mutual confidence. Japan’s moral compensation for the former Dutch and South Korean comfort women was pragmatic, based on the post-war legal agreements, but its scheme with atonement projects for each survivor had reflective elements. The Netherlands mostly accepted and South Korea mostly rejected Japan’s moral compensation for their distinctive historical and political reasons. However, Japan’s occasional excuse-like denial of coercive recruitment of comfort women based on the absence of public documents significantly reduced their confidence in Japan. This shows that the vindication of the victims’ dignity, anchored with the perpetrator’s consistent acknowledgement of its offense, is at the core of reconciliation. Reflective reconciliation is difficult to achieve but pragmatic reconciliation leaves room for dialogue among all parties concerned toward genuine understanding of the victims and thus to the restoration of their dignity.

Yearning for affection: Traumatic bonding between Korean ‘comfort women’ and Japanese soldiers during World War II

This work analyses the complex and contentious issues of mutual affection and codependency in relationships between Korean ‘comfort women’ and Japanese soldiers during World War II. Drawing on a combination of interviews and published resources, it explores the groups’ perceptions of one another within the framework of ‘traumatic bonding’. Despite traumatic violence and stark inequalities, this article finds nuanced contributions from the parties involved. For the soldiers, the relationships provided a form of emotional relief from the violence of war and from the oppression they themselves were subjected to by those of superior rank within the military hierarchy, while the women often sought kindness and protection from the military men with whom they had formed relationships. However, underneath the yearning for human connection, these relationships were highly complex and deeply affected by the overarching power dynamics of gender and the racialised colonial hierarchy.

Bare Lives in the Shadow of Empires: Jesus, Comfort Women, and Theology of Resistance

This article delves into the biopolitical dimension of Jesus and Korean comfort women by engaging with the insight yet to be gleaned from Giorgio Agamben’s notion of bare life. Seen through this biopolitical prism, Jesus in the passion narratives of the Gospels can be understood as a paradigmatic bare life in his sheer ambiguity, which swings back and forth between terrestrial and celestial dominions. Similarly, Korean comfort women, albeit in a different historical and sociocultural context, can also be viewed as bare lives under ruthless Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945). My contention here is that, through the process of theological thinking, the reconfiguration of Jesus as a subversive bare life offers fresh insight into the agency of Korean comfort women in the sense that their bare lives have so far resisted the unjust world in their search of human rights and dignity. In spite of his tribulations between the Jewish and Roman authorities, Jesus unsettles these sovereign powers in such an ambiguous space. In a similar fashion, Korean comfort women have broadcast the atrocious brutality of Japanese colonial rule in the ambiguous zone beyond the juridical realms—Korean, Japanese, or otherwise—at the national and international levels. The foremost point to remember is that a commemoration of Jesus’ life as the most paradigmatic example of bare life can inspire Korean comfort women to deal with their agony in assuming bare life in the unswerving hope of justice yet to be served through divine intervention in the terrestrial sovereignty in liminal space and time.