The Transnational Redress Movement for the Victims of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2020

The Transnational Redress Movement for the Victims of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery

Edited by: Pyong Gap Min, Thomas R. Chung and Sejung Sage Yim

Volume 2 in the series Genocide and Mass Violence in the Age of Extremes

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110643480

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book examines the redress movement for the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery in South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. comprehensively. The Japanese military forcefully mobilized about 80,000-200,000 Asian women to Japanese military brothels and forced them into sexual slavery during the Asian-Pacific War (1932-1945). Korean "comfort women" are believed to have been the largest group because of Korea’s colonial status. The redress movement for the victims started in South Korea in the late 1980s. The emergence of Korean "comfort women" to society to tell the truth beginning in 1991 and the discovery of Japanese historical documents, proving the responsibility of the Japanese military for establishing and operating military brothels by a Japanese historian in 1992 accelerated the redress movement for the victims. The movement has received strong support from UN human rights bodies, the U.S. and other Western countries. It has also greatly contributed to raising people’s consciousness of sexual violence against women at war. However, the Japanese government has not made a sincere apology and compensation to the victims to bring justice to the victims.

The first book on the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery written in the Egnlish language.

Author information

Pyong Gap Min, Thomas R. Chung, Sejung Yim, City University New York

Reviews

"This collection of essays is a landmark in the redress movement for victims and survivors of Japan’s wartime system of militarized sexual slavery. As a whole, it brings an international depth of study and analysis and combines with a truly transnational approach to issues and challenges all involved in this history and its legacies face. The volume’s authors introduce a wide range of new materials and also collectively go to great efforts to transcend simplistic "blame games," keeping focus on restoring dignity to those ensnared in this horrendous system and considering how best to keep truthful accounting of its history alive." Professor Alexis Dudden, Department of History, University of Connecticut

"This book is a highly significant work by several authors committed to documenting the coercion of South Korean women into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the 1930s and 1940s. While this is a specific case study of violence in the context of Korean and Japanese history and politics, it is also a larger example of the institutionalizationof patriarchal force that can emanate ‘top down’ from gender-based power relations steeped in dominance and subordination. In other words, the contribution of Min et al. is to specifically document the too often overlooked crimes committed against Korean ‘comfort women’ while adding to our knowledge of how sexism interacts with nation, ethnic and class-based conflicts broadly speaking. The volume, and its moving contributions,succeeds at both these particular and general levels; it will be required reading for anyone concerned about not forgetting crimes against women that should never happen again." Professor Lynn S. Chancer, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	I
Acknowledgments Open Access Download PDF	V
Congratulatory Remarks Open Access Download PDF	VII
Table of Contents Open Access Download PDF	IX
Introduction Pyong Gap Min, Thomas R. Chung and Sejung Sage Yim Open Access Download PDF	1
Part I: The Redress Movement in South Korea and Japan
Unfulfilled Justice: Human Rights Restoration for the Victims of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Mee-hyang Yoon Open Access Download PDF	21
The “Comfort Women” Redress Movement in Japan: Reflections on the Past 28 years Puja Kim Open Access Download PDF	43
Japanese Citizens’ and Civic Organizations’ Strong Support for the Redress Movement Pyong Gap Min Open Access Download PDF	71
Initiatives by Citizens of a Perpetrator State: Advocating to UN Human Rights Bodies for the Rights of Survivors Mina Watanabe Open Access Download PDF	95
Part II: The Redress Movement in the United States
Tracing 28 Years of the Redress Movement Led by the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues Jungsil Lee and Dongwoo Lee Hahm Open Access Download PDF	117
Building the San Francisco Memorial: Why the Issue of the ‘Comfort Women’ is Still Relevant Today? Judith Mirkinson Open Access Download PDF	149
Looking Back at 10 Years of the “Comfort Women” Movement in the U.S. Phyllis Kim Open Access Download PDF	179
Part III: Legacies of “Comfort Women” in Arts
Legacies of “Comfort Women” Bonnie B.C. Oh Open Access Download PDF	203
Making Girl Victims Visible: A Survey of Representations That Have Circulated in the West Margaret D. Stetz Open Access Download PDF	215
Part IV: The Neo-Nationalist Movement in Japan and the United States
The “History Wars” and the “Comfort Woman” Issue: The Significance of Nippon Kaigi in the Revisionist Movement in Contemporary Japan Tomomi Yamaguchi Open Access Download PDF	233
Japanese Far-Right Activities in the United States and at the United Nations: Conflict and Coordination between Japanese Government and Fringe Groups Emi Koyama Open Access Download PDF	261
Part V: New Sources and Theories
Documenting War Atrocities Against Women: Newly Discovered Japanese Military Files in Jilin Provincial Archives Peipei Qiu Open Access Download PDF	275
The Japanese Secret: The Shame Behind Japan’s Longstanding Denial of Its War Crime against Korean Comfort Girls-Women Angella Son Open Access Download PDF	295
Major Publications Included in Book Chapters (Reading List) Open Access Download PDF	325
Authors’ Bios Open Access Download PDF	329
Editors’ Bios Open Access Download PDF	333
Index Open Access Download PDF	335

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 342

eBook

Published: February 10, 2020
ISBN: 9783110643480

Hardcover

Published: February 10, 2020
ISBN: 9783110639704

Paperback

Published: September 20, 2021
ISBN: 9783110763744