Research
Our Research
Beyond Force: Korea, Nonviolent Coercion, and the Promotion of the Comfort Women System
Kate Lee, 2023
As the “comfort women” issue continues to be discussed today, efforts to uncover the multifaceted factors leading to the creation and perpetuation of the comfort women system have expanded. The comfort women system, orchestrated by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, forcibly recruited young women from occupied territories, primarily Korea, into nonconsensual sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers. While it is reasonable that scholars have focused so intently on the role of violent coercion in the recruitment, containment, and psychological control of comfort women, this essay places emphasis on the often-overlooked forms of nonviolent coercion. In particular, socioeconomic conditions, state control of media and education, and legal deception were equally significant in promoting and enabling the comfort women system and in silencing women after the war. This paper not only underscores the need for victims to receive proper reparations, but also carries broader implications: that understanding the complex dynamics of coercion and silence can contribute to preventing similar human rights violations in different contexts and times.
Other Research
Korean "Comfort Women": The Intersection of Colonial Power, Gender, and Class
Min, Pyong Gap. “Korean ‘Comfort Women’: The Intersection of Colonial Power, Gender, and Class.” Gender and Society, vol. 17, no. 6, 2003, pp. 938–57. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3594678. Accessed 23 Oct. 2023.
“Korean ‘Comfort Women’: The Intersection of Colonial Power, Gender, and Class” is a journal article by Pyong Gap Min detailing the “comfort women" system, where the Japanese government mobilized approximately 200,000 Asian women into military brothels to sexually serve Japanese soldiers. More specifically, the article uses an intersectional perspective to analyze how colonial power, gender hierarchy, and class all contributed to making the victims' lives miserable. The article demonstrates that a one-sided emphasis on colonization or gender hierarchy will misrepresent the feminist political issue and misinterpret the experiences of comfort women.
What the World Owes the Comfort Women
Gluck, C. (2021). What the World Owes the Comfort Women. In: Lim, JH., Rosenhaft, E. (eds) Mnemonic Solidarity. Entangled Memories in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57669-1_4
“What the World Owes the Comfort Women” is a chapter by Carol Gluck in the book Mnemonic Solidarity. The chapter traces how the “comfort women” issue came “into memory” through changes in five areas of the evolving postwar global memory culture: law, testimony, rights, politics, and notions of responsibility. The chapter shows how ideas and practices of public memory changed over time, in the course of which the comfort women became global victims in a transnational memoryscape.
The Korean "Comfort Women" Movement for Redress
Soh. “The Korean‘ Comfort Women’: Movement for Redress.” Asian survey 36.12 (1996): 1226–1240. Web.
“The Korean ‘Comfort Women’ Movement for Redress” is a chapter by Chunghee Sarah Soh in the book Japan's Role in International Politics since World War II. The chapter explores how the United Nations pronounced its conclusive condemnation of Japan for forcing tens of thousands of “comfort women” into sexual slavery for Japan's imperial troops during World War II. The chapter notes the significant resemblance the U.N. recommendations have to the demands that the Chŏngdaehyŏp (Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan [KCWS]) has made consistently since its inception in 1990.
Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War
J. Mark Ramseyer, Contracting for sex in the Pacific War, International Review of Law and Economics, Volume 65, 2021, 105971, ISSN 0144-8188, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irle.2020.105971.
“Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” is an article by J. Mark Ramseyer claiming that the “comfort women” system was not one in which Korean women were forced, coerced, and deceived into sexual servitude and confined under threat of violence. The article argues that Korean comfort women “chose prostitution” and entered “multi-year indenture” agreements with entrepreneurs to work at war-front “brothels” in China and Southeast Asia.
Ramseyer’s article sparked controversy that was not merely academic but that could potentially affect the troubled diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea, and also the delicate role played by the United States as their mutual ally.
Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women
Suk Gersen, Jeannie. 2-25-2021, "Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women," New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/seeking-the-true-story-of-the-comfort-women-j-mark-ramseyer.
“Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women” by Jeannie Suk Gersen provides numerous responses challenging Ramseyer’s article, including one written by historians Andrew Gordon and Carter Eckert, who found that it was not reasonable for Ramseyer to infer, from sample prewar or wartime prostitution contracts for Japanese women, that Korean women entered similarly termed or structured contracts for sex work serving the Japanese military at the front.