Staying home due to COVID19? The Korean Council recommends a series of scholarly works on the Japanese military "comfort women" and the movement for its just resolution, so we could learn and join the movement together!
We are trying to upload recommendations regularly, so please follow our Facebook or website, or send your recommendation via email!
*The Korean Council's recommended reading list does NOT reflect an official position or statement, but is to encourage academic interest and discussion on the Japanese military sexual slavery issue.
How Japanese military “comfort women” victims could transform into courageous human rights activists with the movement for just resolution, from
Shim, Young-Hee. "Metamorphosis of the Korean ‘Comfort Women’: How Did Han 恨 Turn into the Cosmopolitan Morality?" Development and Society 46, no. 2 (2017): 251-78. https://bit.ly/3eA27G9
Abstract: This paper is aimed at showing how the ‘comfort women’ victim-survivors transform into cosmopolitan activists through Beck’s three lenses of emancipatory catastrophism: violation of sacred norms, anthropological shock, and social catharsis. First, the anthropological shock of the comfort women was so great that three traumas or han 恨 were found: the trauma of being a comfort woman, of being cut off from the family and hometown, and of not being able to live a normal life as a woman. The shock for the general public came 50 years later, which caused the emergence of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (KCWD). Second, social catharsis, i.e., the paradigm shift and cosmopolitan sympathy, was possible through the ‘meaning work’ by KCWD. In conclusion, the anthropological shock has a hidden emancipatory effect for the ‘comfort women’ and their life can be seen as the metamorphosis found in a butterfly transforming from a caterpillar through a cocoon to a butterfly.
Why the 2015 Agreement cannot be a “solution” for the Japanese military “comfort women” issue, and how the issue could be resolved in a legal perspective, from
Kim, Chang-rok. "The 'Comfort Women' Issue: What Should Be Done About It?" Civil Peace Forum (July, 2017). http://civilpeaceforum.org/172404/
Excerpt from Conclusion: “The legal nature of the “comfort women” issue has not always been self-evident. It took over a quarter century and repeated tours around the world for the surviving victims and conscientious citizens to persuade the world of the legal importance of the issue, notwithstanding the five decades that had elapsed since the crime was committed and the legal block presented in the form of the 1965 Agreement. The UN and other international organizations and various national legislatures did not ignore the desperate petitions of these victims, and responded by openly recognizing the “comfort women” issue as a legal problem through numerous reports and resolutions. The victims, many of whom have passed away, have yet to receive the apologies and treatment they deserve, and the most important obstacle in ensuring justice for these victims is that of making Japan admit to its legal responsibility for Japanese military’s sexual slavery.”
How international law experts at the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) viewed the Japanese military sexual slavery issue, from
Introduction: This is the story of people everyone tried to forget. The matter has been raised before many fora, including those of the United Nations. Much has appeared on the subject in the media. Yet very little concrete action has been taken to provide relief to the victims: the Comfort Women from Korea, the Philippines, and other countries in Asia, whose numbers range between 100,000 and 200,000. Why human rights violations on such a massive scale were not discussed in any meaningful way for more than 40 years is inexplicable. It is for this reason that the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) sent a mission in April 1993 to the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and to Japan. The mission inquired into the circumstances concerning sexual services obtained from Korean and Filipino women by the Japanese military during World War II.
*Updated on May 6, 2020
Staying home due to COVID19? The Korean Council recommends a series of scholarly works on the Japanese military "comfort women" and the movement for its just resolution, so we could learn and join the movement together!
We are trying to upload recommendations regularly, so please follow our Facebook or website, or send your recommendation via email!
*The Korean Council's recommended reading list does NOT reflect an official position or statement, but is to encourage academic interest and discussion on the Japanese military sexual slavery issue.
To stand with 30 years of movement for just resolution of the Japanese military "comfort women" victims, support the Korean Council!
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#ComfortWomen #JapaneseMilitaryComfortWomen #JapaneseMilitarySexualSlavery #EndRapeInWar
How Japanese military “comfort women” victims could transform into courageous human rights activists with the movement for just resolution, from
Shim, Young-Hee. "Metamorphosis of the Korean ‘Comfort Women’: How Did Han 恨 Turn into the Cosmopolitan Morality?" Development and Society 46, no. 2 (2017): 251-78. https://bit.ly/3eA27G9
Abstract: This paper is aimed at showing how the ‘comfort women’ victim-survivors transform into cosmopolitan activists through Beck’s three lenses of emancipatory catastrophism: violation of sacred norms, anthropological shock, and social catharsis. First, the anthropological shock of the comfort women was so great that three traumas or han 恨 were found: the trauma of being a comfort woman, of being cut off from the family and hometown, and of not being able to live a normal life as a woman. The shock for the general public came 50 years later, which caused the emergence of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (KCWD). Second, social catharsis, i.e., the paradigm shift and cosmopolitan sympathy, was possible through the ‘meaning work’ by KCWD. In conclusion, the anthropological shock has a hidden emancipatory effect for the ‘comfort women’ and their life can be seen as the metamorphosis found in a butterfly transforming from a caterpillar through a cocoon to a butterfly.
Why the 2015 Agreement cannot be a “solution” for the Japanese military “comfort women” issue,
and how the issue could be resolved in a legal perspective, from
Kim, Chang-rok. "The 'Comfort Women' Issue: What Should Be Done About It?" Civil Peace Forum (July, 2017). http://civilpeaceforum.org/172404/
Excerpt from Conclusion:
“The legal nature of the “comfort women” issue has not always been self-evident. It took over a quarter century and repeated tours around the world for the surviving victims and conscientious citizens to persuade the world of the legal importance of the issue, notwithstanding the five decades that had elapsed since the crime was committed and the legal block presented in the form of the 1965 Agreement. The UN and other international organizations and various national legislatures did not ignore the desperate petitions of these victims, and responded by openly recognizing the “comfort women” issue as a legal problem through numerous reports and resolutions. The victims, many of whom have passed away, have yet to receive the apologies and treatment they deserve, and the most important obstacle in ensuring justice for these victims is that of making Japan admit to its legal responsibility for Japanese military’s sexual slavery.”
How international law experts at the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) viewed the Japanese military sexual slavery issue, from
Dolgopol, Ustinia, and Snehal Paranjape. Comfort Women, an Unfinished Ordeal: Report of a Mission. Geneva, Switzerland: International Commission of Jurists, 1994. https://www.icj.org/comfort-women-an-unfinished-ordeal-rep…/
Introduction: This is the story of people everyone tried to forget. The matter has been raised before many fora, including those of the United Nations. Much has appeared on the subject in the media.
Yet very little concrete action has been taken to provide relief to the victims: the Comfort Women from Korea, the Philippines, and other countries in Asia, whose numbers range between 100,000 and 200,000.
Why human rights violations on such a massive scale were not discussed in any meaningful way for more than 40 years is inexplicable.
It is for this reason that the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) sent a mission in April 1993 to the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and to Japan. The mission inquired into the circumstances concerning sexual services obtained from Korean and Filipino women by the Japanese military during World War II.