The problem of South Korean ‘comfort women’ as a marker of intercultural contradictions

Abstract

‘Comfort women’ is a term denoting women who were sexually exploited by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Wartime sexual violence has been widespread throughout history, but in South Korea such women have become a symbol of Korea’s struggle for freedom from Japan. For a long time, their stories stayed out of the public discourse, and the wartime crimes committed against women by Japanese soldiers were not covered at all. The women themselves tried to conceal what had happened to them. The 1990s, however, ushered in ‘an era of testimony’ in Korea and Japan, spurred by a struggle to put an end to the past. Bringing the stories of ‘comfort women’ to the surface has become a real cultural trauma for South Korea. Rooted in traditional values, the Korean society was not ready to hear this. ‘Comfort women’ had to defend their right to be heard. They also faced strong resistance from Japan, which refused to assume liability for the crimes perpetrated and review the results of the war. The Japanese government continues to deny any liability. In the 2000s and 2010s, this problem was garnering more and more attention in South Korea. The topic of ‘comfort women’ has been in the focus of various studies and scientific publications in Japan, South Korea and other countries as well as Korean fiction books and cinema. Seeing oneself as a victim has become part of Korean national identity, with ‘comfort women’ viewed as a painful symbol of the colonial past which still bears on the present.