Author: Academia.edu, ORCID, ResearchGate

Abstract: »This article examines how binary narratives of victimhood shape the remembrance of ‘comfort women’ – victims of Japan’s military sexual slavery system during the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945). Through Ueno Chizuko’s feminist framework of the ‘prostitution paradigm’ and ‘sexual violence paradigm’, it analyzes how both revisionist and activist discourses can perpetuate harmful binaries of ‘pure’ versus ‘tainted’ victims. While revisionists use the ‘prostitution paradigm’ to frame all victims as willing participants, some activist narratives inadvertently reinforce patriarchal values by privileging victims who fit an ‘ideal’ archetype of young, virginal, and forcibly abducted women. The study demonstrates how these narratives marginalise victims with backgrounds in prostitution or complex recruitment circumstances. Using the transnational feminist collective Tomorrow Girls Troop’s ‘Against Forgetting’ project as a case study, the article explores how feminist art practice can challenge these exclusionary narratives. Through performances in Los Angeles, Seoul, and Tokyo, TGT creates spaces for commemorating diverse victim experiences while resisting both revisionist denial and limiting activist frameworks. The analysis contributes to broader discussions about feminist historiography and advocates for remembrance practices that acknowledge the intersectional nature of oppression while fostering solidarity across different victim experiences.« (Source: Women's History Review)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of Japan / Shōwa era | Art: Performing arts / Tomorrow Girls Troop | Prostitution: Forced prostitution / Comfort women | Sex and the law: Wartime sexual violence / Wartime sexual violence in World War II | War: Pacific War / Japanese war crimes