Authors:
- Sulamith Graefenstein, College of Arts & Social Sciences, Australian National University - Academia.edu, ORCID

- Rosanne Kennedy, College of Arts & Social Sciences, Australian National University - Academia.edu, Google Scholar, ORCID, ResearchGate

Abstract: »This article introduces the concept of mnemonic reciprocity to examine the dynamics of exchanges between local memory activists and other community members after a Comfort Women statue was installed in 2016 on the grounds of Sydney’s Ashfield Uniting Church. Contributing to the scholarship on grassroots memory activism and on the global travels of the Comfort Women statue, we take a feminist, decolonial approach that identifies points of connectivity between the disparate communities that have come together in the semi-public location of the church for selected commemorative events. Based on an analysis of the ways in which mnemonic reciprocity is fostered through exchanges between Korean-Australians and Indigenous Australians, we suggest that the statue’s commemorative functions, when activated on the level of the local, are doubly decolonial. The Comfort Women statue activates the memory of Japan’s imperialism in South Korea and beyond in the semi-public locality of suburban Sydney. In addition, when articulated critically, the Peace Statue can help to decolonise memory in Australia, contributing to intimate, small-scale acts of a reconciliatory and reparative nature. This case, we argue, demonstrates first that it is crucial to identify the particularities governing the place in which a carrier of memory, such as a statue, is re-territorialised. Second, by showing that localised acts of mnemonic reciprocity can strengthen community relations, it offers an alternative to the nationalist memory wars between South Korea and Japan that have been repeated in many diasporic communities where statues have been erected..« (Source: Memory Studies)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 480)
	Introduction (p. 481)
	Memory activism and statue politics (p. 482)
	Precursors: testimony and transnational memory activism (p. 483)
	Diasporic memory activism and memory frictions (p. 486)
	Forging mnemonic solidarities: re-territorialising the Comfort Women statue in Sydney (p. 487)
	Mnemonic reciprocity: the peace statue in Sydney (p. 489)
	Local memory actors (p. 490)
	Conclusion: valuing localised circuits of connectivity (p. 493)
	Acknowledgements (p. 494)
	Notes (p. 495)
	References (p. 495)
	Author biographies (p. 499)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of Japan / Shōwa era | History of Asia: History of Korea / Korea under Japanese rule | History of Oceania: History of Australia / History of Australia (1945–present) | Memorial: Works about comfort women / Statue of Peace | 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