Author: Academia.edu

Abstract: »This article examines the ongoing debate over "comfort women" memorials, especially one statue known as the Statue of Peace. Whereas Japanese ultranationalists and their foreign collaborators attack "comfort women" memorials for tarnishing Japan's reputation and spreading historical falsities, progressive scholars sympathetic to "comfort women" victims criticize these memorials for reinforcing female chastity and anti- Japanese nationalism. Examining these varying responses to "comfort women" memorials across the Pacific, this article analyzes how Japanese ultranationalism, anti-Japanese Kore- an nationalism, US imperialism, and transnational feminism collide in the representation of "comfort women." By pointing out the significance and limitations of "comfort women" memorials, this article concludes with a discussion of how socially engaged memorials can serve as critical sites for building transnational feminist coalitions in shared struggle against both wartime violence and postwar amnesia.« (Source: Academia.edu)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of China / History of Asia: History of Japan / Shōwa era | History of Asia: History of Korea / Korea under Japanese rule | 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