뉴스레터

International Conference on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery"

Twenty years will have passed in 2010 since Japanese military comfort women became a real issue in our community. There have been a lot of happenings for this short period. Those who were victims but have been treated as sinners for the last 50 years have come out to the world, women around the world who have recognized the historical significance of the issue have deployed joint activities, and the history hidden for such a long time has come to see the light thanks to scholars and activists who have worked for this cause.

The history of military comfort women has raised a question about the rhetoric on liberty, equality, justice and humanity that have been passed as values of the modern society. This issue has also made us look straight at the current discriminations against small and week nations and in class and gender. There have been disputes as to how to record the comfort women in textbooks, and the disputes have clearly demonstrated that our future may differ depending on how we solve this problem.

Given the situation, scholars, activists and people who have tried to solve the problem have come to think that they need to get engaged more in this matter. 'Comfort women for the Japanese military' has now been recognized as part of the history. But, there are still a lot to be confirmed, and other problems to solve such as war, sexual assault and female poverty. Also, we need to fight with the right-wing forces in Japan who try to attack or escape in order to erase the past from the history, and we need to fight with the authoritarian people in the victim countries.

These are not all. It is more difficult for scholars and activists to confront people who express their sympathy but do not listen to various questions from different perspectives. These people either think that the 'comfort women' problem has now been almost solved, or simply view that the problem is a matter of 'a nation' or 'women' in essence. Therefore, it is ironical that these people tend to use the 'comfort women' issue for supporting the patriarchal system or nationalism, or disregarding the internal differences of women and adopting a rigidly doctrinal approach in strengthening women's position.

Achievements for the Last 20 Years and Problems Yet to be Solved

There have been a lot of achievements as well as mistakes while trying to solve the 'comfort women' problem. In a new context that has developed, Northeast Asian History Foundation held an international conference on the 24th of last September under the theme of "Current Status and Future Prospects of Issues Concerning Japanese Military Sexual Slavery". The conference was held at a time when the political power was transferred in Japan, and expectations were rising to solve the 'comfort women' problem. The conference seemed to have been arranged in order to check the current status and explore the future prospect of the matter now that a number of countries had passed a resolution concerning this matter in their parliaments.

Professor CHEN Lifei from Shanghai Normal University introduced Chinese researches on comfort women as well as the legal proceedings between remaining victims of China and the Japanese government.

SHOJI Rutsuko, the director of Women's Active Museum on War and Peace, explained how Japan has tried to shrink its responsibility about in this matter and how the country has attempted to distort the truth. Director SHOJI also introduced how expectations have risen recently in Japan for solution of the 'comfort women' problem since its transition of political power.

YOON Mee-hyang, a standing member of the Executive Committee of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, explained how women in Korea have collectively achieved successful outcomes in solving the 'comfort women' problem. The presenter also expressed her hope that the proposed 'War & Women's Human Rights Museum' would become a center for education connecting the past, the present and the future as well as a center for international solidarity.

Mindy KOTLER (Director of Asia Policy Point), who had given a lot of public and private assistance for adoption of the House resolution in the US, also made a presentation at the conference. She pointed out that the male-centered political environment had inevitably made her compromise in some matters before Resolution 121 could be passed in the US House of Representatives. She then claimed that if we wanted a political solution in this matter, we should recognize the current power structure that would limit our boundary, and then design a strategic approach to overcome it.

Expecting Discussions on Narrowed Topics and Jointly Organized Efforts

The conference theme was so broad that participants from different countries merely discussed the current status of 'comfort women' issues and then suggested future tasks for action from different points of view.

In China, the issue has not yet penetrated into the wider community, so scholars are performing their researches in a lonely barren environment even though finding facts is very important in the country. In Japan where harms were both inflicted and received , activists are thinking about how they can induce the Japanese government to apologize and compensate and how to develop the sufferings of 'comfort women' into a public issue. Activities of the Korean participant are now focused on international collaboration and museum operation. According to her, Korean people's interest in comfort women has now so weakened that it cannot match the raised interest of the international society in this issue. It is hard for her to handle the situation. The American participant looked at the 'comfort women' issue within the context of the present politics. She didn't consider the issue within the historical context. She suggested that the issue should not just be dealt with as a matter of war compensation, but should be regarded as a universal problem for the international community.

During the conference, numerous situations and cases were reported in relation to comfort women. However, as it usually happens in other conferences, time was limited and discussions couldn't be done in details. Participants could only find the differences between them and a long list of future tasks for them, and had to finish their discussions unsatisfactorily.

I thought that the current state and issues in relation to comfort women had now come to a new stage. In this new stage, it is not sufficient enough to just confirm the problems relating to comfort women. The new stage requires us to consider developing strategies for peculiar and universal elements of history in order to solve the problems. It is also necessary to think about how countries with different histories can collaborate with each other in this matter and what concerns should be given to each other. Approaching the 20th anniversary of this movement, we are entering into a new political situation. We need to develop more specific and realistic strategies and we need to have a venue for discussions and collaboration in this direction.