Comfort Women Article Summary

Words: 530
Pages: 3

The article, “Disputing Korean Narrative on ‘Comfort Women,’ a Professor Draws Fierce Backlash” challenged the “common knowledge” about wartime sex slaves and brought to attention writer Park Yu-ha, who received severe backlash from South Koreans for her research on “comfort women”. Japanese prime minister, Abe Shinzo’s claim of having “no evidence” of women being forcibly recruited into the “comfort women” system was strengthened by Park’s research. Shinzo publicly “apologizes” to the “comfort women”, but expresses it as sympathy rather than an apology because his understanding is that the “comfort women” found themselves in this situation. It is still a resistance to apologize and acknowledge that Japan played a role in creating the colonial structure that harbored this “comfort women” …show more content…
Shinzo’s statement generalizes an ideology that extracts the blame from the Japanese government and targets the women as victims that symbolize the victimized nation of South Korea, there were evidence that stated that “many were recruited against their will through coaxing and coercion” with promises of a better future to move up in the social structure of a society dominated by heteropatriarchy (Cumings 41). The South Korean government also played a role in the establishment of comfort systems during the Korean War, kidnapping women from the North. The issue of “comfort women” is brought to attention in the article and multiple viewpoints are challenged to give a more holistic interpretation and understanding of the history of “comfort women”, who are not only victims, but also key figures to ending the forgotten and silent dispute between Japan and South