Before it is too late

NCA Communication Currents , 2021

During and prior to World War II, the Japanese Imperial Army forced thousands of women into sexual slavery. Known as “comfort women,” many of them were just teenagers, atrociously abducted and kept in military brothels called the “comfort stations,” where Japanese soldiers physically abused, raped, and dehumanized them on a regular basis. Many of the women lost their lives. Some survived the atrocities yet struggled their entire lives with post-traumatic (physical and mental) issues, combined with complete cultural marginalization and social amnesia about their experiences. In a new article published in 2020 in NCA’s Quarterly Journal of Speech, Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager & Minkyung Kim challenge the lack of communication about the phenomenon, and apply “invitational rhetoric” to a documentary film and three memorials honoring comfort women. They consider what it would mean for the public to accept the “invitation” to understand these women’s experiences. The project was researched and written in hopes of bringing justice to the victims of one of the most controversial human rights violations that still remains unresolved.

Entangled Memories in the Global South, 2021

The women who served in Japan’s military brothels across Asia during the Second World War are a focus of the politics of memory in East Asia as well as a touchstone for international human rights and sexual violence against women. By the 1990s, the “comfort women” had become a “traveling trope,” which like the Holocaust, both recognized and transcended its original time and place. Gluck traces their “coming into memory” through changes in five areas of the evolving postwar “global memory culture”: law, testimony, rights, politics, and notions of responsibility. She shows how the ideas and practices of public memory changed over time, in the course of which the comfort women became “global victims” in a transnational memoryscape.

Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, 2020

This study examines the activities and significanceo ft he Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues, Inc. (hereafter referred to as WCCW), anon-profit organization based in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. It will mainlyfocus on people closely related to the organization who have been avoice for victims of Japanese military sexual slavery from its inception in 1992and up to the present. WCCW wasf oundeda st he first organization of its kind in the U.S. in ac ollaborative effort with Korean Americang roups in New York and Toronto, Canada.¹ They have fought for the justicea nd dignity of the wartime victims euphemisticallycalled "comfort women," and provided support for those unable to defend their legal rights and human dignity.I n1 992, the groundbreaking testimonyb y Hwang Keum-ju at the Korean Methodist Church of Greater Washington in Virginia sparkedt he beginning of WCCW'sa ctivities. WCCW has worked with other organizations,e lected officers,s cholars, artists, and more throughout the years. We mentionthosenamesinthis chapter and highlight their achievements. WCCW has endeavored to raise awareness of this issue from within the D.C.

Park Statue Politics: World War II Comfort Women Statues in the United States, 2019

Thomas J. Ward & William D. Lay explore and critique narratives regarding the memorials erected in the US to honor female victims of the comfort women system established and maintained by the Japanese military from 1937 to 1945. Entire book can be downloaded at the e-International Relations, London website https://www.e-ir.info/publication/park-statue-politics-world-war-ii-comfort-women-memorials-in-the-united-states/.

Comfort Women: Forced Prostitution in War. 22 June 1998. The United Nations Commission of Human Rights released a Report of the Special Rapporteur on systemic rape. This report, entitled "Contemporary Forms of Slavery: Systemic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during armed conflict" was submitted by Ms. Gay L. McDougall. I believe most rational people would think that women would have human rights if taken prisoner and forced into sexual or manual labor during war, armed conflict or rebel attack. This is not necessarily the case, though steps are now being made to extend the international court to address crimes against women. Initially, it may not seem that the issues surrounding international human rights for women during war are related to a distinct discussion about American feminism and prostitution. However, once we delve deeper into the concepts of stopping violence towards women and increasing the rights that better the welfare and integrity of women, we see that we must be able to view the horrific realities that at times present themselves so that we can place issues dealing with sex and violence into proper perspective. It is through acceptance of the reality of certain events that we can hopefully begin to contemplate how to work towards prevention and resolve of heinous crimes against women. There is a definite difference between consensual and nonconsensual acts of prostitution, and women in either situation should have basic rights of protection.

Affilia, 2017

At this pivotal time for Affilia, we first give thanks to the journal's outgoing editors in chief, Dr. Noe ¨l Busch-Armendariz and Dr. Deb Ortega, for their peerless leadership during a period of growth and rising impact for the journal. Among their many accomplishments was the establishment of the consulting board of editors, an expansion of the existing editorial board structure that allowed the journal to effectively manage the volume of submissions which doubled during their tenure. Perhaps more importantly, the addition of new consulting board members widened the breadth of contentspecific knowledge within the board structure while ensuring that feminist principles in social work guided the review of manuscript. With the able support of associate editor Dr. Susan Chandler and editorial assistants Lindsay Morris, Karin Wachter, and Laurie Cook Heffron, they established a well-ordered system that resulted in both a more timely and rigorous peer-review process. Their success in upholding the journal's commitment to feminist leadership was demonstrated in their steadfast provision of collaborative mentorship to junior and mid-career feminist scholars as well as the creation of the Distinguished Feminist Scholarship and Praxis in Social Work Award to focus well-deserved attention to excellence in feminist scholarship. Last and not least, the powerful, topical editorials they generated issue after issue challenged us to expand the limits of feminist praxis. We will sincerely miss their collective wisdom and unfailing comradeship. ''It is with great hope and enthusiasm that we begin our term as the new Editorial team for Affilia: Women and Social Work, social work's flagship feminist journal.'' With these words, we began the original draft of our first communication as Affilia's editorial team, a few months prior to the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In the fraught days that followed, we found ourselves questioning whether we could, in all honesty, still espouse such sentiments. We determined, ultimately, that we could and would do so, though their shape and tenor seemed irretrievably different;

Psychology of Women Quarterly, 2009

Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2021

In this introductory essay to the special issue of The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus on "The Comfort Women as Public History," we analyze the turn since the early 2000s towards "heritagization" of this controversial issue. After reviewing the political, cultural and historiographical background to ongoing disputes over "comfort women," we examine how the reframing of this issue as "heritage" has been accompanied by increasing entanglement with the global politics of atrocity commemoration, and associated tropes. Prominent among such tropes is the claim that commemoration fosters "peace". However, following recent critical scholarship on this issue, and drawing on the papers that comprise this special issue, we question any necessary equation between heritagization and reconciliation. When done badly, the drive to commemorate a contentious issue as public history can exacerbate rather than resolve division and hatred. We therefore emphasise the need for representation of comfort women as public history to pay due regard to nuance and complexity, for example regarding the depiction of victims versus perpetrators; the transnational dimension of the system; and its relationship with the broader history of gender politics and the sexual subjugation of women.