Situating Being a Statue of a Japanese “Comfort Woman”: Shimada Yoshiko, Bourgeois Liberalism, and the Afterlives of Japanese Imperialism

Abstract

Abstract:This essay revisits several of the key artworks central to the events surrounding the Aichi Triennale, with a special focus on the feminist artist, scholar, and activist Shimada Yoshiko. I argue that Shimada’s performance work, Becoming a Statue of a Japanese ‘Comfort Woman,’ is not simply about memorializing the past, but instead seeks to reveal how militarized sexual violence and social violence are ripple effects that share the same origin: a form of bourgeois liberalism that upholds patriarchy, attempts to maintain an image of societal unity, and disavows responsibility for the past.