Cosmopolitan Approach on 'Comfort Women' Issue

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the ‘comfort women’ researches conducted in Korea after the 2015 Korea-Japan ‘Comfort Women’ Agreement, thinking that the Agreement served as important momentum to trigger an increase in ‘comfort women’ research in Korean society. ‘Comfort women’ researches in Korea were classified largely into the three following subject areas: First, the comfort women issue as a Korea-Japan political, diplomatic conflict. Second, the comfort women issue as a reconstruction of historical memory. Third, the comfort women issue as a social practice. Then the challenges and directions for ‘comfort women’ research were presented as follows. First, oral history about the testimony of victims should be studied. Second, ‘comfort women’ discourse, which reproduces confrontation between countries should be overcome. Third, discussion on political responsibility is required in comfort women issue. To get closer to solving ‘comfort women’ issue, further studies on political responsibility of community that tolerated structural injustice and epistemic violence as well as judicial and moral responsibility for direct violence such as war crime, cruel treatment, and violation of women’s rights are also required.