Going transnational? A feminist view of “comfort women” memorials

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sonyeosang (“comfort women” memorials) have become symbols of the memory war between Korea and Japan. Amidst heated nationalistic competition, the main battleground of this memory war is the U.S. This study observes how Kim Hak-sun, a victim of military sexual slavery by Japan, decided to speak out after meeting an atomic bomb victim in 1991. Focusing on this meeting, I argue that the amnesia in East Asia regarding comfort women should be seen as a result of a systematic plan to build Pax Americana. Rather than complacently celebrating the Sonyeosang installation movement, which is now taking place actively across the world as a form of transnational memory activism, we should continue to call for a radical and active critique of the huge paradox of the East Asian peace regime that led to amnesia.