The existence and experience of “Comfort Women” were placed on the same line as the victims who sacrificed themselves to resist and overthrow the invasion of Japanese imperialism, and binary oppositional analysis became the mainstream. In other wo...
The existence and experience of “Comfort Women” were placed on the same line as the victims who sacrificed themselves to resist and overthrow the invasion of Japanese imperialism, and binary oppositional analysis became the mainstream. In other words, the pain narratives, and physical narratives of the “Comfort Women” have been studied from the perspective of the country and ethnic group. Most of these research works look at “Comfort Women” from a unified perspective based on historical evidence. Through a unitary perspective, patriotism, and collective memory form resistant nationalism, and “Comfort Women” are proven as a concrete reality of imperialist violence and evidence of colonial domination. The national discourse against colonial rule forms the subject of the nation against the empire and simultaneously performs the function of a resistance discourse.
Through the analysis of Hainan’s Body Sacrifice (2008), Sun Pin’s Body Made of Bronze (2013), it can be seen that the suffering of the “Comfort Women” is not only caused by the cruelty of Japanese imperialism, but also largely stems from the social structure and collective egoism that do not protect women’s dignity and independence. The process of neutralization where an individual is erased by a group criticizes the nullification of the existence of the individual who is excluded for the sake of the nation.
The “Comfort Women” who were forgotten for the sake of the nation and then remembered only in the direction the nation wanted and all experiences became universalized through a gendered perspective. Once again, we must listen to the stories of “Comfort Women” who are eliminated by the national framework, and of individual “Comfort Women” who are excluded by groups. This can be said to be an important clue to closely examine individuals who are othered through silence and exclusion within a state-nation-group.