Preview

Korean Comfort Women of World War II

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4896 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Korean Comfort Women of World War II
“…Use curiosity to ask challenging questions about what appear as normal, everyday banalities in order to try and understand make visible’ the hidden gendering of the practice and theorizing of international relations” –Cynthia Enloe

In times of armed conflict, women are most susceptible to violence and silencing through the sexualization, dehumanization, and stigmatization of their identities. Janie Leatherman highlights this point when stating “gender based violence often intensifies and becomes more extreme in a crisis, even escalating into a tool of war “ (4). This is inevitable in a patriarchal society where hegemonic masculine values construct gender norms and gender expectations. Sexual violence during armed conflict does not develop in isolation from the society’s preexisting socioeconomic and culturally shaped gender relationships. Furthermore, the patriarchal nature of a society does not work alone in creating injustices, such as sexual violence, against women during and after armed conflict; there must be a “framework that embraces the realities, contradictions, and intersections of various global relations of power” (Kempadoo, 29). These intersections include the relationships between gender, race, class, cultural, and societal ideologies. In my paper, I take on Cynthia Enloe’s challenge of using an enquiring, gendered lens to explore the silencing of women during and after war by examining the case of the Korean ‘comfort women’ of World War II. I will analyze how the intersection of prevailing social determinants and ideologies have regulated and perpetuated the rationale and, thus, the invisibility of the Korean comfort women during and in the aftermath of World War II.

Literature Review & Research Methodology

Yoshiaki Yoshimi’s Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II, Margaret Stetz’s Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II, as well as Toshiyuki Tanaka’s Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in



Bibliography: Ahmed, Sara. "Construction of Women And/in the Orient." Women, Power, and Resistance: An Introduction to Women 's Studies. By Tess Cosslett, Alison Easton, and Penny Summerfield. Buckingham [England: Open UP, 1996. 225-32. Print. Chang, Iris. "The Rape of Nanking." The Law of War, a Documentary History. By Leon Friedman. New York: Random House, 1972. N. pag. Print. Enloe, Cynthia H. Bananas, Beaches & Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkeley: University of California, 1988. Print Enloe, Cynthia H Howard, Keith, and Young Joo. Lee. True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women. N.p.: Cassell, 1995. Print. Hughes, Donna M. "The 'Natasha ' Trade: The Transnational Shadow Market of Trafficking in Women." The 'Natasha ' Trade: The Transnational Shadow Market of Trafficking in Women. Journal of International Affairs, 2000. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. Kelly, Patty. "The Secrets We Keep: Sex, Work, and Stigma." Lydia 's Open Door: Inside Mexico 's Most Modern Brothel. By Patty Kelly. Berkeley: University of California, 2008. N. pag. Print. Kempadoo,. "Women of Color and the Global Sex Trade: Transnational Feminist Perspectives." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. Indiana University Press, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. Kim, Hyun S. "History and Memory: The "Comfort Women" Controversy." Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 5.1 (1997): 73-108. Print. Kokopeli, Bruce, and George Lakey Leatherman, Janie. Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict. Cambridge: Polity, 2011. Print. MacKinnon, Catharine A Schmidt, David A. Ianfu, the Comfort Women of the Japanese Imperial Army of the Pacific War: Broken Silence. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2000. Print. Stetz, Margaret D., and Bonnie B. C. Oh. Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001. Print. Tanaka, Toshiyuki. Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996. Print. Tong, Rosemarie. Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1989. Print. "Uncomfortable Truths." Trouble and Strife RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. "United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime." What Is Human Trafficking? N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. Vance, Carole S. "Social Construction Theory." An Introduction to Women 's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World. By Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2006. 29-32. Print. Varga, Aniko. "National Bodies: The ‘Comfort Women’ Discourse and Its Controversies in South Korea." Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 9.2 (2009): n. pag. Print. Watanabe, Kazuko Yang, Hyunah. "Finding the "Map of Memory": Testimony of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Survivors." Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 16.1 (2008): 79-107. Print. Yoshimi, Yoshiaki, and Suzanne O 'Brien. Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II. New York: Columbia UP, 2000. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Katharine H.S Moon, the author of “Sex among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations”, wrote “where there are soldiers, there are women who exist for them.” The misconceptions of Asian women as prostitutes for the United States Military men have linger through present day America. This portion of the essay will examine the particular measures in how and why the early movement of Asians migration greatly inclined today’s stereotype of Asian women. The entire antiquity of the labels dates back to the 1900’s, where the Asian settlers initially reached the United States. These settlers, mainly their women, stumbled upon racial discrimination and hostility. The cultural distinction amongst Asians and Americans were exploited by the…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Paul Varley's Loser-Hero

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the book “Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales”, as the title suggests, author Paul Varley studies numerous war tales from hundreds of years of Japanese history, throughout the rise of the samurai warrior culture and the societal change that went along with it. From ancient war tales like the Shōmonki to tales firmly in the medieval times like the Taiheiki, the changes in battlefield customs and warrior society are presented and studied as they change and evolve. Despite all the social changes occurring in these time periods, a certain element stays the same throughout all these tales, the warriors themselves.…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    1955-1980 Source Analysis

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Using a variety of sources, this essay will explain how the combining war efforts of the United States, South and North Vietnam influence the escalation of women maltreatment, despite their contributions to the Vietnam War. Though the war ended in 1975, this investigation is focused on the effect of the war until 1980 to allow for an analysis of the impact on women in its post-war period.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The chapter 4 of Bananas, Beaches, and Bases opens a ‘Pandora's Box’ by unleashing questions that numerous usual students of International Politics are habitual to ignore or overlook about the link between gender and global political life, and it steers us to perceive how both are equally constitutive. It serves as the "Magna Carta" of Feminist International Relations; it has facilitated to create a new generation of women and men in the world of international relations…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Militarism is being globalized today. Certain ideas about "femininity" and "masculinity" are being promoted and absorbed globally. According to Enloe (2007), talks about how woman soldier and New woman undermined supposition about biology, respectability, and womanliness, and in this way brought up new discomforting issues about the roles and benefits of men. Women soldiers join other women soldiers around the world and when they meet they compare notes to discuss the continuing barriers women soldiers face when looking for promotions or respect. Cynthia Enloe open the eyes of a significant number of us to the role gender plays in universal legislative issues. She concentrates on the routes in which globalization and militarization nourish off each other, showing once more that considering women' lives important is one of the keys to solid clarifications of how the world…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    During dehumanization, Chinese Military members as well as women were intentionally killed and rape. “During the massacre over 20,000 women were raped by the Japanese soldiers during the six weeks of the Nanking Massacre. Most were brutally killed afterwards. The Japanese soldiers even raped girls less than 10 years old and women over 70 as well as pregnant women and nuns. The soldiers even forced incents on families. Anyone who resisted any of these were killed immediately” (Viklund). Furthermore, the Japanese High Command made plans to create a giant underground system of military prostitution one that would draw into its web hundreds of thousands of women across Asia.The plan was to lure, purchase, and kidnap 80,000 to 200,000 women. When…

    • 1345 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In World War 2, the efforts from the hard-working women created a new life for women in America. World War 2 served as an all-around change to American society, by enabling several war-time propagandas, including “Rosie the Riveter,” influenced several women to leave their comfort zone and begin work in the men’s playing grounds. The transition from housewife to a new factory or defense worker, came with several hardships while the men were overseas at war. In many cases, the work was hard, dangerous, and insulting. In the workplace, men who had stayed behind to run their stores, laughed and mocked at the woman if they were unsure of which tool did, or even made racial gestures towards them.…

    • 119 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women in Wwii

    • 1787 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Women served an important role in WWII. They not only took the challenge and stepped up to take the places of the men off fighting in the war to work in factories, but they also fought side by side with those risking their lives and fighting for their country. They were needed everywhere during the war. There were an unbelievable amount of job opportunities for women during the war and many supported the brave acts of voluntary enlistment. “‘A woman’s place is in the home’ was an old adage, but it still held true at the start of World War II. Even though millions of women worked, home and family we considered the focus of their lives” says Brenda Ralf Lewis. Without the help of those women who were brave enough to step, the war may have not ended as successfully as is did.…

    • 1787 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    More than any other unspeakable tragedy that has occurred in modern recorded history, the Holocaust of World War II is by far the most well-known. The slaughtering of over six million Jews by the Nazis has been retold and reimagined for decades as the end-all, be-all of suffering and terror brought down by humans on other humans. But thanks to Iris Chang, another unspeakable act of human indecency which was much less well known, but just as valuable a lesson in mankind’s history to know how inhumane and unfathomable humans can be to one another. This terrible tragedy that deserves to have the light of history shed on to it is The Rape of Nanking.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women After Ww2 Essay

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Equality that we have today was created from multiple mistakes we made before, during, and following World War II. Wartime experiences differed greatly compared to the average American white male depending on a person’s race, gender, and/or religion. Women, Japanese-American, and African-American roles either helped or hindered the progress toward equality in America in their own way that will be remembered forever.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to the Human Trafficking Intelligence Report, Human Trafficking is a booming international business in today’s society. The articles talks about the victims and the offenders. It also gives us information about how the issue affects the global economy, and how it generates billions of dollars in profits every year.…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Japanese history tells us the story of the Japanese sharing many common feelings and hardships with thousands of other immigrants who came to Hawai’i. Starting with the first wave, the Gannen Mono, in 1868, the legacies and values passed on from generation and carried on today. The Japanese had to leave their homes in Japan to make a better life for themselves and their families. Through their struggles, of course, the Japanese immigrants were hesitant of stepping foot onto a foreign land to have their country patriotism questioned and their loyalty. More than 110,000 Japanese were relocated to internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country. In this paper, my purpose is to illustrate about the Executive…

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Human Trafficking in Europe

    • 3038 Words
    • 13 Pages

    [ 5 ]. Louisa Waugh, Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking(London: Phoenix Press, 2008), 20…

    • 3038 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human Trafficking

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Human trafficking is one of today's most egregious human rights violations. Traffickers prey on the most vulnerable members of society: people burdened with poverty, disabilities and discrimination. Trafficking in persons refers to the illegal trade or "sale" of human beings for sexual exploitation or forced labor through abduction, the use or threat of force, deception and fraud. It knows no gender, race, age, or even boundaries (due to globalization). (Perkins)…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, modern slavery does not rely on the oppression of specific race (Rahman, 2011, p. 54). The sale of humans is still motivated by material gain. Earlier, the drug trade was the vital source for organized criminal groups, but after the increase of competition in drug market they chose the human trafficking as much more accessible way to increase their income (Shelly, 2006, p. 44). According to UNIC, 53% of human trafficking victims are involved in sex industry (2015). Sex is one of the most important parts of international illegal business, and contemporary demands are met by new and much more advanced…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays