East Asia

Citation:

Soh, C. Sarah. 2006. “In/fertility among Korea’s ‘Comfort Women’ Survivors: A Comparative Perspective.” Women’s Studies International Forum 29 (1): 67–80. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2005.10.007.

Author: C. Sarah Soh

Abstract:

This article explores the social psychological and physiological impact of wartime military sexual slavery on postwar lives of former "comfort women" by analyzing Korean survivors’ testimonial narratives of han (long-held bitter resentment) and my multisite ethnographic research findings on the topic. Taking a comparative perspective of a "person-centered anthropology," it attempts to historicize the experiences of wartime enforced sexual labor and its impact on reproductive capacity in postwar marital lives among some Korean, Filipino, and Dutch survivors. [Soh] posit[s] the cumulative number (as well as the degree of roughness) of forced sexual intercourse–operationalized as the length of sexual servitude period–as a crucial factor in affecting the survivors’ reproductive successes in postwar marital lives. Other important intervening variables for survivors’ in/fertility that [Soh] theorize[s] include sexually transmitted diseases, reproductive disruptions, and exceptionally privileged treatment resulting in reduced sexual workload.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: North Korea, South Korea

Year: 2006

Citation:

Sancho, Neila, and Ronit Lentin. 1997. “The ‘Comfort Women’ System during World War II: Asian Women as Targets of Mass Rape and Sexual Slavery by Japan.” In Gender and Catastrophe, edited by Ronit Lentin, 144–54. London: Zed Books.

Authors: Neila Sancho, Ronit Lentin

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Security, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan

Year: 1997

Citation:

Hicks, George L. 1997. The Comfort Women: Japan’s Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Author: George L. Hicks

Abstract:

Over 100,000 women across Asia were victims of enforced prostitution by the Japanese Imperial Forces during World War II. Until as recently as 1993 the Japanese government continued to deny this shameful aspect of its wartime history. George Hicks's book is the only history in English regarding this terrible enslavement of women.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, Rape, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan

Year: 1997

Citation:

Min, Pyong Gap. 2003. “Korean ‘Comfort Women’: The Intersection of Colonial Power, Gender, and Class.” Gender & Society 17 (6): 938–57.

Author: Pyong Gap Min

Abstract:

During the Asian and Pacific War (1937-45), the Japanese government mobilized approximately 200,000 Asian women to military brothels to sexually serve Japanese soldiers. The majority of these victims were unmarried young women from Korea, Japan’s colony at that time. In the early 1990s, Korean feminist leaders helped more than 200 Korean survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery to come forward to tell the truth, which has further accelerated the redress movement for the women. One major issue in the redress movement and research relating to the so-called “comfort women” issue is whether Japan’s colonization of Korea or gender hierarchy was a more fundamental cause of the Korean women’s suffering. Using an intersectional perspective, this article analyzes how colonial power, gender hierarchy, and class were inseparably tied together to make the victims’ lives miserable. By doing so, it shows that a one-sided emphasis on colonization or gender hierarchy will misrepresent the feminist political issue and misinterpret the “comfort women’s” experiences.

Keywords: sexual violence against women, colonial power, Gender, class

Topics: Armed Conflict, Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, North Korea, South Korea

Year: 2003

Citation:

Vikman, Elisabeth. 2005. “Modern Combat: Sexual Violence in Warfare, Part II.” Anthropology & Medicine 12 (1): 33–46. doi:10.1080/13648470500049834.

Author: Elisabeth Vikman

Abstract:

The previous part of this paper showed how sexual violence was perpetrated in ancient warfare. To follow here is an examination of modern evidence from China, Vietnam and former Yugoslavia, investigating influences that have pertained over centuries. A considerable amount of literature treats this subject, both with regards to specific cases and general theories. The aim here is to follow up questions posed in the previous paper. When, how and against whom is sexual violence perpetrated? Are there patterns or is it executed at random? What are the motives? Records of the conflicts were researched and existing theories applied to assist the interpretation of data. The results showed that violence often follows a pattern and that individual and common motives are intertwined. Comparing ancient and modern warfare, this paper demonstrates how certain cultural factors of military life shape the execution and perception of sexual violence during war, historically and cross-culturally.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Balkans Countries: China, Vietnam, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2005

Citation:

Askin, Kelly D. 2003. “Prosecuting Wartime Rape and Other Gender-Related Crimes Under International Law: Extraordinary Advances, Enduring Obstacles.” Berkeley Journal of International Law 21 (2): 288.

Author: Kelly D. Askin

Abstract:

Examines the changes in international law regarding sexual violence against women. Overview of the relevant customary and treaty law norms particularly within humanitarian law; Ways in which war increasingly is waged against the civilian population; Treatment of gender-related crimes in the post-World War II trials held in Nuremberg, Germany and Tokyo, Japan.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Asia, East Asia, Europe, Central Europe Countries: Germany, Japan

Year: 2003

Citation:

Chung, Chin-Sung. 1994. “Wartime State Violence against Women of Weak Nations: Military Sexual Slavery Enforced by Japan during World War II.” Korean and Korean-American Studies Bulletin 5 (2/3): 15–27.

Author: Chin-Sung Chung

Topics: Armed Conflict, Corruption, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Rape, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan

Year: 1994

Citation:

Joseph, Joshua. 2007. "Rethinking Yamashita: Holding Military Leaders Accountable for Wartime Rape." Women's Rights Law Reporter 28 (2/3): 107-25.

Author: Joshua Joesph

Abstract:

This note explores the current controversy over the proper international standard for punishing commanders whose subordinates have committed rape, and examines the interplay between the nature of rape, the underlying theories of command responsibility, and an international legal system that has failed to produce fruitful results. The note contends that the continued occurrence of rape in times of war results in large part from the international community’s reluctance to punish high-level military officials who neither physically perpetrated the crime, were not present at the crime scene, and did not necessarily order rape.

The note proposes a slight expansion of the “knowledge presumption” standard used by early courts, whereby general, historical knowledge of rape would satisfy the mens rea requirement of command responsibility. Such a standard would make it easier to prosecute wartime military leaders. In addition, the note will propose a series of measures that military officials can use to both deter the commission of rape by subordinates and rebut the knowledge presumption. Finally, the note examines how the International Criminal Court could use such a standard to punish commanders for the atrocities currently under investigation in Darfur.

The note is particularly relevant and timely because widespread mass rape has been reported in the region of Darfur and is currently under investigation by ICC prosecutors. It is likely that the ICC will hear many of the cases involved in this dispute in the near future. Many of these cases will force the Court to examine its standard for punishing commanders whose subordinates have engaged in rape crimes.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, International Criminal Law, Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, Rwanda

Year: 2007

Citation:

Zimelis, Andris. 2009. "Human Rights, the Sex Industry and Foreign Troops: Feminist Analysis of Nationalism in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines." Cooperation and Conflict 44 (1): 51-71.

Author: Andris Zimelis

Abstract:

This article explores the relationship between prostitution, nationalism and foreign policies using a feminist analysis framework. Although scholars have dealt with the theoretical role of women in nationalist projects, there is little work factually supporting these theories. There is also a paucity of works demonstrating the role of prostitution in national security policies. This article rectifies these shortcomings and demonstrates that, although prostitution is illegal in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, these governments have played an active role in supporting and maintaining the prostitution industry geared at servicing US troops. The US troops, in turn, have protected the national security of each of these countries for all of the post-Second World War era. In this context, it seems clear that 'national security' does not include the physical, economic, legal and social insecurity of Japanese, Korean and Filipino women despite their contribution to the most quintessential Realist policy - national security. 

Keywords: nationalism, national interest, prostitution, human rights, sex industry, US troops, foreign policy

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Nationalism, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Japan, Philippines, South Korea

Year: 2009

Citation:

Watanabe, Kazuko. 1995. "Trafficking in Women's Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military 'Comfort Women'." Peace & Change 20 (4): 501-14.

Author: Kazuko Watanabe

Keywords: military sexual assault, comfort women, sex trafficking, militaries

Annotation:

This essay “recounts the World Human Rights Conference held in Vienna in 1993 and other national and international conventions as well as activists' reports that exposed the long-suppressed story of the comfort women of World War II.” The author concludes that in order for the problem of trafficking of women in Asia (in particular Japan) to be fixed, women must take control by speaking out “to abolish the male-centered sexuality and culture that celebrates masculinity and the commodification of women’s bodies,” and that women need more opportunities for legitimate jobs and economic independence. 

Topics: Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Slavery, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan

Year: 1995