https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zfq4xLaOLbdg.kjaWPljlPPtc&authuser=0&hl=en
If you could leave your thoughts on
1. (survivors of) Comfort women’s gender identity
2. your own gender identity
3. and this Mapping Project,
I would genuinely appreciate to you.
Of course, you don’t need to comment all about it! 🙂
Hello,
I am a curator at the Glendale Downtown Central Library. I would like to be in touch with you regarding your project with mapping the Comfort Women. Please contact me: ara@araoshagan.com.
Thank You.
Ara Oshagan
Glendale Downtown Central
Glendale, CA
THANK YOU for visualizing a feminist historiography with your first person narrative of Kang Duk-kyung’s life as a “Comfort Woman” sex slave. The social media map increases visibility of the durational performances (1100 times to date) of the Wednesday protests in front of the Japanese Embassy in Korea in seeking acknowledgement, apology, and reparation by the Japanese government for their forceful acquisition of Korean young women (somewhere between 20,000 to 410,00 women) to be repeatedly raped by Japanese military men.
The first time I learned about the “Comfort Women” was when I was living in South Korea. I found it strange that this part of history was hardly discussed or known in the ‘West’ (other than Hillary Clinton’s remarks in 2012 that use of the euphemism “Comfort Women” is wrong and that it should be replaced with the term “Enforced Sex Slaves” and the New York Times’ subsequent writing on this historical campaign of brutality in 2013). My wife’s grandmother – while not having been a Comfort Woman – also lived through the Japanese Occupation of the Korean Peninsula as well as the Second World War when these atrocities occurred. She experienced a great deal of hardship and spoke angrily of the Japanese. That inspired me to read more about the history surrounding these gruesome and tragic events and I discovered – among others – that the Japanese ideology of war at that time was heavily influenced by an appropriation of Zen Buddhist philosophy and the writings of the famous Zen philosopher D.T. Suzuki which stressed the need for detachment from emotion following action. That said, the lives of ten upon thousands of young girls and women in Korea, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines were terribly scarred and I find it sad that this event is only gaining international attention now that most of them have already died. Had Japan not been a key Cold War military ally of the USA it would surely not have been this way.
Thanks for this, Hyunji. I think the combination of artworks, historic images, and text is powerful. Kang Duk-kyung demonstrates the power of an artist to illuminate a political reality that many would probably prefer to ignore. I think that so much history education is meant to valorize national identity, and at the cost of countless important stories. This tragic event has many layers. The blaming and “shame” placed on the comfort women speaks to the continuous political practice of inventing a flaw in character so that the real location of blame can be spirited away, and the national identity protected.
As far as my own gender identity, I think the posted film about Mohanty speaks to the power of knowing history, and in my case, negotiating the importance of practicing my own freedom and “individuality” with a sense of commitment to shared solidarities. And solidarities fluctuate. Sometimes mine is with high school students. Sometimes, with female high school students in particular. Sometimes teachers’ unions, and then with women around the world, and then with factory workers around the world, female and male.
This mapping project of a Korean comfort woman during WWII visualizes the displacement and suffering one comfort woman experiences at the hands of her oppressors. Her pain and suffering seem to be most intense during her adolescence, but the stigma and emotional toll last her a lifetime, all due to colonization. “The reason I talk is to pour out my resentment. I am telling my life story so that nobody else will ever have to go through the same things like me. Am I prostitute? No, I am the victim of colonized history. I think we must try to get what we justly deserve from Japan: a proper apology and proper compensation. There are still some who say that what we did is shameful, but they are indeed ignorant people. I am talking this to save others who have been oppressed by others.” Thank you for telling her story- it is an important one to share.
I had not known what some women had gone through, the idea of comfort women is foreign to me. I hope and pray these atrocities are stuck in the past, although I understand that the underground world of human trafficking and sex slaves is unfortunately thriving.
Kang Duk-kyung is an amazing woman. So strong. So resilient. So powerful. To turn from the barbarity she lived through – from the factory to the comfort women’s tent – to speak out, make public, to advocate so that these things can be prevented for other women. For her bravery and courage, I am grateful. I hope she is now at peace.
I first learned about Comfort Women during the Vagina Monologues last year. It was incredibly eye-opening, so it was interesting reading one woman’s story in such detail. Why are we not learning about this in history classes? For all of the suffering they went through, they deserve some recognition. Thank you for bringing awareness to this issue!
Kang Duk-kyung was such a strong brave woman. Her journey was truly remarkable and I am glad her story is being told. I wonder how many woman she influenced to tell their story that may not have otherwise. She is a true hero. I am glad you are creating awareness about the Korean comfort woman.
Following her path has made me tear up. The images go so well with the story, and the story itself… well it makes my heart hurt. I am glad to learn about comfort women, which I did not know about until I met you. These stories should be brought to light so that we can never replay this journey again, and to stop journeys that are currently going on in a similar way around the world. Bravo.