Marking the 20th anniversary of the ‘Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery in 2000’
Yang Mi-gang
Legal experts and “Comfort Women” movement activists reflect on the 34-year legal struggle to resolve the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” issue.
Editorial Team of Webzine <Kyeol>
The suffering of the Japanese Military “Comfort Women,” one of the most tragic human rights abuses of the 20th century, should be preserved and managed as historical documentary heritage. This is crucial to prevent such atrocities from recurring and provide a lesson to future generations.
Hye-in Han
Reflecting on and exploring how to record, remember, and carry forward the history of the “Comfort Women” beyond the framework of legal remedies.
She is an Emeritus Professor of Aoyama Gakuin University. As a Korean in Japan (a Zainichi Korean) and a researcher who laid the foundation for the studies of colonial history and women's history in Japan, she has been playing an important role in investigating the truth about the ‘Comfort Women’ issue. Her main publications include 『Military and Sexual Violence』, 『A Study on the East Asia Japanese military sexual slavery (co-authorship)』, 『A Study of 70 Years of Women's History in Korea (co-authorship)』, 『Colonialism, War, ‘Comfort Women’ for the Military (co-authorship)』, 『War and Social Affairs in East Asia(co-authorship)』, and so on.
She has long been interested in the ‘Comfort Women’ issue and has been striving to unveil the truth about the issue while serving as a professor in English literature at Ewha Womans University. From 1980, she has been searching for and meeting with the ‘Comfort Women’ victims in order to investigate the truth.
Kyung-hee Cho, Assistant Professor, Institute for East Asian Studies, Sungkonghoe University
Kyung-hee Cho
The Berlin Statue of Peace, established in 2020, marked an important milestone in the “Comfort Women” memorial movement as the first public memorial of its kind in Europe.
Jung-Hwa Han
The spread of “Comfort Women” memorials across different cities and countries offers insights into both possibilities and the limits of memory activism, especially in an era when the world continues to confront the legacies of colonialism, racism, and historical injustice.
Dr. Daniel Schumacher
Written by Totsuka Etsuro (戶塚悅朗)
Totsuka Etsuro (戶塚悅朗)