What can art accomplish beyond aesthetics? Randy Jayne Rosenberg examines how it can preserve marginalized histories, support survivor testimony, and move audiences from observation toward ethical responsibility.
Reflecting on and exploring how to record, remember, and carry forward the history of the “Comfort Women” beyond the framework of legal remedies.
Written by Shin Ki-young, Professor at Ochanomizu University, Japan
Testimony and publishing activities concerning wartime sexual violence and “Comfort Women” carried out by the Association of Returnees from China (Chukiren), which atoned for their perpetrators’ actions in postwar Japanese society.
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.