Redress and Reparation Movements (RRM) in Response to the Japanese Comfort Women System

Wolfe, Stephanie

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-9185-9_7

Redress and Reparation Movements (RRM) in Response to the Japanese Comfort Women System

Stephanie Wolfe³

Chapter
First Online: 22 November 2013

1636 Accesses
1 Altmetric

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Transitional Justice ((SSTJ,volume 7))

Abstract

Chapter 7 examines how the Japanese Imperial Army, with knowledge and support from the Japanese government, systematically detained and enslaved approximately 200,000 women during the Asia Pacific War, and in particular examines reactions/response to women who were taken from South Korea and the Dutch East Indies. The chapter then moves to examine the associated redress and reparation movement (RRM) and its interaction with international society.

International norms in the early 1990s encouraged states to take responsibility for their actions and to engage in various forms of reparation politics. When the comfort women issue rose to prominence in 1991, there had already been successes for the Jewish and Japanese American RRMs; however, this would not translate into a similar positive response from Japan. Japan would engage in a limited fashion with those that they had victimized, but has refused to fully acknowledge its responsibility or to come to terms with its past.

The movement is still in its infancy due to the delay in mobilization; it took almost 50 years for the gender norms to become more accepting of discussing rape, for racial norms to shift in order to consider the victims from the once occupied territories, and for civil society and democracy to flourish in the countries where these women had been victimized.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 109.00; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 139.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 139.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Gallicchio (2007, p. 7).
2.
Parker and Chew (1994, p. 336).
3.
Ibid. p. 498.
4.
Ibid, pp. 499, 507–509.
5.
Ibid. p. 499.
6.
As of August 5, 2013; since 80 % of the women enslaved were taken from the Korean peninsula, it can be assumed the number of current survivors outside of S. Korea is even smaller. (personal communication).
7.
Parker and Chew (1994, p. 502).
8.
Chinkin (2001, p. 341).
9.
Stetz and Oh (2001).
10.
Chinkin (2001, p. 337).
11.
Yamazaki (1996, p. 95).
12.
Yoshimi (2000, p. 33).
13.
Kashiwazaki (1998, p. 282).
14.
Beasley (1987, p. 31).
15.
Ibid.
16.
Ibid. pp. 33–34.
17.
Ibid. p. 32.
18.
Ibid. pp. 85–91.
19.
Ibid. p. 243.
20.
Lu, et. al (2005, pp. 100–101, 113).
21.
Chang (1997).
22.
War Victimization and Japan: International Public Hearing Report, (1993, p. 11); and Parker and Chew, (1994, p. 503). The Second Sino-Japanese War took place from July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945.
23.
Yoshimi (2000, p. 60).
24.
Ibid. p. 59
25.
War Victimization and Japan: International Public Hearing Report, (1993, p. 12).
26.
Oh (2001, p. 10).
27.
International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children, Geneva, 30 September 1921.
28.
Yoshimi (2000, p. 100).
29.
Ibid. p. 101.
30.
Ibid. p. 154.
31.
Yoshimi (2000, p. 155).
32.
Ibid. p. 155
33.
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2009, p. 7).
34.
Yoshimi (2000, pp. 160–161).
35.
The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (1997, p. 2).
36.
Yoshimi (2000, pp. 160–161, 7).
37.
Ibid. p. 164.
38.
Yoshimi (2000, p. 165).
39.
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2009, p. 8).
40.
Ibid.
41.
United States Office of War Information (1944).
42.
Ibid.
43.
Ibid.
44.
Orr (2001, p. 17).
45.
Ibid.
46.
Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender (Potsdam, July 26, 1945).
47.
Lind (2008, pp. 30–31).
48.
For more on the relationship between United States Occupational Policies and Japan’s sense of victimization see Lind (2008, pp. 30–31); Orr (2001); and Seraphim (2006).
49.
Schonberger (1989).
50.
Lind (2008, p. 30).
51.
Ibid.
52.
Orr (2001, p. 16).
53.
The initial RRM movements for the German genocides were in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the British Mandate of Palestine. Regarding the United States RRM, the only attacks recorded were in Alaska and Hawaii.
54.
Maga (2001, p. xi).
55.
Lind (2008, p. 31).
56.
Dolgopol (1995, p. 149).
57.
Ibid.
58.
Ibid.
59.
Lind (2008, p. 32).
60.
Treaty of Peace with Japan (2011).
61.
Lind (2008, p. 32).
62.
Chinkin (2001, p. 335).
63.
Lind (2008, p. 34).
64.
Stetz and Oh (2001, p. xv).
65.
Yamazaki (2006, p. 29).
66.
Oh (2001, p. 15).
67.
Parker and Chew (1994, p. 500).
68.
Ibid. p. 501.
69.
Weiner (1994, p. 2).
70.
War Victimization and Japan: International Public Hearing Report (1993, p. 9).
71.
Yamazaki (2006, p. 58).
72.
Henson (1996).
73.
History. (2010, pp. 15–16).
74.
History. (2010).
75.
Yoshimi (2000, p. 7).
76.
Yamazaki (2006, p. 59).
77.
Yamazaki (2006, p. 59).
78.
Ibid. p. 60.
79.
Ibid. p. 63.
80.
War Victimization and Japan: International Public Hearing Report (1993 p. vi).
81.
Yamazaki (2006, p. 64).
82.
Yamazaki (2006, pp. 64–65).
83.
Lind (2008, p. 66).
84.
BBC News (2010).
85.
William Underwood, Mitsubishi, p. 18.
86.
United Nations Economic and Social Council (1996, p. 4).
87.
Ibid. paragraph 7, p. 4.
88.
Ibid. paragraph 10, p. 4.
89.
Ibid. p. 22.
90.
Ibid. p. 22.
91.
A People’s Tribunal is a hearing put on by a social movement, victimized group, or other organization. It can be similar to trials or truth commissions and can be used to bring attention to human rights.
92.
Prosecutors and Peoples of Asia Pacific Region v. Hirohito; Prosecutors and Peoples of Asia Pacific Region v. Japan, Summary of Findings and Preliminary Judgment, quoted in Chinkin (2001, p. 336).
93.
Chinkin (2001, p. 335).
94.
Ibid. p. 337.
95.
Ibid. p. 338.
96.
Ibid. p. 339.
97.
U.S. House, Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge and accept responsibility for its sexual enslavement of young women, known to the world as “comfort women”, during its colonial occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II, and for other purposes. 109th Congress. 2nd session. H.Res. 759.IH.
98.
U.S. House. A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces’ coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as “comfort women”, during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II. 110th Congress. H.Res.121
99.
VanderHeide (2007).
100.
Friends of “Comfort Women” in Australia, “Action Summary,” http://fcwa.org.au/, accessed on March 1, 2010.
101.
Murayama (1994, pp. 52–53).
102.
Sub-committee to Address the Wartime Comfort Women Issue (1994, p. 55).
103.
An Appeal for Donations for the Asian Women’s Fund (1995, p. 58).
104.
Ibid. pp. 58–59.
105.
Lind (2008, p. 66).
106.
Chinkin (2001, p. 335).
107.
“History,” (2010).
108.
Goodman (2004, p. 186).
109.
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs (2007).
110.
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2009, p. 2).
111.
Ibid.
112.
Ibid. p. 3.
113.
Ibid.
114.
Lind (2008, p. 66).
115.
Yamazaki (2006, p. 65).
116.
Ibid.
117.
Yamazaki (2006, p. 65).
118.
Lind (2008, p. 86).
119.
By 2006, only two textbooks mentioned the comfort women, the adoption rate for both of these texts combined was only 17.3 % of schools. See United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, The “Comfort Women” Issue.
120.
Niksch (2007, p. 2).
121.
Niksch (2007, pp. 4–5).
122.
European Parliament (2007).
123.
The Washington Post reports a small political protest (ranging from 1 person to a few dozen people) in front of the White House every day for the last 32 years, http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/feature/wp/2013/05/02/connie-picciotto-has-kept-vigil-near-the-white-house-for-32-years-why-and-at-what-cost/. Another website reports that a small group of Gandhians has protested outside a slaughter house every day for the last 25 years. http://www.ketan.net/art2_46.html. These are the only protests that have been running for a longer period of time that I am aware of.
124.
May 22, 2013 Personal observation and discussions.
125.
Ibid.
126.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung Jae quoted in “Statue of ‘comfort woman’ erected outside Japanese Embassy in Seoul.” (2013)
127.
Ibid.
128.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung Jae quoted in Choe Sang-Hun, “Statue Deepens Dispute Over Wartime Sexual Slavery,” New York Times, December 15, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/world/asia/statute-in-seoul-becomes-focal-point-of-dispute-between-south-korea-and-japan.html?_r=0, accessed on August 5, 2013.
129.
Semple (2013).
130.
Hyun (2013).
131.
Levine (2013).
132.
“About Us.”(2013).
133.
May 22, 2013 Personal observation and discussions.
134.
Gluck (2007, p. 67).
135.
Ibid. p. 72.
136.
Ibid. p. 73.

Bibliography

“About Us.” Women’s active museum on war and peace. http://wam-peace.org/en/resources/. Accessed on Aug. 5, 2013.
“An appeal for donations for the Asian Women’s Fund, 18 July, 1995.” In The “Comfort Women” issue and the Asian Women’s Fund. Asian Women’s Fund Archive.
Google Scholar
BBC News. “Japan overturns sex slave ruling,” March 29, 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1249236.stm. Accessed March 1, 2010.
Beasley, W. G. 1987. Japanese imperialism 1894–1945. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Google Scholar
Chang, Iris. 1997. The rape of Nanking: The forgotten Holocaust of World War II. New York: Penguin Books.
Google Scholar
Chinkin, Christine M. 2001. Women’s International tribunal on Japanese military sexual slavery. The American Journal of International Law 95(2).
Google Scholar
“Court Cases,” Violence against women in War-Network Japan. http://www1.jca.apc.org/vaww-net-japan/english/sexualslavery/courtcase.html. Accessed March 1, 2010.
Dolgopol, Ustinia. 1995. Women’s voices, women’s pain. Human Rights Quarterly 17 (1): 127–154.
Article Google Scholar
European Parliament. 2007. European Parliament resolution of 13 December 2007 on justice for the ‘comfort women’ (sex slaves in Asia before and during World War II), P6_TA 0632.
Google Scholar
Friends of “comfort women” in Australia, “Action summary”. http://fcwa.org.au/. Accessed March 1, 2010.
Gallicchio, Marc. 2007. Introduction. In The unpredictability of the past: Memories of the AsiaPacific War in U.S.—east Asian relations, ed. Marc Gallicchio, 1–12. London: Duke University Press.
Google Scholar
Gluck, Carol. 2007. Operations of Memory: ‘Comfort Women’ and the World. In Ruptured histories: war, memory, and the post-cold War in Asia eds. Sheila Miyoshi Jager and Rana Mitter. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar
Goodman, Grant Kohn. 2001. Comfort women: Sexual slavery in the Japanese military during World War II, and: Japan’s comfort women: sexual slavery and prostitution during World War II and the US occupation. The Journal of Japanese Studies 30 (1): 183–186.
Article Google Scholar
Henson, Maria Rosa. 1996. Comfort women: Slave of destiny. Manila: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Google Scholar
History. 2010. The Korean council. http://www.womenandwar.net/english/ menu_012.php. Accessed March 1, 2010.
History. 2010. Washington coalition for comfort women issues. http://www.comfort-women.org/history.html. Accessed March 1, 2010.
Hyun, Park. 2013. Resolution recognizes the suffering and victimization women forced to serve as sexual slaves to Japanese Military. Hankyoreh. http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/572201.html. Accessed June 15, 2013.
International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children, Geneva, September 30, 1921.
Google Scholar
Kashiwazaki, Chikako. 1998. Jus Sanguinis in Japan: The origin of citizenship in a comparative perspective. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 39:278–300.
Article Google Scholar
Lawsuits in Japanese courts. Asian women’s fund. http://www.awf.or.jp/e4/lawsuit.html. March 1, 2011.
Levine, Brittany, and Jason Wells. 2013. Glendale unveils ‘comfort women’ statue, honours ‘innocent victims.’ Los Angeles Times. July 30, 2013. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-glendale-comfort-women-20130730,0,4823318.story. Accessed Aug. 5, 2013.
Lind, Jennifer. 2008. Sorry States: apologies in international politics. London: Cornell University Press.
Google Scholar
Lu, Catherine, Toshihiro Menju, and Melissa Williams. 2005. Japan and ‘The other:’ Reconceiving Japanese citizenship in the era of globalization. Asian Perspective 29 (1): 99–134.
Google Scholar
Maga, Tim. 2001. Judgment at Tokyo: the Japanese war crimes trials. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.
Google Scholar
Murayama, Tomiichi. 1994. Statement by prime minister Tomiichi Murayama on the “peace, friendship, and exchange initiative” Aug. 31, 1994. In The “Comfort Women” Issue and the Asian Women’s Fund. Asian Women’s Fund archive.
Google Scholar
Niksch, Larry. 2007. Congressional research service memorandum: Japanese Military’s “Comfort Women” system.
Google Scholar
Oh, Bonnie B. C. 2001. The Japanese imperial system and the Korean ‘comfort women’ of World War II. In Legacies of the comfort women of World War II, ed. Margaret Stetz, and Bonnie B. C. Oh, 3–25. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Google Scholar
Orr, James J. 2001. The victim as hero: ideologies of peace and national identity in postwar Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Google Scholar
Parker, K., and Jennifer F. Chew. 1994. “Compensation for Japan’s World War II War-Rape Victims.”. Hastings international and comparative law review 17:497–549.
Google Scholar
Proclamation defining terms for Japanese surrender (Potsdam, July 26, 1945).
Google Scholar
Resource center. 2013. Women’s active museum on war and peace. http://wam-peace.org/en/resources/. Accessed Aug. 5, 2013.
Schonberger, Howard B. 1989. Aftermath of war: Americans and the remaking of Japan, 1945–1952. London: Kent State University Press.
Google Scholar
Semple, Kirk. 2012. In New Jersey, Memorial for ‘comfort women’ deepens old animosity. New York Times. May 18, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/nyregion/monument-in-palisades-park-nj-irritates-japanese-officials.html. Accessed June 15, 2013.
Seraphim, Franziska. 2006. War memory and social politics in Japan, 1945–2005. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar
Statue of ‘comfort woman’ erected outside Japanese Embassy in Seoul. 2013. The Japan Times. December 15, 2011. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2011/12/15/national/statue-of-comfort-woman-erected-outside-japanese-embassy-in-seoul/#.UgJot6zlfPU. Accessed June 15, 2013.
Stetz, Margaret, and Bonnie B. C. Oh. 2001. “Introduction.” In legacies of the comfort women of World War II, edited by Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B. C. Oh. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Google Scholar
Sub-committee to address the wartime comfort women issue, “1994. First report on the so-called wartime comfort women issue, 7 December, 1994,” in The “comfort women” issue and the Asian Women’s Fund. Asian Women’s Fund Archive.
Google Scholar
The committee of experts on the application of conventions and recommendations, observation concerning convention No. 29, Forced Labour, 1930 Japan (Ratification: 1932) (International Labour Organisation, 1997), 061997JPN029.
Google Scholar
Treaty of peace with Japan, 2011. www.taiwandocuments.org/sanfancisco01.htm. Accessed March 1, 2011.
United nations economic and social council. 1996. Report of the special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences: mission to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan on the issue of military sexual slavery in wartime. E/CN.4/1996/53/Add.1 January 4, 1996.
Google Scholar
United nations office of the high commissioner for human rights. 2009. The “Comfort Women” Issue. An NGO Shadow Report to CEDAW. New York: United Nations.
Google Scholar
United states office of war information. 1944. Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49.
Google Scholar
U.S. House. A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces’ coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as “comfort women”, during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II. 110th Congress. H.Res.121.
Google Scholar
U.S. House. Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge and accept responsibility for its sexual enslavement of young women, known to the world as “comfort women”, during its colonial occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II, and for other purposes. 109th Congress. 2nd session. H.Res. 759.IH
Google Scholar
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Statement of Jan Ruff O’Herne AO friends of “comfort women” in Australia: hearing on protecting the human rights of “comfort women,” 110th Congress, February 15, 2007.
Google Scholar
VanderHeide, Jennifer. 2007. House passes comfort women resolution. July 30, 2007. http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca15_honda/comfort_women.html. Accessed March 1, 2010.
War Victimization and Japan: International Public Hearing Report Osaka-shi, Japan: The Executive Committee International Public Hearing, 1993.
Google Scholar
Wilson, Sandra. 2002. The manchurian crisis and Japanese society, 1931–33. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Weiner, Michael. 1994. Race and migration in imperial Japan. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Yamazaki, Jane W. 2006. Japanese apologies for World War II: a rhetorical study. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Yamazaki, Hiromi. 1996. “Military slavery and the women’s movement.” in voices from the Japanese women’s movement, edited by AMPO—Japan Asia Quarterly Review, 90–100. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Google Scholar
Yang, Hyunah. 1997. Revisiting the issue of Korean “military comfort women”: the question of truth and positionality. Positions 5 (1): 51–71.
Article Google Scholar
Yoshimi, Yoshiaki. 2000. Comfort women: Sexual slavery in the Japanese military during World War II. ed. Suzanne O’Brien. New York: Columbia University Press.
Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, USA
Stephanie Wolfe

Authors

Stephanie Wolfe
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephanie Wolfe .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Wolfe, S. (2014). Redress and Reparation Movements (RRM) in Response to the Japanese Comfort Women System. In: The Politics of Reparations and Apologies. Springer Series in Transitional Justice, vol 7. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9185-9_7

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9185-9_7
Published: 22 November 2013
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-9184-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9185-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics