Knowledge Production and Activism on the ‘Comfort Women’ in Northeast and Southeast Asia

Authors from diverse disciplinary fields, geographical areas, and intellectual traditions introduce innovative approaches and materials to examine the "comfort women" system as it existed during its operation, how it is understood today by publics and governments, and why it remains such an intractable political issue.

This book explores the voices, silences, and legacies of women held in sexual servitude to the Japanese imperial armed forces during the 1930s and 1940s—the so-called "comfort women." During the 1990s, survivors began to come forward publicly, leading to raised questions, such as: Why did it take so long for them to speak out? Why have so many others never gone public? This edited volume explores these topics at the intersection of gender, identity, the state, and colonialism, across Northeast and Southeast Asia and beyond. Authors from diverse disciplinary fields, geographical areas, and intellectual traditions introduce innovative approaches and materials to examine the "comfort women" system as it existed during its operation, how it is understood today by publics and governments, and why it remains such an intractable political issue. Key questions include: Where have survivors' voices been integrated into collective memory and official narratives, and where have they been excluded? How have survivors asserted or regained agency through testimony, activism, and other practices? What has been the impact of hegemonic narratives—such as the image of the abducted virgin—on our ability to hear diverse voices? By uncovering new details and examining the complex dynamics of memory, testimony, and political contestation, this volume offers critical insights into one of the most contentious historical and contemporary issues in East Asia and beyond. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of Asian studies, gender and women's studies, history, postcolonial studies and human rights. It is also highly relevant for activists, policymakers, legal scholars, and practitioners engaged with wartime sexual violence, transitional justice, historical memory, and survivor advocacy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Women’s History Review.