Scholar raises questions on stereotype of 'comfort women'
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Sejong University Professor Park Yu-ha
By Kim Jae-won
A professor of Japanese literature raised questions on the alleged stereotype of “comfort women,” who were forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese military during World War II.
She alleged activists blocked comfort women from telling their stories, if they differed from the typical ones told by wartime sex slaves.
Park Yu-ha said that she finds nothing wrong in her 2013 book “The Comfort Women of the Empire” which nine former comfort women alleged hurt their honor last year. In January, a Seoul district court ordered Park to pay 10 million won to each of the women after they filed a lawsuit against her.
Park vowed to bring the case to the appeals court. She teaches about Japanese literature and conflicts in East Asia at Sejong University in eastern Seoul.
She clarified that she is not fighting against former comfort women, but against the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, a civic organization which has worked for the issue over the last couple of decades.
“I think the council is afraid of comfort women stories different from their typical image,” said Park in an interview with The Korea Times at her office earlier this month. “Various voices from comfort women have been suppressed by the council. I think it is time to let them speak for themselves.”
Park said that it is hard to define comfort women from a single viewpoint because they have different backgrounds and stories. She said that to paint comfort women as young girls who were forced to offer sex to Japanese soldiers during World War II fails to reflect the wide range of their actual lives.
“In fact, many of them were poor, uneducated and marginalized by society. They were taken away by brokers and pimps who deceived them with job offers.”
But, the brokers and pimps exploited the women by forcing them to become prostitutes for the military, Park said. She said that she could collect such stories from many comfort women whom she has met, including Bae Chun-hee who died last year.
The professor admitted that Japan should take responsibility for the victims because its military was the direct predator, but pointed out that they were also victimized by the patriarchal system and brokers and pimps in Korea.
Park said she was critical of an agreement about the comfort women signed by the Korean and Japanese governments in December because it failed to persuade people to try to understand the women’s plight. She said it would be better if they had pushed for the project step by step.
Foreign ministers of the two countries announced that they agreed to resolve the issue by paying compensation to the comfort women from a fund with 1 billion yen provided by Japan. The agreement faced a backlash from the public who accused Japan of failing to offer a sincere apology.
But, she did not agree with people who asked the Korean government to nullify the deal, saying the two countries need to develop the agreement, and not repeat the Asian Women’s Fund case. The Japanese government set up the fund in 1994 to distribute monetary compensation to comfort women, but most of victims in Korea refused to accept it, saying Japan failed to admit legal responsibility.