Film challenges biases on sexual slavery
Film sheds light on misinformation on comfort women
By Jung Da-min
Miki Dezaki. Courtesy of Felix Makarowski
The documentary film “Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue” tells how scholars and activists from many countries, as well as Korea and Japan, see the issue.
To give his audience impartial information about the wartime sexual slavery that put Korea and Japan poles apart, filmmaker Miki Dezaki included interviews with some controversial figures. These included Park Yu-ha of Sejong University in Seoul, who was criticized for her book “Comfort Women of the Empire” for allegedly ”defaming” victims, and Yoshiko Sakurai, a Japanese journalist who was sued by Takashi Uemura ― the journalist who broke the story about comfort women ― for defamation.
Dezaki, a Japanese-American, came to Japan in 2007 on a teacher exchange program. He said he started to wonder why the Japanese find it hard to say what they think on the comfort women issue.
“I found that the (Japanese) government and these Japanese revisionists are trying so actively to change the minds of Americans and people in the world,” Dezaki said. “Why are historical issues so important to them?”
Dezaki felt that Korean and Japanese media have not done a good job showing the complexities of the comfort women issue.
“News media from both countries haven't been very good at presenting the details of the comfort women issue,” he said. “When arguing with each other, both Koreans and Japanese take their nationalistic stances because their news media has omitted certain points and exaggerated others.”
Dezaki decided to make a documentary film that consists of interviews of scholars and activists in Korea and Japan to present a more objective and integrated view of the issue. “I wish both Korean and Japanese people will watch the film so they can have more productive discussions on the issue in the future,” he said.
He addresses the very detailed arguments of the issue that he admittedly said could be a little slow at times in the film. “I didn't want to be accused of leaving an argument out to favor one side over the other,” he said.
Unlike other comfort women-related documentaries, Dezaki's film does not include many testimonies of victims. “There is one reason why I did not put in more of their testimonies,” he said. “It's because Japanese people do not trust testimonies anymore. Both young and old people in Japan now think Korean people, or Korean women, cry and manipulate people's emotions to believe them. I need to appeal to their logic.”
Although the film would be more dramatic with the stories of comfort women, that does not help reach the minds of the Japanese public, he said. “I did not want Japanese people to disregard my movies because of that.”
Dezaki said he could interview scholars and activists from both liberal and right-wing sides, thanks to his unique identity as a Japanese-American.
“My position as a Japanese-American was unique in making the film,” he said. “I don't think some of the interviewees would do the interview if I were Korean, Chinese or white American.”
The director is now planning to submit the documentary to some Korean film festivals later in the year. He is considering the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in September or the Busan International Film Festival in October.
Cho Jung-rae, the director of the 2016 movie “Spirits' Homecoming,” has expressed interest in the film.
“The film would be a great source for healthy debate, in that it presents how the comfort women issue has come to interest Japanese politicians,” Cho said. “It seems like it not only shows an issue of gender but also other issues of international relations.”
The teaser for the movie can be seen here:
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