Disinformation on Comfort Women: Memory Battles around Memorials in the US

• In Event: Historical Roots of Modern International Politics

Abstract

This paper investigates how disinformation on comfort women has spread and strongly influenced the memory battles between the two diaspora communities - Korean American communities and Japanese American communities - around memorials to comfort women in the US. "Comfort women" is a euphemistic term for the women who were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military before and during World War II from 1932 to 1945. There have been painful memory battles between Korea and Japan since the end of World War II and the major battlefield is around comfort women statues, one trying to keep constructing them, while the other attempting to take them down. The Japanese government officially apologized for their involvement in the systematic operation of comfort women stations while many Japanese civic organizations, scholars and major politicians have been trying to not only deny it but also revise the historical facts in favor of their interests. Interestingly, this memory battle keeps going on between Korean American communities and Japanese American communities in the United States.
Except for Korea, the country that has the most replicas of the Statue of Peace and other forms of memorials to comfort women is the United States where Korean American communities have been strongly established. In the US, there are nine various types of memorials to comfort women in California (2), New Jersey (4), New York (2), and Virginia (1). In addition, there are seven replicas of the Statue of Peace in California (1), Connecticut (1), Georgia (1), Michigan (1), New York (1), Pennsylvania (1), and Washington D.C (1). To take down those memorials to comfort women, some Japanese American community members and organizations have been trying to create and spread disinformation about comfort women in the US. The major argument of the disinformation is that comfort women were voluntary prostitutes who were properly paid as per legal contracts. This article examines what disinformation has created the memory battles between the two diaspora communities and how the disinformation has influenced the process of building or taking down the memorials to comfort women in the US. Finally, this paper shows how communities have been able to fight back against the disinformation and succeed in constructing memorials to comfort women in the US.

Author

• Chloe Minkyoung Kwak, University of Connecticut