A chance to see the film that whose screening was dropped recently from a Japanese film festival for fear of “incidents that could occur during the screening”.
Shusenjo
Friday 8 November 2019, 16:30 – 19:30
University College London | Robert Building 106 (TBC) | Gower Street | London WC1E 6BT
Register via EventBrite
The first screening of Shusenjo (The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue) in London.
What is the the reason for the rise of right-wing politics in Japan? How has the issue of women’s right become the battleground of political quandary? Shusenjo (The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue) will give you some valuable insights!
The Japan’s military slavery during the Second World War (the ‘comfort women’) has become the most contentious issue in its national politics and diplomacy. Inside Japan, the issue is dividing the country across ideological lines and the existence of empirical evidence, the validity of oral testimony, the number of victims, the meaning of sexual slavery, and the definition of coercive recruitment are disputed.
This largely domestic debate has also been shifted to the international arena, mobilising various state and non-state actors and institutions from all over the world, which has added a further complication to the debate. This film delves deep into this this highly controversial issue and uncovers some hidden agendas of those who are involved in the debate. More importantly, it attempts to find answers to some of the biggest questions for Japanese and Koreans: Were ‘comfort women’ prostitutes or sex slaves? Were they coercively recruited? And, does Japan have a legal responsibility to apologize to the former comfort women?
Miki Dezaki is a graduate of the Graduate Program in Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. He worked for the Japan Exchange Teaching Program for five years in Yamanashi and Okinawa before becoming a Buddhist monk in Thailand for one year. He is also known as “Medamasensei” on Youtube, where he has made comedy videos and videos on social issues in Japan. Shusenjo, which is produced as his graduation project, is his directorial debut.
The event is free, but your donation will be greatly appreciated to cover our screening fee.
After London, the film will be screened at following universities:
11th November, 2019 at University of Essex
12th November, 2019 at University of Lancaster
13th November, 2019 at University of Leeds
14th November, 2019 at University of Edinburgh
