In a moving one-woman performance, experience the powerful story of Minja, a young girl from a remote South Korean village whose life is shattered by World War II. The play follows Minja’s journey from childhood to her innocence being cruelly stripped away when she is deceived and abducted by the Japanese Army, thrust into a … [Read More]
Tag: Comfort Women
Selected publications
- Park Yuha: Comfort Women of the Japanese Empire: Colonial Rule and the Battle over Memory tr Cambridge Translation Team, Routledge 2024
- Choi Chungmoo, Hyunah Yang: Voices of the Korean Comfort Women: History Rewritten from Memories, Routledge 2023
- Kim Hyeok: Chunja’s Nanjing tr Stella Kim, Seoul Selection 2022
- Kyo Choi: The Apology, Methuen Drama 2022
- Sylvia Yu Friedman: A Long Road to Justice: Stories from the Frontlines in Asia, Penguin 2021
- Pyong Gap Min: Korean “Comfort Women”: Military Brothels, Brutality, and the Redress Movement, Rutgers University Press 2021
- Kim Soom: One Left tr Bruce Fulton, Ju-chan Fulton, University of Washington Press 2020
- Keum Suk Gendry-Kim: Grass tr Janet Hong, Drawn + Quarterly 2019
- Anthology: Korean Memories and Psycho-Historical Fragmentation ed Mikyoung Kim, Palgrave 2019
- Kan Kimura: The Burden of the Past: Problems of Historical Perception in Japan-Korea Relations tr Marie Speed, University of Michigan Press 2019
- Mary Lynn Bracht: White Chrysanthemum, Penguin 2018
- Emily Jungmin Yoon: Ordinary Misfortunes, Tupelo Press 2017
- Joshua Pilzer: Hearts of Pine: Songs in the Lives of Three Korean Survivors of the Japanese Comfort Women, Oxford University Press 2012
- C. Sarah Soh: The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan, University of Chicago Press 2009
- Lee Chang-rae: A Gesture Life, Granta 1999
- Nora Okja Keller: Comfort Woman, Penguin 1998
- Anthology: True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women ed Keith Howard, Continuum 1995
A Conversation with Cha Inpyo
The Korean Wave is taking the world by storm. K-Pop, K-dramas, K-films, and K-food have all gained immense popularity, and now Korean literature is stepping into the global spotlight. However, there are still limited opportunities for international audiences to discover Korean authors and their works. To bridge this gap, the Faculty of Asian and Middle … [Read More]
The Comfort Woman – at Rosemary Branch Theatre
Amid the chaos of World War II in South Korea The Comfort Woman tells the story of Minja, a young girl deceived and coerced into serving as a sex slave for the Japanese army. Minja faces unimaginable horrors and grapples with the profound trauma inflicted upon her, her innocence shattered by the harsh realities of … [Read More]
The Apology
Arcola reunites with New Earth for this powerful human story which asks how a nation can apologise for the crimes of its past. “My feelings? They’re not hurt. My feelings are incensed…” Seoul, 1991. Priyanka is beginning the UN investigation into the ‘comfort women’ of the Second World War, and the subsequent political cover-up. Yuna … [Read More]
Book review: Kim Soom – One Left
When the issue of comfort women has been with us since the Pacific War, to re-emerge in 1991 when Kim Haksun came forward as the first to announce herself as victim, it is astonishing that we had to wait until 2016 for what is, according to Bonnie Oh’s introduction (p ix), “the first Korean novel … [Read More]
SOAS online seminar: One Left, by Kim Soom
It’s been a while since we last had a SOAS Friday evening seminar, but this should be worth the wait. One Left: A powerful tale of trauma and endurance that transformed a nation’s understanding of Korean comfort women Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton (Translators) Friday 4 December 2020, 5 – 7pm Online. Register via Zoom … [Read More]
Whose Comfort? – book launch at the KCC
Friday 21 February 2020, 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm Korean Cultural Centre UK | Grand Buildings | 1-3 Strand | London WC2N 5B Admission free | Register via Google Docs Join World Scientific Publishing at the Korean Cultural Centre UK to celebrate the launch of Whose Comfort? The issue of sexual violence against civilian ‘comfort … [Read More]
Shusenjo: Screening with Q+A with Director Miki Dezaki
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 … [Read More]
Screening: Daily Bread + 50 Years of Silence
On UN International Eliminate Sexual Violence in Conflict Day, SOAS Korean Social and Environmental Justice Society will have a special film event celebrating Jan Ruff O’Herne, a survivor of Japanese military sexual slavery, and human rights campaigner. Jan was inspired in 1991 by the Korean grandmothers to tell her story – and to tell her … [Read More]
Screening: Daily Bread + 50 Years of Silence
Two films on the subject of a Dutch “Comfort Woman”. Daily Bread + 50 Years of Silence Arapina | 8 Little Thames Walk | London SE8 3FB 6pm, Wednesday 1 May 2019 Daily Bread Director: Ruby Challenger (Australia 2018, 15 mins, Dutch & Japanese with English subtitles. Historical drama) 50 Years of Silence Director: Ned … [Read More]
Remembering Kim Bok-dong 1926 – 2019
Kim Bok Dong was a victim of Japan’s wartime military sexual slavery, and one of the first of the survivors to speak out in the early 1990s. She became a prominent human rights campaigner on this and other issues affecting lives of young women. She passed away this year on 28 January. On March 13th, … [Read More]
Screening: A Long Way Around
A one-off screening of ‘A Long Way Around’ (‘에움길’) at Hammersmith Novotel Screening room 1, part of the week long International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema. Director Seung-Hyeon Yi’s 77 minute film tells the story of the ‘comfort women’ through the life of grandma Ok-Seon Lee. Free screening. No booking required. 10am, 18 February 2019. … [Read More]
RIP Kim Bok-dong
Next Tuesday, 5 February, a vigil will be held in remembrance of Kim Bok-dong who passed away on Monday 28 January, aged 93. She was a victim of Japanese military sexual slavery and a tireless campaigner against violence to women and girls in conflict. Her visit to London in 2015 touched many hearts. The vigil … [Read More]
SOAS seminar – From the Writing to Speaking Subject: Korean ‘Comfort Women’ and Girlhood
The second of this year’s SOAS evening seminars: From the Writing to Speaking Subject: Korean ‘Comfort Women’ and Girlhood Dr Jinhee Choi (King’s College London) 25 January 2019, 5:15 – 7:00 pm Venue: Brunei Gallery Room B104 | Register here Abstract From Snowy Road (눈길, dir. Lee Na-jeong, 2015) and Spirits’ Homecoming (귀향, dir. Cho … [Read More]
Book review: Mary Lynn Bracht — White Chrysanthemum
Mary Lynn Bracht: White Chrysanthemum Penguin Random House 2018, 320pp White Chrysanthemum, the debut novel from Mary Lynn Bracht, tells the story of two sisters, brought up on Jeju Island, who were tragically separated in the last years of the Second World War. The elder sister, Hana, is abducted into sexual slavery by a Japanese … [Read More]
Exhibition news: Remembering The ‘Comfort Women’, at Deptford Does Art
Art exhibition, book reading and film screening on a “Comfort Women” theme later this month: Remembering The ‘Comfort Women’ Deptford Does Art | 28 Deptford High Street | London SE8 4AF | www.deptforddoesart.com 25 April – 29 April The sexual slavery of some 200,000 women and girls by the Japanese Imperial Army during WW2 was … [Read More]