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]
Tag: Comfort Women
Selected publications
- 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
- 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
- Chin Sung Chung, Etsuro Totsuka, Keith Howard, Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan: True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women tr Young Joo Lee, Continuum 1995
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]
Screening: My Heart Is Not Broken Yet
Moon So-ri is the narrator of this moving film specially selected for screening close to International Women’s Day 2018. LKL caught it in Sheffield in 2015 – brief review here. My Heart Is Not Broken Yet Dir: AHN Hae-ryong (2007) Venue: Birkbeck, University of London, Room B04, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD Saturday 10 … [Read More]
SOAS conference: Colonialism and its Reverberations
A good half-day conference coming at the beginning of February. Check the event’s Facebook page or the SOAS website for updates. Colonialism and its Reverberations: ‘Comfort Women’ and Historical Revisionism in Korea and Japan Professor Yonson Ahn (University of Frankfurt), Professor Vladimir Tikhonov (University of Oslo), Professor Chong Yeonghwan (Meiji Gakuin University) 3 February 2018, … [Read More]
Event news: The Apology screens at Human Rights Watch film festival
Human Rights Watch film festival will be screening The Apology, a documentary on the subject of women forced into sexual slavery in WWII. There will be two opportunities to see the film, both followed by a Q+A session with director Tiffany Hsiung. The Apology (2016) UK Premiere, with Q+A with Director Tiffany Hsiung Wednesday 15 … [Read More]
Festival Film review: Spirits’ Homecoming
With the signing of the Comfort Women “deal” between Japan and South Korea in December 2015 – a deal signed without consulting the victims themselves – the issue of the wartime sex slaves once again came to the fore. While the inter-governmental negotiators were reaching the final stages of their deal-making, Cho Jungrae’s long-term project … [Read More]