Comfort Women Monuments: A Transnational Global Memoryscape

Who are "comfort women"? The euphemistic term “comfort women” refers to the women and girls who were taken from their homes to be sexually exploited by the Japanese imperial military during WWII. Military “comfort stations” for the Japanese military existed from 1932-1945 across the Japanese empire, in Japan, colonial Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Burma, and various Pacific islands.

Why monuments? The movement of bringing the historical existence of “comfort women” to light started in the 1980s as a transnational feminist undertaking initiated by scholars in South Korea, stretching over to Japan, the Philippines, and other Asian countries. Out of their continued activism came the erecting of memorials of “comfort women” in, first, Seoul, South Korea. While this resource displays just 10 monuments,  36 similar monuments  now exist across the world in South Korea, the US, China, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

What is a transnational global memoryscape? US scholars Kendall Phillips and Mitchell Reyes introduced the term, “global memoryscape,” to refer to the “intersection between memorial practices and global forces,” between “public memory and globalization.” A global memoryscape points out that public memory is not simply nation-bound, but global. This transnational network of “comfort women” monuments around the world exist as a decentralized network promoting memory of “comfort women” in their own unique national contexts. Taking this approach helps us ask, "How is history remembered differently between various publics and their public memories in their unique contexts? How is it all connected? How is it different?"

This digital humanities resource is for students and educators of history, public memory, gender-based violence, human rights rhetoric, national and international affairs, grassroots activism, and political struggle.

This resource is designed for active learning. Explore what is shown and piece together what is unshown. Scroll through the  slideshow , explore the  map , and click through to links, particularly linking to "Notable Context," to piece together your own understanding of this transnational global memoryscape of comfort women memorials all around the world.

You may find it helpful to keep the following questions in mind as you navigate:

• Who put this monument together? What political forces (local and international) were they constrained by?
• Was there an opposition? Who was it? Why and what were they opposing? What larger geopolitical historical contexts can you piece together to form their motivations?
• What message is the monument communicating, both directly and indirectly?
• Where is this monument housed? Who had to sign off on this project to make this monument happen? How might these multiple stakeholders impact the message of the monument? How does geopolitical location contribute to the unique nature/nuances of this memory place?
• When was this monument built? Why then? What was happening at that time to allow for the success or failure of this monument?

The following slideshow shows details of 10 Statues of Peace that were created across a span of ten years, 2011-2020. Countries include: South Korea, USA, Canada, Australia, China, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Germany.

Click through each of the ten locations to examine where each monument is located and its surrounding context.

• Where is the statue located, and what significance might that contribute to the message of the monument? E.g. In a large metropolitan city, in front of an embassy, near the waterfront, in a church, on land owned by a political party or office, etc?
• What does location say about what relationships needed to be navigated to erect the monument? What political tensions might there be based on where it is housed?

• What observations do you find yourself drawing as you read all of these different sites in tandem?
• How might those observations have differed if this resource had displayed a different assortment of examples? e.g. 10 statues all in South Korea, more statues from the US, etc...
• What might a transnational network of similar statues say about public memory?
• ...

• (Korea)  Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan 
• (USA)  CARE Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education 
• (USA)  Comfort Women Justice Coalition 
• (China)  Comfort Women Museum and Archives of China 
• ...

Contact the creator here: jinrebekahchoi@gmail.com