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University of Warwick Institutional Repository University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/4001 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Korean "Comfort Women" and Military Sexual Slavery in World War 11 by Yonson Ahn Thesis to obtain the degree of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) submitted to the University of Warwick This work has been carried out at the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender University of Warwick, United Kingdom June 1999 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 9 1.1 Historical Background 9 1.2 Setting up Comfort Stations 12 1.3 Activism 16 1.4 Silence 17 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 20 2.1 Nationalist Approaches 22 2. 1.1 Japanese Nationalist Approach 22 2. 1.2 Korean Nationalist Approach. 25 2.2 'Objective Historian' Approach 28 2.3 Feminist Approaches 32 2.3.1 'Gender Emphasising' Approach 32 2.3.2 Feminist Political Action Approach 35 2.4 My Research Questions and Concepts 40 2.5 'Integrated Feminist' Approach: Sexuality, Subjectivity, War and Colonialism 44 2.5.1 Sexuality and Colonialism 44 2.5.2 Sexual Scripts and Femininity 48 2.5.3 Sexual Violence and War 50 2.5.4 Masculinity and Militarism 53 2.5.5 Victimisation and Resistance 54 3 RESEARCIIING MILITARY SEXUAL SLAVERY 58 3.1 Methodology 58 3.1.1 Narrative Resourcesand Written Resources 58 3.1.2 Why PersonalNarrative Method? 60 3.1.3 What are Testimony and Oral History? 62 3.2 Method 67 3.2.1 Collectingzn Material 67 3.2.2 Finding Informants 70 3.2.3 Preparing and Conducting Interviews 74 3.3 The Relationship between a Narrator and a Researcher 78 3.3.1 Power Relationship between a Narrator and a Researcher 78 3.3.2 Commonality 83 3.3.3 Tension 84 3.3.4 Lan(), Barrier 88 C)uace rý 3.3.5 Differences from Orthodox Ethnography 90 3.4 Epistemology 91 3.4.1 Reliability of Experience and Memory 91 3.4.2 Women's Experience 94 1) 4 STORIES OF THE "COMFORT WOMEN" 99 4.1 Recruitment and Transportation 100 4.2 Family Background 105 4.3 Sexual Initiation 107 4.4 Aspectsof Daily Life 109 4.4.1 Routinisation of Sexual Violence 109 4.4.2 Rhythms of Daily Life: the Weekends 110 4.4.3 An Ostensible Form of Prostitution (Prostitutionalisation) ill. 4.4.4 Rhythms of War, Rhyýthmsof Violence 114 4.5 Woman as Body 116 4.6 Relationshipsbetween the Soldiers and the "Comfort Women" 120 4.7 Contestation and Resistance 123 4.8 The End of the War, and its Aftermath 130 4.8.1 Being Deserted or Killed 130 4.8.2 Diseases,Barrenness or Hysterectomy 132 4.8.3 Stigmatisation: 'Damaged Goods' 132 4.8.4 Anti- JapaneseReaction 135 5 STORIES OF THE SOLDIERS 138 5.1 Personal Relationships 139 5.2 Motivations 142 5.2.1 Motivations to Go to Comfort Stations 142 5.2.2 Motivations Not to Go to Comfort Stations 145 5.3 Regulationsand Disciplinesof Military Life 146 5.3.1 Hierarchy 146 5.3.2 Regulation and Control of Soldiers 148 5.3.3 Regulation of the Comfort Stations 151 5.4 Violence 152 5.5 Legitimation 154 6 MILITARY MASCULINITY 161 6.1 Characteristics of Military Masculinity 165 6.2 Re/construction of Military Masculinity through Practices 168 6.2.1 Creating Stratification among the Men 169 6.2.2 Use of Violence 172 6.2.3 Sexual Conquest 174 6.2.4 Using Military Vernacular including Sexual Language 178 6.2.5 Drinking Alcohol C, 179 6.3 Contributions to War 180 3 7 ENSLAVED SEXUALISED FEMININITY 187 7.1 Enforced Feminine Subject Positioning 188 7.2 Established Femininities in Korea and Japan 190 7.2.1 Femininity in Korean Confucianism 191 7.2.2 JapaneseFemininity 196 7.2.3 Femininity in Korean Nationalism 201 7.3 'Re-socialisation': Using and Transforming Traditional Femininities 205 7.4 How Successfulwas the Processand with What Effects? 208 8 NATIONAL IDENTITIES 213 8.1 Characteristics of National identities of the Japanese Military Men and the "Comfort Women" 214 8.1.1 Characteristics of National Identity of the JapaneseMilitary Men 214 8.1.2 The JapaneseConstruction of Korean Identity of the "Comfort Women" 220 8.2 Practices for Establishment of National Identities 222 8.2.1 Practices Reconstructing National Identity JapaneseMilitary Men 221 in Cý of the 8.2.2 The 'PseudoJapanese' Subjugated Identity of theKorean "Comfort Women" 228 8.3 Identity Reformation as a Political Weapon 235 9 CONCLUSION 239 9.1 Conformity: Internalised Femininities 240 9.2 Resistance in the Comfort Stations 243 9.3 Reconstitution of Identities After the War 247 9.4 Breaking the Silence: The "Comfort Women" Campaign 251 10 REFERENCES 257 11 APPENDIX 275 i 4 Acknowledgments I would first like to thank the former Korean "Comfort Women", for their courage in breaking the 50 years long silence and telling what happened to them during WWII, the Japanese to their C) as well as veterans who agreedC) speak about wartime experiences to me. This thesis would not have been possible without the both the "Comfort Women" the Their consent of C)groups, and veterans: contnbution was absolutely indispensable. Five of my respondents, Kim Haksun, Mun Okchu, Chun Kurnwha, Kano, Tokkyong and Yoshioka Tadao, died while I was wntinc, this thesis. I would like to express sorrow and I dedicate this thesis to all the former "Comfort Women" who died with their pain and anger. I wish to thank my supervisors, Joanna Liddle and Terry Lovell for their encouraLyement insightful comments and suggestions at all stages of my PhD, their patience, guidance, and help, especially throughout the difficult time of revision. Without their support in countless ways this thesis would not have been completed. My appreciation goes to Chang Pilwha, Lee Hyo-jea, Yun Chong-ok, Chung Chin Sung, Najma Kazi and Ruth Johns for their inspiration and encouragement with the "Comfort Women" issue. am indebted to: my colleagues of Hanguk chongsindae yonkuhoe (The Korean Researchers for the Women Drafted for Nhlitary Sexual Slavery by Japan), staff and members of Hanguk chongsindae munche taechaek hyopuihoe (The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Sexual Slavery by Japan) and Asian Centre for Women's Studies in Korea; Jugunianfu Mondai Uri Yosong Network (Military "Comfort Women" Issue Network of We, JapaneseKorean Women), Nihonno senso 5 sekinin shiryo senta (The Centre for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility), and Asian Women's Centre in Japan. All of the aforementioned have helped me in locatin-orthe sources related to the "Comfort Women" issue. In that context, special thanks go to Yoshimura Mariko and Kawada Humiko. I received extensive help from Yanc, Jin 9j*a, Yun Myungsook and Kim Young-sook regarding ZI-!) It:) I= Cý interpreting between Japaneseand Korean, and finding informants amon-c)rstJapanese 1.7) Cý veterans. Many thanks go to NoJima Yoko and Yoshimi Yoshiyaki, for their support during field Japan, to Terada Noriko Yanagi Midori, helped 0 my work in and and al) who me with my Japaneselanguage. Thanks are also due to my friends Bae Kiu-sik, Im Juhee, Julian Bent, Hannah Jordan, and Tina Latham. I would also like to thank those with whom I discussed the issue of "Comfort Women": activists, families of the former "Comfort Women", journalists, diplomats, scholars and friends. Very warm thanks go to my family: Ahn Hong-woo, Ryu Bu-yul, Ahn Kyungrae, Ahn Kon-ju, Chun-yul ASsbrink, Maria Schetelich and, above all, Christoph Schetelich, who have been always on my side whenever I needed their support. Finally, I am very grateful to the British Council in Korea, the committee of Overseas Research Students (ORS), and the British Federation of Women Graduates, for their financial contribution to this project. 6 Abstract The aim of this thesis is to explore the way in which sexualities and identities are involved in the creation of patriarchal relations, ethnic hierarchies and colonial power in the context of "Comfort Women". The women were considered sexual slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. I attempt to show the ways in It) which masculinity, femininity, throucyhthe and national identity were re/constructed Cý enforcement of the subject-positioningsIt: ) of Z:gender,) colonialism and nationalism. The questions I raise and attempt to answer are: What kinds of masculinity and femininity of the Japanese soldiers and Korean "Comfort Women" respectively, and the national identities of both, were re/constructed throuah the comfort station I= system? How were the positionings of the "Comfort Women" enacted through daily C) 11-1) practices and ideology,4=ý and what were the consequences of the re/construction of their identity? Finally, how did the "Comfort Women" position themselves in the face of the imposition of gender and national identities, by Japanese colonial and Korean nationalist power? I life histories former use personal narratives, includinazn testimonies and of the Korean "Comfort Women" and Japaneseveterans obtained from my interviews with them as well as from testimonies already released. I interviewed thirteen former Korean "Comfort Women" and seventeen Japanese veterans. Thirteen out of the veterans were 'rehabilitated' in China after World War El, the remaining four were not. I also occasionally use official documents on the comfort station system, which were issued by the Japanesemilitary and the Western Allies.
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