Recently,
the issue of the "comfort women" of World War II has become hostage
to the game of political expediency. The destruction of lives
has become a sort of "he said/she said" game, with governments
and activists leveraging the tragedies of many thousands to the
highest bidder for political currency. While the powers-that-be
vie for concessions and advantages, the voices of the real victims
appear lost.
At first glance,
Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II, an anthology
of essays by academics, artists and activists, appears to address
this gap. Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B.C. Oh, professors at Georgetown
University, write in the introduction that the purpose of the
book is to explain the "legacy" of the women pressed into sexual
service for the Japanese army.
By definition, a "legacy" is a gift of value to one's descendents.
Comfort women, however, were seen as valueless by their abusers,
by the Japanese in general and, later, by their own people. These
women often came from poor families, and after the war, many were
so traumatized that they could not have children of their own
- indeed, they were denied a biological legacy. The authors state
that they seek to give value to the "valueless" by acknowledging
their legacy to the ages. As admirable as their aims are, the
authors undermine their objective by including some suspect material.
Jill Medvedow's article, which focuses on one artist's response
to the comfort-women issue, is unique and thought-provoking. In
1996, Mona Higuchi, a Korean-Japanese artist, created "Bamboo
Echoes: Dedicated to the Comfort Women," of bamboo and other materials,
for a Boston museum. Albeit unconventional, Medvedow's article
is a perfect example of "legacy": she describes Higuchi's vision,
process, the historical context, viewer responses and the aim
to educate people about comfort women.
From a more academic perspective, Yuki (Toshiyuki) Tanaka's article,
"Comfort Women in the Dutch East Indies," is well-written and
thorough. He documents first-hand (often heart-breaking) testimony
of Dutch comfort women and girls. His assertions are footnoted,
and an all-encompassing explanation of his research is thankfully
lacking: he states clearly the limits of his information. While
compassionate, his article is objective.
In contrast is a contribution by Linda Gertner Zatlin, who argues
that the erotic art of the Edo Period (1603-1868) is related to
the rape and torture of comfort women. Granted, others have argued
that pornography escalates violence against women, but Zatlin's
article is disjointed.
Her analysis of Edo shunga, wood-block prints depicting sexual
pleasure, is solid, but she leaps to the conclusion that 19th
century erotic art resulted in sexual slavery in World War II,
leaving her reader behind. Furthermore, in a book with many art
photographs, Zatlin's article is not illustrated, leaving the
reader to take the author's word rather than make her own judgment.
Dai Sil Kim-Gibson's piece is the weakest in the volume. The experience
of the comfort women is tragic, but not cause to label present-day
Japanese "dumb bitches" or "sons of bitches."
Kim-Gibson, making a film about Korean comfort women, describes
being stopped at Narita airport by a Japanese woman who reminded
her of a childhood Japanese teacher who punished her for speaking
Korean. The customs official is castigated for doing her job,
for being Japanese, for resembling a teacher Kim-Gibson disliked.
But her hassles at Narita have nothing to do with the comfort-women
issue. Does a rude airport official make for a nation of rapists?
The book as a whole needs thorough editing. The number of comfort
women is cited as between 100,000 and 200,000 in Oh's article,
thought the exact number is unknown. However, in Kim-Gibson's
article, the figure of 200,000 is presented as a fact. In another
case, Oh uses a 1997 novel to back up her argument. With an emotionally
charged issue like comfort women, factual information must be
thoroughly documented. Any hint of sentionalism weakens the "legacy"
of the victims.
In this highly politicized environment, it is easy to assign black
and white labels to aggressors and victims. The reality of war
is shades of gray. In the discourse of comfort women, the Japanese
have been painted as evil, and the Korean women as money-hungry
partners in the traffic of their flesh. Neither characterization
is accurate. Clearly, the onus of guilt is heavier on the Japanese
side. However, to dismiss the Japanese treatment of comfort women
as the result of "racial...taint that made Japanese men particularly
monstrous" is an oversimplification and does not do the comfort
women justice. Oh and Stetz sought to avoid this very characterization,
yet allowed it to creep into their book. 
