Proceedings of The 6th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Against Forgetting: The Struggle for Inclusive Remembrance in the ‘Comfort Women’ Discourse
Agnese Dionisio
ABSTRACT:
This paper delves into the initiatives undertaken by the transnational feminist collective Tomorrow Girls Troop (TGT), exploring their distinctive characteristics since their inception in 2015. Originating from the collaboration of two women – one Japanese and one Korean – who were studying together in California, TGT’s endeavors stand out among other feminist groups, particularly their project named “Against Forgetting”. This project commemorates victims/ survivors of the Japanese Empire’s system of military sexual slavery, also referred to as ‘comfort women’. The project, held between 2018 and 2019 in Los Angeles, Seoul, and Tokyo, was a collaboration with artist and scholar Shimada Yoshiko. This paper explores the significance of the project, highlighting challenges faced in diverse locations and examining how local communities either resonated or did not resonate with the fight for justice for ‘comfort women’. In some cases, communities drew parallels between the sufferings of ‘comfort women’ and their own struggles against sexism and racism. Subsequently, this paper delves into the longstanding debate surrounding ‘comfort women’, particularly addressing issues of who is remembered and who is condemned to silence. I argue that narratives surrounding gender violence and its remembrance are intricately linked to societal discourses on women’s purity and chastity, perpetuating harm by excluding and stigmatizing those who do not conform to the “ideal victim” model, as defined by age, ethnicity, social status, and ‘virginal purity’.
keywords: feminist art, intersectionality, Japanese history, sexual slavery, Tomorrow Girls
Troop