Feminism against Japan’s Military Sexual Violence

I find a new form of feminism in the activist narratives and analyze its nature by following the theorization of Ōgoshi Aiko, a feminist scholar in philosophy, who has maintained personal contacts with activists, including the late Matsui Yayori. This feminism, which I call JMSV feminism, differs from global feminism in that it has achieved transnational solidarity based on the realization that women are differentiated by power relations, not based on the discourse of universal womanhood promoted by global feminism. JMSV feminism is a form of critical transnational feminism characterized by postcolonial historical consciousness; intersectionality; transnational solidarity; mutual transformation; and the centrality of survivors. JMSV activists have demonstrated how feminists of a former colonial empire may develop an ethical relationship with underprivileged women by listening to their voices with moral humility. They also suggest that feminism is effective when it intersects with other kinds of activism.

History of the Comfort Women Movement

I trace the history of the comfort women movement, describing what activists in Japan have done collectively for the movement’s major objectives, the Japanese government’s sincere apology and legal compensations. In doing so, I provide sociopolitical contexts for understanding the activist narratives, which are about what they have thought and felt personally. The activists have modified strategies according to the shifting positions of the government and the international community and the changing public attitude in Japanese society toward the issue. I discuss seven topics chronologically ordered with some overlaps in their historical periods: the rise of the movement; the spread of the movement; the Asian Women’s Fund; the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery; lawsuits; legislative resolution; and fighting in isolated Japan.

Historical Consciousness

As victims of Japanese past aggression in Asia, including those of Japan’s military sexual slavery, began to demand an apology and compensation from Japan, the debate on historical consciousness arose in the Japanese public discourse. It was spurred by historical revisionists who reacted to such demands and refused to admit that Japan had an aggressive past. While criticizing revisionist arguments, progressives made a renewed effort to take responsibility for Japan’s past. Among them are activists of the comfort women movement, who see themselves as citizens of the perpetrator state. The narrative of Ōmori Noriko, a lawyer, sheds light on complicated relationships between Chinese survivors and Japanese lawyers while that of Nakamura Fujie, a grassroots historian, delves into Japan’s responsibility for colonial and postcolonial Taiwan.

Listening to Survivors

In the comfort women movement, testimony was employed as the most popular and the most effective strategy for getting public support. Scholars debated whether or not testimony could count as historical evidence and theorized the act of listening to survivors as a form of taking responsibility. As exemplified in the narratives of Yang Ching-ja and Nobukawa Mitsuko, activists took it as their responsibility to listen and respond to survivors sincerely. The act of listening brought about mutual transformation as it contributed to survivors’ recovery from injuries and to activists’ personal growth. Ishida Yoneko, a historian, narrates how she came to see testimonial narratives as historical evidence through her changing interpersonal relationships with Chinese survivors.

Discrimination against Women

Feminist scholars argue that the licensed prostitution system, a system of sexual slavery created in prewar Japan to complement the patriarchal system, became the basis of the wartime comfort women system. They have begun to examine the comfort women issue in relation to contemporary issues of sexual violence such as adult videos, pointing out that deep-seated sex culture of Japan as a reason for the social resistance against taking responsibility for the issue. Activists in the comfort women movement include those involved in the women’s liberation movement of the early 1970s, in which the comfort women issue was problematized. One such activist, Tanimoto Ayako, criticizes in her narrative the commodification of women, pointing to similarities between survivors of Japan’s military sexual slavery and those of domestic violence in today’s Japan. In their narratives, Nakagawa Kayoko and Yamagata Junko talk about how they have struggled with pervasive gender discrimination in Japanese society from a human rights framework and from a perspective of Christianity, respectively.

Transnational Feminism

In scholarly discussion of the comfort women issue as a site for pursuing transnational feminism, the positionality of Japanese women has been examined as victims and as accomplices. An intense debate between Ueno Chizuko and Kim Pu-ja has taken place about how feminism could transcend nationalism. In her narrative, Nakahara Michiko, a historian, demonstrates an intricate way in which women from Japan and other Asian countries achieved transnational solidarity at the site of the movement, suggesting that Japanese people need to accept themselves as citizens of the perpetrator state regardless of their personal identifications. The narrative of Bang Chung-ja gives insight into the delicate nature of interaction between resident Korean activists and Japanese activists while pointing to the intersectional nature of the comfort women issue. Yoneda Mai is one generation younger than many Japanese activists, but her story echoes other stories in terms of respect for survivors, critical historical consciousness, and resistance to imperialist feminism.