[KS] Re: KSR 2000-07: _Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women_, by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson

[DGibson357 at aol.com]

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I am Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, a Korea born American who wrote the book and 
produced/directed the film with the same title, Silence Broken: Korean 
Comfort Women.  Howard Keith, University of London, reviewed both at length.  
He offered unsparing praise for my film, but had reservations about the book. 
 He appears to be conflicted, seeing some merit in the book and yet compelled 
to nitpick, finally bringing himself to utter those infamous last words -- 
the book is "flawed," especially "as an academic document."  He does indeed, 
by his own admission, have conflicts with my book.  He published an oral 
history volume on the same topic.  More about that later.

Surely, as a reviewer, he is entitled to write anything he wishes.  A 
reviewer should evaluate the work, upholding certain standards and presenting 
signals for potential readers.  I am not, therefore, interested in 
challenging his views, but I must point out some factual errors.

1.  Mr. Keith complains that I largely dismiss other published accounts and 
that I don't seem to be aware of other English work on the topic.  He 
observes that the "footnotes contain references to a number of Korean 
accounts, but no English-language accounts except for a couple of 
translations of articles from Korean Council members."  Included in the list 
of works in English is his own book (nineteen translated Korean testimonies), 
True Stories of Korean Comfort Women (London: Cassell), and "Chong Moo Choi's 
excellent edited volume, The Comfort Women: Colonialism, War, and Sex."

A few clarifications are in order.  He clearly feels offended by my comment 
which he quotes: ". . .most accounts are primarily summaries of interviews 
conducted by scholars or journalists.  In the name of objectivity and 
scholarship, much of their stories are refined, hence taking away the raw 
pain and feelings from their stories.  They have largely become issues, 
numbers, things and objects of studies, not full blooded human beings."  He 
states that this "dismissal" of other oral accounts is "disingenuous."  I did 
not, however, dismiss those accounts lightly and I stand by what I wrote.  
Those testimonies are the first I read in Korean.  I lived under Japanese 
colonialism and I know what it was like, yet this material is so dry I could 
not feel the depth of tragedy and pain they experienced.  My exact statement 
is: "Most oral accounts in print of the former military comfort women are 
primarily summaries of interviews conducted by scholars or journalists with a 
focus on their lives as comfort women.  If those women told stories beyond 
'that period,' that information was not included in the majority of the oral 
history. . .it was important for me to present their lives--before, during 
and after--as much or as little as they told me."  I discussed this with some 
Korean scholars and activists, some of them interviewers, and they were not 
offended.  They explained how each was assigned to interview several women. 
Each then went with five identical questions, checked out some facts and then 
refined the content.  

Since I read the original Korean testimony, I did not feel the need to read 
Mr. Keith's translation.  I studied (not just read) all the other English 
work he cites as well as other accounts in Korean, far beyond his list.  If I 
don't refer to them in my footnotes, that's because I did not use them in the 
book.  I found it puzzling that he would accuse me of not knowing Choi's 
excellent work.  My own article, "They Are Our Grandmas," is included in that 
volume.

2.  Mr. Keith writes, "I am unsure how to treat the following comment:  
"Feeling the power of the (comfort women's) stories as a common experience, I 
made composite characters but the stories are their's, not fiction.  That 
statement has nothing to do with the book.  It refers to the dramatized 
portion of my 88 minute documentary.

3.  Mr. Keith omits a crucial component in what I call double subjectivity.  
He writes, "Indeed, she accepts a 'double subjectivity,' first because of her 
own depth of emotion, and second since in her writing she consciously 
positions herself in her story."  I use this term to indicate that these 
women's stories were subjective and that I chose not to be a neutral 
listener/interviewer.  Double subjectivity does not just refer to my 
subjectivity but more importantly to the subjectivity of the storytellers.

Finally, he complains about the "style of writing,  "all too common lapses in 
grammar," and "the misspelling of place names."  It is one thing if he does 
not like my style (which many who have read my book consider one of its 
strengths) but is quite another about grammatical errors and misspellings.  
For instance, he indicates that there is a grammatical mistake in the long 
quotation cited above and gives "Batavia, then known as Jakarta" as an 
example of misspelling.  According to the Random House Dictionary, the 
spelling is correct.  So I am puzzled.

Mr. Keith warms those in Korean Studies that my book does not meet academic 
standards.  As I wrote early on, I don't want to dispute that since it is his 
prerogative to express his opinion.  I will say, however, that it was not my 
intention to make the book "academic" (my primary readership is outside the 
academy), but based on the feedback I have received both from general as well 
as scholarly readers, I can say that the book deserves your direct 
examination.  In fact, I am aware that some professors have already included 
the book in their course readings.  It would be a mistake to dismiss the book 
based primarily on Mr. Keith's evaluation.  Since mid-January of this year, 
over 2,000 copies have been sold and I continue to receive strong 
endorsements from scholars and non-scholars alike as a compelling, 
informative, and inspiring book which enables one to feel the flesh and blood 
of these women.  Please give them a chance.  The book is essentially their 
stories.

If you would like additional information on comfort women, please check my 
web site: twotigers.org.