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

Keith Howard kh at soas.ac.uk
Fri Sep 22 13:16:58 EDT 2000


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I don't want to get into a lengthy discussion of my review and Dai Sil
Kim-Gibson's response, but I would ask that those interested should closely
examine what I said in KSR 2000-07. It seems from Ms. Kim-Gibson's response
that I have been unfairly critical. Please note that in the review I point
out that the author has done 'a worthy job...conducted extensive
research...;' 'has coaxed detailed testimonies...carefully adds
commentary...,' and: 'the historical account...is thorough and
enlightening.' I say that the book 'is of considerable importance'. I am
not trying to dismiss the text, and agree entirely with the author that the
voices of the former comfort women should be heard -- as indeed they are in
her book and film.

My position remains as I state at the end: 'I would hope that the points I
have raised will be considered if a revised edition is printed'. Richard
Miller has explained the 'Batavia/Jakarta' issue; I gave this not as a
spelling mistake, but as one example following the comment that 'a good
editor' would have been useful. I may have been economical with the
explanation of this and the other examples given; I apologise if so, and
will explain more fully if needed.

I at no point suggest that Ms Kim-Gibson does not 'seem to be aware of
other English work on the topic'; but rather note that there is no
reference to many of the sources we have in English. I did, as I stated,
feel obliged to react to this, not least because of the book I edited and
annotated -- I was not the translator, incidentally. In this 1995 book, and
the related publications (in Index on Censorship, and in the TV 'Second
Sex' documentary, for example), I spent a lot of time ensuring that the
people whose testimonies were recorded came across as real, 'full-blooded
human beings' (to quote Ms Kim-Gibson about 'Silence Broken'); I argued for
this approach in meetings with the publisher, who, like me, were concerned
with the impersonal nature of some of the Korean texts we were dealing
with. The quote I gave from 'Silence Broken', which Ms Kim-Gibson repeated
in her response to my review, to me still implies the opposite, but if I
have interpreted this wrongly, then my apologies to the author.

And finally, I do not feel a particularly poor man to be saddled with two
first names, or is it two last names. Both suggest a reasonable heritage,
Keith as the name of Scottish earls (and the name of a small town that
produces some of the finest malt whiskey in Scotland), and Howard as
English lords, though initially a Norman given name. If only my roots were
in such illustrious families!

Dr Keith Howard
Senior Lecturer in Korean Studies and Music
SOAS,Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square,
London WC1H 0XG, UK
Tel: 020 7898 4687;  Fax: 020 7898 4699; EMail: kh at soas.ac.uk





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