[KS] Translation Project: Korean Former Comfort Women's Testimonies Vol. 3

[joshua david pilzer]

Dear Everyone, 

I'm a graduate student volunteering at the Hanguk Jeongsindae Yeongu'so,
helping them put together a translation team for their third volume of
testimonies of Korean former comfort women/sexual slaves, published in
Korean by Hanul Press in 1999.  They hope to publish the book with an
English-language university press, and several have expressed interest.

In the spirit in which the book was compiled, they are interested in a
collective translation project, a method which they also are drawn to
because of its potential expediency.  We are seeking bilingual scholars to
participate in this project.  In particular, we are seeking an executive
editor, preferably with a background in translation and literature, who is
willing to devote substantial time to the project, as well as up to ten
people willing to translate 40+ pages.  However, should you be interested
in translating the entire book alone or in a small group, we would be
glad to consider your proposal.

I encourage anyone interested to email (1) a brief letter of introduction
in Korean or English and (2) a CV to me, jdpilzer at uchicago.edu, and to the
director of the Yeongu'so, Kang Jeongsuk, wumright at hanmail.net, as soon as
possible.

Below follows a brief description of some of the book's contents.

Best wishes,

Josh Pilzer
PhD Candidate, Ethnomusicology
University of Chicago
jdpilzer at uchicago.edu
82-11-9108-1419

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Testimonies Volume Three is quite unlike the other volumes of testimonies
that have appeared in print in English (which are now out of print), in
its emphasis on both quantitative and qualitative information, in its rich
annotation, in its emphasis on the post-war lives of survivors, and in its
description of the uniqueness of the women's stories, as Director Kang
explains below:
 
"Grandmother Hoon and Grandmother Kim So-ran, both of whom appear in
Testimonies Volume Three, present extraordinarily unique cases:
Grandmother Hoon spent the war years in Cambodia and remained there
afterwards, returning to her mother country in the late 1990s; and her
life experiences in Cambodia continue to inspire political
coalition-building in Japan.  Grandmother Kim is a woman who our research
group found by seeking out the very location of a Japanese concentration
camp in the Philippines mentioned in documents recently uncovered at the
US NARA (National Archives and Records Administration).  Although until
now much data pertaining to these concentration camps has been uncovered,
this case is unique in that Grandmother Kim was discovered through such
information."  


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"The time has come today"--Chambers Brothers