[KS] Specialist on comfort women issues and Tokto issue

[don kirk]

Many thanks for that balanced and very knowledgeable assessment. Much appreciated. One thing, though: in the early 1990s, a few comfort women in Korea gave press conferences, set up by NGOs, that I attended at the time. So some were speaking out -- though probably guardedly. Re Hicks' sources, he refers to Yoshiaki's work repeatedly as well as others not yet translated into English.
Thanks again.
Don Kirk

--- On Mon, 7/11/11, Bang-Soon Yoon <yoonb at cwu.EDU> wrote:

From: Bang-Soon Yoon <yoonb at cwu.EDU>
Subject: Re: [KS] Specialist on comfort women issues and Tokto issue
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws, dilj at pdx.edu, kirkdon at YAHOO.com
Cc: LauniusM at cwu.edu
Date: Monday, July 11, 2011, 6:47 PM


I agree with you that George Hicks?s book (The Comfort Women, 1994) chronically lacks footnoting.  And even though he compiled personal victimization stories of some "comfort women" they were not based on the author's primary research, nor any information about the source.  Furthermore, his book does not inquire into theoretical explanations about sexual violence at wartime, etc.
  
Nonetheless, Hick's book, in my view, has many values.  First of all, the timing and the location of the publication (the first on the comfort women issue in English outside the Korea, Japan or other Asian victim country region) have certainly attracted world attention to this issue and educated the public worldwide about this hidden (actually, suppressed to hidden) war secret.  The "comfort women" is a very old issue that most people among older generations both in Korea and Japan know about, if not in graphic details.  While literally all the East Asian history books omitted this issue (except, e.g., Saburo Ienaga, The Pacific War 1931-1945, first published in 1968 by Iwanami Shoten Publishers in Tokyo, later published with English translation in the U.S. by Random House in 1978), Hicks book was "breaking news."  In-depth, scholarly books would be published later (in English) while people were still trying to figure out who are the comfort women,
 what is the comfort women system, etc.  Yoshimi Yoshiaki's book, Comfort Women, for example, was not available to English readers until Columbia University Press published it in 2000 (the book was originally published in Japanese by Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, Tokyo, 1995). 
  
Second, the Hicks? book explains the comfort women system, victimization, and NGO movements from a historical and comparative perspective, although not following a formal format of scholarly research.  Information about the comfort women cases of Korea , Japan , Philippines , Taiwan , China , etc. is useful, particularly if it was in the mid 1990s. I still consider Hicks' book a useful introductory book for English readers.
  
Third, I found Hicks suggests in his book to look at the comfort women issue within a larger framework, the political economy of sex, comfort women and contemporary issues of prostitution as well as trafficking in women, etc.  Although deeper analysis on these connections is missing, I believe some researchers on comfort women studies might be stimulated by his way of thinking for further research on comfort women. 
  
Referring to your question of why Hicks didn't interview comfort women survivors for his book, I would like to point out the limits of comfort women research using interviewing as a tool.  In the early 1990s when comfort women survivors began to testify in public, it was not easy for outsiders to talk directly to them.  To make a long story short, it was extremely difficult for even Korean women researchers to get information out from former Korean comfort women.  Due to the extremely private nature of the issue, sexual slavery and years of gang rape, etc. the surviving victims didn't open up their minds.  My own interviews of comfort women survivors, women's NGO activists/researchers (who are advocates of Korean comfort women) reveal that comfort women survivors felt very uncomfortable to talk with young women researchers, not to mention to males (even though they are in old and professional people engaged in the religious communities).  Korean
 researchers would say the survivors would open up after consecutive 7th visits for interviews.  The successful interviews were possible for Korean women researchers after they developed a personal tie, and persuading the comfort women survivors about their historical mission to humanity, justice, etc.  In other words, very Korean cultural approach and empowerment preceded interviews.   Hicks' research on Korean comfort women based on the interview research methodology, for example, could have been extremely difficult, if not impossible in the early 1990s when he was working on the book manuscript.  Given comfort women?s old age, and their poor health, interview may no longer be a reliable tool for the comfort women research in these days if the research agenda is focused on ?fact-finding.?
 
Thank you. 
Bang-Soon Yoon
  
  
  
 


*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Bang-Soon Yoon, Ph. D.
Professor, Dept. of Political Science 
Central Washington University
400 East University Way
Ellensburg, WA. 98926-7578, USA
Tel.  (509)963-2961 or (509)963-2408 (leave message)
Fax. (509)963-1134
E-mail:  yoonb at cwu.edu
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
>>> don kirk 07/08/11 10:08 PM >>>




I wonder what's your view, as a specialist, on George Hicks' "The Comfort Women." It seemed to me to suffer from a terrific lack of footnotes and other forms of attribution while depending mightily on works in Korean and Japanese that could have been translated and published in English editions. (As far as I could tell, the book contained no original interviews though some of these women were and are available. A few of them still manage to show up for weekly demos in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.) That's just an off-hand view after one reading. Would be interested in the academic perspective.
Thanks,
Don Kirk

--- On Thu, 7/7/11, Bang-Soon Yoon <yoonb at cwu.EDU> wrote:


From: Bang-Soon Yoon <yoonb at cwu.EDU>
Subject: Re: [KS] Specialist on comfort women issues and Tokto issue
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws, dilj at pdx.edu
Cc: LauniusM at cwu.edu
Date: Thursday, July 7, 2011, 2:35 PM



Dear Professor Lee,
 
You can list me as a Korean comfort women specialist.  I am currently finishing up my book manuscript on comfort women specifically focused on the Korean victims' case from a comparative perspective.  My recent publications on the subject include an article published by the Northeast Asian History Foundation's English journal:  Bang-Soon L. Yoon, "Imperial Japan's Comfort Women from Korea:  History & Politics of Silence-Breaking," The Journal of Northeast Asian History, Vol. 7, Number 1 (Summer 2010), pp. 5-39.  I can send you a copy of it upon request.
 
Regarding the Tokdo specialist, I recommend Dr. Michael A. Launius, Professor of Political Science & the Executive Director of the International Studies & Programs at Central Washington University.  He published several research papers, newspaper special columns, etc.  Thanks.
 
Sincerely,
Bang-Soon L. Yoon
 




* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Bang-Soon Yoon, Ph. D.
Professor, Dept. of Political Science 
Central Washington University
400 East University Way
Ellensburg, WA. 98926-7578, USA
Tel. (509)963-2961 or (509)963-2408 (leave message)
Fax. (509)963-1134
E-mail: yoonb at cwu.edu
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>>> <dilj at pdx.edu> 07/06/11 8:18 PM >>> 
Dear members, 

I would like to know who are the specialists on the issues of Korean 
comfort women, and specialists on the issues of Tokto in the west. 

Information on these will be appreciated. 

Best wishes, 


Junghee Lee 
-- 
Junghee Lee 
Professor 
Department of Art 
Portland State University 
P.O. Box 751 
Portland, OR 97207-0751 
U.S.A. 
leeju at pdx.edu 
fax. 503-725-4541 
Tel. 503-725-3347 
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