Willing prostitutes or victims of sexual slavery?: An analysis of the discursive amnesia of Japanese “comfort women”

The collective memory of sexual slavery under the Japanese imperial military has become a contentious issue in East Asia, leading to diplomatic conflicts between the Japanese and South Korean governments. After the 1991 lawsuit filed by three Korean survivors drew media and scholarly attention, numerous books and articles have been published on the topic. However, most of them have focused on Korean victims and survivors, whereas their Japanese counterparts have been largely neglected. This essay examines the discursive amnesia surrounding Japanese victims and survivors. I analyze two sets of artifacts: (1) books that reference Japanese “comfort women” to explore how their collective memories have been constructed in Japanese society and (2) books either authored by Japanese survivors or based on interviews with them to illuminate counter-memories of Japanese “comfort women.” Particular attention is paid to the emotions of the Japanese survivors as they narrate their own stories. In doing so, I aim to rehumanize these survivors while demonstrating the importance of emotions in collective memory studies, an aspect that remains frequently understudied. Situated at the intersection of memory studies and intercultural communication, this study provides insights into how power and marginalization operate within transnational memory politics.