CHUNGHEE SARAH SOH (South Korea > U.S.A.)
1, Introduction of Prof. C. Sarah Soh
2, Book review of her book entitled "The Comfort Women"
3, Excerpt from her book (cited from external blog)
4, Testimonies of former Comfort Women whom Prof. Soh interviewed.
5, Testimonies of former Comfort Women whom other scholars interviewed
1. Introduction
Chunghee Sarah Soh or C. Sarah Soh is a
Korean-American professor of Anthropology at San Francisco State University. She is a sociocultural anthropologist
who specializes in issues of women, gender, sexuality. She graduated from Sogang
University in Seoul and earned master's degree and then Ph.D from the
University of Hawaii in 1987. She taught cultural anthropology at universities
in Hawaii in 1990, Arizona from 1990-2001 and Texas from 1991-94. She joined
San Francisco State University in 1994.
Her book (see above) The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and
Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan delivers new insight into the
nature of the comfort women issue.
2, Book review of her book entitled "The Comfort Women"
2, Book review of her book entitled "The Comfort Women"
Book Review published in JapanTimes, May 10, 2009
Continuing controversy of ‘comfort women’
by Jeff Kingston
C. Sarah Soh explains how the
comfort women system emerged from the nexus of patriarchy, colonialism,
capitalism and militarism, placing it in an ongoing continuum of women’s
subjugation and exploitation. Controversially, she asserts that it is inaccurate to
depict the comfort women as sex slaves and the system as a war crime.
Soh’s main target is the Korean
Council, an umbrella organization of activist groups involved in the redress
movement, arguing that it has sensationalized the story, imposing a misleading
narrative of victimization while brooking no dissent. She contends that “the
canonized story of police or the military forcibly dragging them away from
loving parents” is a shibboleth and accuses the redress movement of employing
“strategic exaggerations that have effectively impeded deeper understanding of
the comfort women issue and any real progress toward its resolution.” In her
view, the onus is on Korean society to repudiate victimization, admit its complicity
in the comfort women’s trauma, and accept that the entire system was not
criminal.
Soh accuses the Korean Council of
making life difficult for those comfort women who chose to accept compensation
from the Japanese government under the auspices of the Asian Women’s Fund
(AWF). Unwilling to let the Japanese off the hook of history, the Korean
Council pressured former comfort women to renounce the AWF’s gesture of
contrition while the Korean government offered them compensation provided they
refused the Japanese money. Those who accepted faced a traumatic ostracism. One
suspects that Soh faces a similar fate for bravely challenging the cult of
victimization and spreading responsibility.
“The Comfort Women” argues that
the dominant narrative is misleading because it makes sweeping generalizations
that don’t tally with the wide variations in recruitment and conditions
reported by former comfort women and incorrectly conflates comfort women’s
recruitment with the “volunteer corps,” a separate system for mobilizing
women’s labor introduced during wartime. In addition, by vilifying, the Koreans
avert their gaze from their own collaboration. She maintains that compatriots
recruited a majority of the Korean comfort women and some were sold to traffickers
by indigent parents. Moreover, after the war Korean society stigmatized these
women, compounding their tragedy.
Soh laments that Korean
nationalism has tainted the redress movement, one that shades the truth while
demanding justice. She admits, however, that, “There can be no denial of the
tragic victimization of forcibly recruited women who suffered slavery-like
conditions.” Yet, she quibbles a great deal about this very issue.
For Japan’s quartermasters, we
learn, comfort women and condoms were essential supplies for the imperial
troops. Chaste teenage virgins, mostly from destitute families, were seen as
desirable, morale-boosting “gifts” to the warriors, ones symbolically “wrapped”
with assigned Japanese names. Soh further acknowledges that official documents
implicate the Japanese government in the establishment and maintenance of the
comfort women system.
Oddly, Soh takes redress
advocates to task far more than conservative Japanese who deny or minimize what
happened. She concurs with Japanese apologists that the comfort women system
was akin to the existing system of licensed prostitution, but then admits it
was not typical because non-Japanese comfort women were much more likely to
suffer physical violence. She also argues that it is misleading to refer to the
military brothels as “rape centers,” but is the term “comfort stations” any
less misleading?
Soh often veers so close to the
views of conservative Japanese apologists that she warns them against
appropriating her arguments. She is far harsher on Korean redress activists
than Japanese minimizers because her agenda is to indict patriarchy and force
Koreans to acknowledge their complicity and indifference. In her view, the
prevailing victim’s narrative impedes this self-reflection.
There were very different types
of comfort facilities, what Soh terms the “concessionary, the paramilitary and
the criminal.” Respectively, these are the facilities run by private
entrepreneurs for profit, those run by the military as “not-for-profit
recreational centers” and those improvised by soldiers on the battlefield
involving sexual enslavement. This criminal type she calls an anomaly quite
distinct from the “state-endorsed and regulated” facilities. One wonders why
official sanction rendered them any less criminal and to what degree this
endorsement consoled the young women.
While Soh’s analysis is
compelling in many respects, her strategic equivocations detract from the book.
If, as Soh writes, the comfort women were sex objects and working in slavelike
conditions, why reject calling them sex slaves? Anticipating criticism, she
portrays herself as a target of raving ethno-nationalists and guardians of
politically correct views, but her analysis does suffer from some logical
lapses.
Overall, this is a brave and
impressive book that usefully complicates and adds layers to our understanding
of a sordid system. Alas, it offers little hope for reconciliation.
Jeff Kingston is director of
Asian Studies at Temple University, Japan campus.
In this book, Professor Soh criticizes the South Korean activist group
"Korean Council" (also known as Chong Dae Hyup 정대협 挺対協 in Korean) for spreading North Korean
propaganda and using the comfort women issue to block reconciliation between
Japan and South Korea. She insists that Korean society must repudiate
victimization, admit its complicity and accept that the system was not
criminal. She also argues that the case of a small number of Dutch and Filipino
women who were coerced by lower ranked Japanese soldiers in the battlefields
was an anomaly, and that most women (Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese) were
recruited and employed by prostitution brokers.
3, Excerpt from her book (from the blog: The Comfort Women" by Professor C. Sarah Soh)
The following is an excerpt from her book "The Comfort Women." (Pages 10 - 11)
3, Excerpt from her book (from the blog: The Comfort Women" by Professor C. Sarah Soh)
The following is an excerpt from her book "The Comfort Women." (Pages 10 - 11)
4, Testimonies from former Comfort Women whom Prof. Soh interviewed.
(copied from the blog: The Comfort Women" by Professor C. Sarah Soh)
(copied from the blog: The Comfort Women" by Professor C. Sarah Soh)
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In an interview
with Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University, a
former Korean comfort woman Kim Sun-ok said that she was sold by her parents
four times.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
 |
| Kim Sun-ok |
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
A former Korean
comfort woman Mun Oku-chu said in her
memoir:
"I was recruited by a Korean comfort station owner. I saved a considerable amount of money from tips, so I opened a saving account. I could not believe that I could have so much money in my saving account. One of my friends collected many jewels, so I went and bought a diamond. I often went to see Japanese movies and Kabuki plays in which players came from the mainland Japan. I became a popular woman in Rangoon. There were a lot more officers in Rangoon than near the frontlines, so I was invited to many parties. I sang songs at parties and received lots of tips. I put on a pair of high heels, a green coat and carried an alligator leather handbag. I swaggered about in a fashionable dress. No one in town could guess that I was a comfort woman. I felt very happy and proud. I received permission to return home, but I didn't want to go back to Korea. I wanted to stay in Rangoon."
According to Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh's book, Mun Oku-chu continued to work as a prostitute in Korea after the war.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
"I was recruited by a Korean comfort station owner. I saved a considerable amount of money from tips, so I opened a saving account. I could not believe that I could have so much money in my saving account. One of my friends collected many jewels, so I went and bought a diamond. I often went to see Japanese movies and Kabuki plays in which players came from the mainland Japan. I became a popular woman in Rangoon. There were a lot more officers in Rangoon than near the frontlines, so I was invited to many parties. I sang songs at parties and received lots of tips. I put on a pair of high heels, a green coat and carried an alligator leather handbag. I swaggered about in a fashionable dress. No one in town could guess that I was a comfort woman. I felt very happy and proud. I received permission to return home, but I didn't want to go back to Korea. I wanted to stay in Rangoon."
According to Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh's book, Mun Oku-chu continued to work as a prostitute in Korea after the war.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
 |
| Mun Ok-chu |
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In an interview
with Korean newspaper The Hankyoreh (the artcile was published on May 15th,
1991) a former Korean comfort woman Kim Hak-sun said that she was
sold by her mother.
In an interview with Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University, Kim Hak-sun said that her mother sent her to train as a Geisha in Pyongyang before she sold her.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
In an interview with Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University, Kim Hak-sun said that her mother sent her to train as a Geisha in Pyongyang before she sold her.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
 |
| Kim Hak-sun |
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In an interview
with Professor Ahn Byong Jik of Seoul University, a former Korean
comfort woman Lee Yong-soo said that she and her friend Kim Pun-sun were recruited
by a Korean comfort station owner's agent.
In an interview with Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University, Lee Yong-soo said, "At the time I was shabbily dressed and wretched. On the day I left home with my friend Pun-sun without telling my mother, I was wearing a black skirt, a cotton shirt and wooden clogs on my feet. You don't know how pleased I was when I received a red dress and a pair of leather shoes from a Korean recruiter."
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
Lee Yong-soo also testified in front of United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2007. She was told that she had five minutes to speak. She ignored the instruction and went on for over one hour putting on a performance of crying and screaming. Her false testimony resulted in the passage of United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121.
In an interview with Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University, Lee Yong-soo said, "At the time I was shabbily dressed and wretched. On the day I left home with my friend Pun-sun without telling my mother, I was wearing a black skirt, a cotton shirt and wooden clogs on my feet. You don't know how pleased I was when I received a red dress and a pair of leather shoes from a Korean recruiter."
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
Lee Yong-soo also testified in front of United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2007. She was told that she had five minutes to speak. She ignored the instruction and went on for over one hour putting on a performance of crying and screaming. Her false testimony resulted in the passage of United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121.
 |
Lee Yong-soo
|
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In an interview
with Professor Ahn Byong Jik of Seoul University, a former Korean
comfort woman Kim Ok-sil said that she was sold by her father.
In an interview with Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University, Kim Ok-sil said that her father sent her to train as a Geisha in Pyongyang before he sold her.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
In an interview with Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University, Kim Ok-sil said that her father sent her to train as a Geisha in Pyongyang before he sold her.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In an interview with Professor Ahn Byong Jik of Seoul University, a former Korean comfort woman Kil Won-ok said that she was sold by her parents.
In an interview with Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh of San Francisco State University, Kil Won-ok said that her parents sent her to train as a Geisha in Pyongyang before they sold her.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
 |
| Kil Won-ok |
5, Testimonies of former Comfort Women whom other scholars interviewed
(copied from the blog: The Comfort Women" by Professor C. Sarah Soh)
(copied from the blog: The Comfort Women" by Professor C. Sarah Soh)
In an interview
with Professor Park Yuha of Sejong University in South Korea, a former
Korean comfort woman Bae Chun-hee said that she hated her father who sold her.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
 |
| Bae Chun-hee |
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In an interview
with Professor Ahn Byong Jik of Seoul University, a former Korean
comfort woman Kim Gun-ja said that she was sold by her foster
father.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
Kim Gun-ja also testified in front of United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2007 and said she was abducted by the Japanese military.
Yet she testified in front of UN interrogator Radhika Coomaraswamy that she was abducted by the Japanese military.
Kim Gun-ja also testified in front of United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2007 and said she was abducted by the Japanese military.
 |
| Kim Gun-ja |
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Several people had witnessed the scenes in which Chong Dae Hyup (anti-Japan lobby with close ties to North Korea) coached women to say "I was abducted by the Japanese military."
Professor Ahn Byong Jik of Seoul University who interviewed former Korean comfort women says, "When I first interviewed them, none of them had anything bad to say about the Japanese military. They hated their parents who sold them and the Korean comfort station owners who beat and sometimes raped them. But after Chong Dae Hyup confined them, their testimonies had completely changed."
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The Japanese military was guilty because its invasion into China and Southeast Asia did create the demand for comfort women. But the Korean narrative "The Japanese military showed up at the doors and abducted young Korean women" just didn't happen. The Korean businessmen (comfort station owners) capitalized on the demand, recruited Korean women, operated comfort stations and made lots of money. Japan has apologized for its part. South Korea should admit its complicity and stop demanding Japan for more apologies.
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