Journal of Women's History

Soh, Chung-Hee.
Women's Sexual Labor and State in Korean History
Journal of Women's History - Volume 15, Number 4, Winter 2004, pp. 170-177

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Chung-Hee Soh - Women's Sexual Labor and State in Korean History - Journal of Women's History 15:4 Journal of Women's History 15.4 (2004) 170-177 Women's Sexual Labor and State in Korean History Chunghee Sarah Soh Having studied the "comfort women" issue over the past several years, I have come to the conclusion that the enduring historical patterns of asymmetrical relations between Korean women's sexual labor and its appropriation by state institutions constitute a major underlying, social psychological factor that contributed to overall societal indifference to the horrific ordeals former comfort women suffered for nearly half a century before the transnational social movement for redress began in the early 1990s. Countless young girls and women in colonized Korea (1910-1945) and elsewhere in East Asia and the Pacific islands, whose estimated numbers are up to 200,000, were forced to engage in sexual servitiude by the imperial Japanese military during the Asia Pacific War (1931-1945). The majority of the young females recruited as comfort women came from lower classes. Many were deceived by "human traders" who lured them with promises of well-paying jobs only to deliver them to brothels and military comfort stations. Some, however, chose to leave home, not out of economic necessity but in search of independence and freedom from domestic violence against and gendered mistreatment of daughters. In addition, we should note here that one of the strategic...