REWRITING THE HISTORY OF ‘COMFORT WOMEN’

Abstract

Grievabilty, as Judith Butler outlines in Precarious Life, is when individuals are valued, loved, and respected. When they are of value, and thus when they pass, they are worthy of being grieved for. Throughout history, including the present day, we are constantly reminded of those who are ungrievable and those who have been derealized, whether that be Indigenous people, those who died in the war, those exploited by corporations, those who endured slavery, the list is endless. One group, in particular, is that of ‘comfort women’ these are women who were captured by the Japanese military during World War II and unwillingly become sex slaves for the entire army, they are among the many who were lost to this war. Therefore, this paper will be examining the history of ‘comfort women’ during World War II through the lens of Judith Butler's Precarious Life. By applying the concept of greivability, and understanding the process of derealization, this paper was able to not only critically recognize that the circumstances of war and the cruel nature of the Japanese military led to the derealization of ‘comfort women’, but that the survivors were also able to use their trauma as strength, empowering them in a new era, with the help of media and women’s rights groups, to undo their derealization and reclaim their power.