Korean Comfort Women Essay

As a result of the regimes isolationist policy the people of North Korea suffered greatly in both mental and physical health. The hold the state had over the beliefs of the citizens presented in “Nothing to Envy”, varied from absolute belief to uncomfortable awareness. The reader is presented often with Mrs. Song’s dedication to the regime, and Kim Il-sung himself. A mother of four she was often gone from home, working and attending ideological training sessions. “Fridays she stayed especially late for self-criticism. In these sessions members of her work unit- the department to which she was assigned- would reveal to the group anything they had done wrong—Mrs. Song would usually say, in all sincerity, that she feared she wasn’t working hard enough” (Pg. 43).When Kim Il-sung died, she

This book is about young Korean girls and its author is Korean as well. It illustrates to young readers that although the girls pictured my look different than they do, the issues and feelings they face are universal.

Asian Journal of Women's Studies; Seoul 5:3, ( September 30, 1999 ))” Through her experiences

Written by Margaret K. Pai, the Dreams of Two Yi-min narrates the story of her Korean American family with the main focus on the life journeys of her father and mother, Do In Kwon and Hee Kyung Lee. Much like the majority of the pre-World War II immigrants, the author’s family is marked and characterized by the common perception of the “typical” Asian immigrant status in the early 20th century: low class, lack of English speaking ability, lack of transferable education and skills, and lack of knowledge on the host society’s mainstream networks and institutions (Zhou and Gatewood 120, Zhou 224). Despite living in a foreign land with countless barriers and lack of capital, Kwon lead his wife and children to assimilate culturally,

It is said that 42,000 civilian women were captured and interned in camps in many locations in the Far East by Japan. The sinking of the Vyner Brooke on 14th of February killed 12 of the 65 Australian Army nurses on board. The Japanese were able to capture a group of 22 nurses and the civilian women in the group , the Japanese wanted them to join a brothel (a house of prostitutes), but they refused and were put into bungalows which had dreadful and inadequate sanitation and scarce food. It was every person for themselves. Just like the male POWs, the women suffered similar consequences if they did not obey the Japanese. They were also made to stand in the stinking hot sun for extended periods of time as well as having to walk hours to collect clean water for the guards, the water that they were allowed to drink was often putrid and contaminated. A nurse who was in the AANS (Australian Army Nursing Service) and POW to the Japanese suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis. In result of the traumatic experience, she weighed only 32 kilograms and had to spend 2 years in the hospital recovering. ‘Comfort Women’ was another way the Japanese exhibited racism. Comfort women were seen as no more than ‘things’ that are disposable, if one were to disobey or refuse to do as they were told, they would be either tortured or

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy’s “human resources were stretched thin,” forcing the Japanese government officials to turn towards Korea for extra manpower. In 1942, the government-general of Korea (GGK) announced that twenty-year-old Korean men would be conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. To promote Korean acceptance of conscription, the Japanese encouraged assimilation of Koreans into Japanese culture and society. This included learning Japanese and taking on a Japanese name. The attempts at assimilation and the draft left Koreans wondering whether they would become full citizens or “remain second rate subjects” after the war. Even Korean soldiers, who were supposedly equal to Japanese soldiers, were left wondering about their position in Japanese society. Through an analysis of Kasayama Yoshikichi’s recount of “The Korean Guard,” this paper argues that Kasayama reveals the nature of Korean conscription in the Japanese Army. In doing so, this paper shows how Korean soldiers were forced to comply to Japanese official orders, otherwise they would be punished; although, some Korean soldiers resisted towards the end of the war.

This paper is a review of the book Japan’s Comfort Women-Sexual slavery and prostitution during WWII and the US occupation by Yuki Tanaka. This book was published in 2002 by Routledge. The book deals with the thousands of Japanese, Korean, Chinese and other Asian and European women who were victims of organized sexual violence and prostitution by means of “comfort stations” setup by the Japanese military during World War II.

When I was my 15 years, I watched my first Korean dorama. Then I did not know how it would exert an impact on my fate and view of life. This was the world-famous “Boys over flowers”, which became an occasion of my acquaintance with the country of morning freshness. I strongly believe that my life transformed for better and blossomed after watching this Korean dorama was watched by everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. It drew me in this world – the world of Korean drama, Korean pop and Korean cinema. Knowledge about Korea was increasing more and more gradually and new sides of Korea were opened. I found out the country is famous not only of the Korean wave, Hallyu, but also of kimchi, various traditional food, colorful nature and combination of tradition and modernity. And some pieces of the Korean culture and language are quite similar

Who were the “Comfort Women”? According to the Digital Museum, The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund, “The so-called "wartime comfort women" were those who were taken to former Japanese military installations, such as comfort stations, for a certain period during wartime in the past and forced to provide sexual services to officers and soldiers.” Young teenage girls were kidnapped or lured with false promises of the employment in their homelands of China, Indonesia, the Philippines and North and South Korea. They were sent to brothels to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers, and held for months or even years. According to the testimony of Seo-Woon Chung, one of the victims, one day, her father was taken to the prison because he was against the Japanese government. A few days later, the town foreman came to her house and told her that her father would be released from

Moreover, we can also see the modernized Korea through the characters of Jung-rim, Dae-hyun, and Kwang-tae. Jung-rim can be seen as a modernized woman by looking at her appearance (wearing Western-style clothes) and high education level (studied abroad). Dae-hyun is a strong nationalist who persistently fights for Korea’s independence from Japanese rule. Kwang-tae, who also wears a Western style clothes, is from a “Pro-Japanese” (chinilpa) family that supported Japan to colonize Korea by signing the Treaty of Ulsa. All the characters and their interactions are reasonable regarding to the early twentieth century

Therefore, this report means that the stress of the male has increased and he who must deal with great social obligations in Korea faces as much stress as women who have had to endure social inequality.

The majority of Korean women seem to have come from lower-class worker and farmer families. Korean and other Asian women were assigned to lower-ranking soldiers, while Japanese and European women were reserved for higher-ranking officers (Watanabe). This obviously portrays the condescending attitude the Japanese had toward Koreans.

Elllen’s female identity made her an alienated participant in the work place in Korea, whose culture is dominantly masculine. The acceptance of her came in and took responsibility as the senior member of the project was early based on a compromise of her obtaining of required skills, however, her identity as a female was constantly reemphasized in the company’s social events.

South Korea appears in the first quadrant of Figure 2.2 in which states that the country has a culture with relatively larger power distance and lower individualism. South Korea has a relatively large power distance due to the country’s strong emphasis in respecting for one’s elders and superiors. This cultural belief is deeply

My return to Korea in the summer of 2001 was nothing short of a culture shock. I was in a country I thought I had learned by heart. It was the country I always rooted my identity and pride from. I wasn’t ready for the shock. I