This study offers a fresh perspective on the 'comfort women' debates. It argues that the system can be understood as the mechanism of the intersectional oppression of gender, race, class and colonialism, while illuminating the importance of testimonies of victim-survivors as the site where women recover and gain their voices and agencies.

Autorentext

Maki Kimura is Teaching Fellow at the Department of Political Science, University College London, and Associate Lecturer at the Open University, UK. She has previously been involved in various projects on racial and gender equalities and has researched and taught wide-ranging issues in gender and politics.

Inhalt

1. A Question of History.- 2. The Struggle Against Ultra-Nationalism and the Entrapment Of Orientalism.- 3. Modernity, Evil and Violence.- 4. The Origin of the 'Comfort Women' System.- 5. Reading the Testimonies.- 6. Listening to Women's Voices.- 7. Representation and its Limits.- 8. Women's Agency: From Social Stigma to Survivor-Activists.- 9. Bearing Witness to Unshareable Pain.- Bibliography