Introduction
Every year, on August 14th, the Republic of Korea commemorates the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women, a day dedicated to remembering the tens of thousands of women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the Second World War. These women, euphemistically referred to as “comfort women,” came predominantly from Korea but also from other Japanese-occupied territories, including China, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Indonesia. They were coerced or deceived into military brothels, subjected to extreme physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and denied basic human dignity. Many of these girls died, were killed, or abandoned during and after the Second World War. Those who returned home faced lasting social stigma.
For decades, their stories and sufferings were shrouded in silence, suppressed by political sensitivities, cultural stigma, and the absence of formal acknowledgement. It was only in 1991 that a turning point came when, on 14 August, Kim Hak-sun, a Korean survivor, broke decades of silence by publicly testifying about her experience as a comfort woman. Her courage inspired other women to come forward to share their own stories, leading to the establishment of civic movements such as the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (now the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance). These groups began documenting testimonies, pushing for official acknowledgement, and demanding justice from the Japanese government. In 2012, activists and survivor groups designated August 14, the date of Kim Hak-sun’s testimony, as the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women to honour not only her bravery but also the stories of all survivors across Asia.
Remembering the Comfort Women issue is essential for preserving historical memory and ensuring that the experiences of survivors are not erased by time or silence and that these women receive justice for the torments they experienced. It also provides a platform for critical engagement with the enduring legacies of war, colonialism, and gender-based violence. Beyond honouring the past, remembering the Comfort Women issue teaches new generations about the consequences of wartime sexual violence and the broader implications of gendered human rights abuses. It also functions as a warning, helping to prevent the repetition of such atrocities.
Literature and the Preservation of Collective Memory
Literature plays a crucial role in preserving the memory of historical injustice, particularly those that have been silenced or marginalised. Whether through survivor memoirs, historical studies, or works of fiction inspired by actual events, these written works sustain memory and prevent the violence of the past to fade into obscurity, even as decades past. They also provide a space to document experiences that were often excluded from official histories.
In the case of contested and political sensitive topics such as the Comfort Women issue, literature serves as a form of resistance, countering denial, revisionism, and historical erasure of the atrocities committed by the Japanese military. They complement physical memorials and museums, and offer an intimate connection to the voices of survivors, conveying not only the facts of their suffering but also the emotional and psychological dimensions of their experiences. For instance, in 50 Years of Silence, Jan Ruff-O’Herne documents her own experiences as a Dutch woman imprisoned in a Japanese military brothel. Likewise, Korean survivor narratives such as Kim Hak-sun’s testimony, which was compiled in The Testimonies of Comfort Women remains indispensable for understanding both the scale of the abuse and the courage it took to speak out. In Nora Okja Keller’s fictional novel Comfort Woman, she weaves history and memory into a deeply personal story that talks about survival and intergenerational trauma.
Apart from memoirs and fictions, scholarly works have also helped to deepen our understanding of the historical context of the Comfort Women issue. For example, Yoshimi Yoshiaki’s Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II offers one of the most comprehensive investigations into Japan’s wartime sexual slavery system. In The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan, Chunghee Sarah Soh interrogates the politics of memory and the relationship between nationalism, feminism, and historical justice. These literary works engage readers in active remembrance, transforming distant historical events into human stories that demand reflection and empathy. They also contribute to ongoing debates about reparations, historical recognition, and gendered violence. Furthermore, by situating individual narratives within larger historical and political frameworks, they provide vital tools for scholars, activists, and general readers alike to engage with the complex legacies of war and colonialism.
Essential Readings on the Comfort Women Issue
Literature not only preserves the memory of Comfort Women but also deepens our understanding of their experiences and the broader legacies of wartime sexual violence. For those seeking to learn more about the history and lives of these women, the following works offer first-hand accounts, historical analyses, and literary interpretations that shed light on both the social context of military sexual slavery and the ongoing struggle for justice. Most of these books and articles are available in print or electronic formats and can be purchased from bookstores or online platforms such as Amazon, and many can also be accessed through libraries:
Non-Fiction (Books about Comfort Women)
1. Carolina Norma. (2015). The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars. Bloomsbury Publishing.
2. Chunghee Sarah Soh. (2008). The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. University of Chicago Press.
3. Chungmoo Choi and Hyunah Yang. Eds. (2023). Voices of the Korean Comfort Women: History Rewritten from Memories. Routledge.
4. Dai Sil Kim-Gibson. 1999. Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women. Mid-Prairie Books.
5. Elizabeth W. Son. (2018). Embodied Reckonings: “Comfort Women”, Performance, and Transpacific Redress. University of Michigan Press.
6. George Hicks. (2014). The Comfort Women: Japan’s Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War. W.W. Norton & Company.
7. Han Seong-Won. (2023). Grandmothers, Our Grandmothers: Remembering the “Comfort Women” of World War II. Tuttle Publishing.
8. Joshua D. Pilzer. (2012). Hearts of Pine: Songs in the Lives of Three Korean Survivors of the Japanese Comfort Women. Oxford University Press.
9. Katharine E. McGregor. (2023). Systemic Silencing: Activism, Memory, and Sexual Violence in Indonesia. University of Wisconsin Press.
10. Kevin Blackburn. (2022). The Comfort Women of Singapore in History and Memory. National University of Singapore Press.
11. Larry Niksch. (2022). Japanese Military’s” Comfort Women” System. Good Press.
12. M. Evelina Galang. (2017). Lola’s House: Filipino women living with war. Northwestern University Press.
13. Margaret D. Stez and Bonnie B.C. Oh. (2015). Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II. Routledge.
14. Park Yuha. (2024). Comfort Women of the Japanese Empire: Colonial Rule and the Battle Over Memory. Routledge.
15. Peipei Qiu, Su Zhiliang, and Chen Lifei. (2014). Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan’s Sex Slaves. Oxford University Press.
16. Pyong Gap Min. (2021). Korean “Comfort Women”: Military Brothels, Brutality, and the Redress Movement. Rutgers University Press.
17. Sachiyo Tsukamoto. (2022). The politics of trauma and integrity: Stories of Japanese “Comfort Women”. Routledge.
18. Sylvia Yu Friedman. (2015). Silenced No More: Voices of Comfort Women. Freedom Publishers.
19. Yoshiaki Yoshimi. (1995). Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II. Columbia University Press.
20. Yuki Tanaka. (2003). Japan’s Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation. Routledge.
Non Fiction (Journal Articles on the Comfort Women Issues)
1. Aniko Vargo. (2009). National bodies: the ‘Comfort Women’ discourse and its controversies in South Korea. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 9, no. 2: 287-303.
2. Bang-Soon L Yoon. (2010). Imperial Japan’s comfort women from Korea: History & politics of silence-breaking. Journal of Northeast Asian History 7, no. 1: 5-39.
3. Chunghee Sarah Soh. (2000). Human Rights and the “Comfort Women”. Peace Review 12, no. 1: 123-129.
4. Gabriel Johnson. (2015). Can the Japan-Korea Dispute on “Comfort Women’ be Resolved? Korea Observer 46, no. 3: 489-515.
5. Grace M. Kang. (2021). Resolving the Japan-Korea “Comfort Women” Conflict: The Most Effective vs. The Most Likely Solution. The Journal of East Asian Affairs: 5-65.
6. Hana June. (2020). “I think the comfort women are us”: National identity and affective historical empathy in students’ understanding of “comfort women” in South Korea. The Journal of Social Studies Research 44, no. 1: 7-19.
7. Hee-Kang Kim. (2012). The comfort women system and women’s international human rights. Korea Observer 43, no. 2: 175.
8. Jee Hoon Park, KyongWeon Lee, Michelle D. Hand, Keith A. Anderson, and Tess E. Schleitwiler. (2016). Korean survivors of the Japanese “comfort women” system: understanding the lifelong consequences of early life trauma. Journal of gerontological social work 59, no. 4: 332-348.
10. Kandice Chuh. (2003). Discomforting Knowledge: Or, Korean “Comfort Women” and Asian Americanist Critical Practice. Journal of Asian American Studies 6, no. 1: 5-23.
11. Klea Ramaj. (2022). The 2015 South Korean-Japanese Agreement on ‘comfort women’: A critical analysis. International Criminal Law Review 22, no. 3: 475-509.
12. Mikyoung Kim. (2014). Memorialising Comfort Women: Memory and Human Rights in Korea‐Japan Relations. Asian Politics & Policy 6, no. 1: 83-96.
13. Pyong Gap Min. (2003). Korean “Comfort Women” the intersection of colonial power, gender, and class. Gender & Society 17, no. 6: 938-957.
14. Q. Edward Wang. (2020). The study of “comfort women”: Revealing a hidden past-introduction. Chinese Studies in History 53, no. 1: 1-5.
15. Yoshiko Nozaki. (2005). The “comfort women” controversy: History and testimony. Asia-Pacific Journal 3, no. 7: e24.
16. You-me Park. (2010). Compensation to fit the crime: Conceptualizing a just paradigm of reparation for Korean “comfort women”. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 30, no. 2: 204-213.
Fiction
1. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim. (2019). Grass. (Translated by Janet Hong). Drawn & Quarterly.
2. Mary Lynn Bracht. (2018). White Chrysanthemum. G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
3. Nora Okja Keller. (1998). Comfort Woman. Penguin.
4. William Andrews. (2014). Daughters of the Dragon: A Comfort Woman’s Story. Madhouse Pr.
Memoirs
1. Jan Ruff O’Herne. (1994). 50 Years of Silence: The Extraordinary Memoir of a War Rape Survivor. Tom Thompson.
2. Maria Rosa Henson. (2016). Comfort Woman: A Filipina’s story of prostitution and slavery under the Japanese military. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Available on Amazon.
Conclusion
These works of literature help ensure that the stories of Comfort Women continue to shape contemporary discussions on memory, trauma, and justice. As a scholar of memory, trauma, and the politics of post-war reconstruction, I am constantly reminded that acknowledging past wrongs is essential for genuine reconciliation. Engaging with survivor testimonies, historical analyses, and literary interpretations allows us to bear witness to their suffering and confront the enduring legacies of wartime sexual violence and gendered injustice. Beyond Korea, these narratives resonate globally, offering vital lessons about accountability, human rights, and the moral imperative to prevent such atrocities from recurring. For me, amplifying these voices helps keep memory alive, prevents history from repeating itself, and ensures that the courage of survivors continues to inspire justice and compassion in our own time.