Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.33526/ejks.20212101.1
A. Schirmer
In translation, carefully-crafted sentences are exposed to myriad dangers. This is because translators tend to prioritize syntactical fidelity at the expense of sequence, that is, the order of elements insofar as this relates to calculated progression, gradual disclosure of information, and cumulative development of meaning. But if sequence is turned around for the sake of fluency (conforming to the target language’s ostensibly “natural” word order), the reader’s experience changes as well. Through a set of examples drawn from English translations of Korean fiction, this article demonstrates that the common disregard for sequence is tantamount to a neglect of drama and suspense, of narrative perspectivation, of rhetorical sophistication and cognitive effect. But we also see that by favoring functional equivalence over imitation of grammatical dependencies, it is perfectly possible to allow the reader to process all information at a pace that is analogous to that of the original. Our findings provide insights that are of significance for other language pairings as well.
{"title":"The Drama in the Sentence: Sequence as a Crucial Challenge for Literary Translation from and to Korean","authors":"A. Schirmer","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20212101.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20212101.1","url":null,"abstract":"In translation, carefully-crafted sentences are exposed to myriad dangers. This is because translators tend to prioritize syntactical fidelity at the expense of sequence, that is, the order of elements insofar as this relates to calculated progression, gradual disclosure of information, and cumulative development of meaning. But if sequence is turned around for the sake of fluency (conforming to the target language’s ostensibly “natural” word order), the reader’s experience changes as well. Through a set of examples drawn from English translations of Korean fiction, this article demonstrates that the common disregard for sequence is tantamount to a neglect of drama and suspense, of narrative perspectivation, of rhetorical sophistication and cognitive effect. But we also see that by favoring functional equivalence over imitation of grammatical dependencies, it is perfectly possible to allow the reader to process all information at a pace that is analogous to that of the original. Our findings provide insights that are of significance for other language pairings as well.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79876723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.33526/ejks.20212101.189
Daria Grishina
The paper examines the Chosŏn government’s rapprochement with the Russian Empire performed against the backdrop of the British seizure of Kŏmundo (1885– 1887). Two attempts of Russo-Chosŏn rapprochement, carried out in the summer of 1885 and summer of 1886, are analyzed separately and against the wider geopolitical situation in Northeast Asia and on the Korean peninsula of the time. To do so, the author relies on the analysis of Russian, Korean, and English primary sources to reveal the Russian and Chosŏn government’s standing at that time, and the geopolitical reasons behind the failure of Russo-Chosŏn rapprochement.
{"title":"A Pawn in the Great Game: Chosŏn’s Rapprochement with the Russian Empire Amidst the British Seizure of Kŏmundo, 1884–1886","authors":"Daria Grishina","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20212101.189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20212101.189","url":null,"abstract":"The paper examines the Chosŏn government’s rapprochement with the Russian Empire performed against the backdrop of the British seizure of Kŏmundo (1885– 1887). Two attempts of Russo-Chosŏn rapprochement, carried out in the summer of 1885 and summer of 1886, are analyzed separately and against the wider geopolitical situation in Northeast Asia and on the Korean peninsula of the time. To do so, the author relies on the analysis of Russian, Korean, and English primary sources to reveal the Russian and Chosŏn government’s standing at that time, and the geopolitical reasons behind the failure of Russo-Chosŏn rapprochement.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72938778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.33526/EJKS.20212002.251
Ahlem Faraoun
The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanatory account of the role of emotions in the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea which started in July 2019. Building on an integrated approach to the study of emotions in international relations, it argues that the collective experience of emotions in situations of conflict has to be understood in relation to the moralities assumed by the parties involved. It proposes a theoretical framework combining the concepts of mimetic desire and ressentiment coined by René Girard and Friedrich Nietzsche, respectively, in order to problematize the dialectic of power-justice underlying the processes of legitimation and self-justification by the two countries. In this sense, the strong emotional reactivity between both elites and people in South Korea and Japan can be attributed to the contradictions between the desires for superiority and equality channelled by nation-state-centred narratives. It concludes that ending the cycle of emotional reactivity requires both parties to move toward commitments to justice and empathy at the domestic and international levels.
{"title":"Mimetic Desire and Ressentiment in the Case of the Japan–South Korea Trade Dispute","authors":"Ahlem Faraoun","doi":"10.33526/EJKS.20212002.251","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/EJKS.20212002.251","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanatory account of the role of\u0000emotions in the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea which started in\u0000July 2019. Building on an integrated approach to the study of emotions in international relations, it argues that the collective experience of emotions in situations\u0000of conflict has to be understood in relation to the moralities assumed by the\u0000parties involved. It proposes a theoretical framework combining the concepts of\u0000mimetic desire and ressentiment coined by René Girard and Friedrich Nietzsche,\u0000respectively, in order to problematize the dialectic of power-justice underlying the\u0000processes of legitimation and self-justification by the two countries. In this sense,\u0000the strong emotional reactivity between both elites and people in South Korea\u0000and Japan can be attributed to the contradictions between the desires for superiority and equality channelled by nation-state-centred narratives. It concludes that\u0000ending the cycle of emotional reactivity requires both parties to move toward\u0000commitments to justice and empathy at the domestic and international levels.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"18 1","pages":"251-300"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81781139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.33526/EJKS.20212002.37
Matteo Fumagalli
This article examines the case of the Koryo saram, the ethnic Koreans living in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, to reflect on how notions of diasporas, community, and identity have changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It contends that the Koryo saram are best understood through the lenses of diasporic conditions rather than as bounded communities, as such an approach allows for greater recognition of heterogeneity within these communities. While many Koryo saram continue to claim some form of Korean-ness, how they relate to issues of homeland-orientation and boundary maintenance evidences internal variation and growing in-betweenness. The community’s hybridity (“hyphenization”) and liminality (“identity through difference”) stand out when examining generational differences and are especially evident among the local Korean youth.
{"title":"“Identity through difference”: Liminal Diasporism and Generational Change Among the Koryo Saram in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan","authors":"Matteo Fumagalli","doi":"10.33526/EJKS.20212002.37","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/EJKS.20212002.37","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the case of the Koryo saram, the ethnic Koreans living in\u0000the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, to reflect on how notions of diasporas,\u0000community, and identity have changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It\u0000contends that the Koryo saram are best understood through the lenses of diasporic\u0000conditions rather than as bounded communities, as such an approach allows for\u0000greater recognition of heterogeneity within these communities. While many Koryo\u0000saram continue to claim some form of Korean-ness, how they relate to issues of\u0000homeland-orientation and boundary maintenance evidences internal variation\u0000and growing in-betweenness. The community’s hybridity (“hyphenization”) and\u0000liminality (“identity through difference”) stand out when examining generational\u0000differences and are especially evident among the local Korean youth.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"2009 1","pages":"37-72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76749088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-01DOI: 10.33526/ejks.20201902.129
Farrah Sheikh
This ethnographic study explores the ways in which Korean Muslim youth are employing strategies of dialogue to build trust and acceptance through the use of Facebook. Using public posts and facilitating discussions within the private message setting, Korean Muslim youth are engaging mainstream Korean society in the hope of fostering solidarity, acceptance and normalization of their existence as Korean Muslims. Through these efforts, Korean Muslim youth are re-working notions of Korean identity through their personal conversions to Islam.
{"title":"Korean Muslims: Shaping Islamic Discourse and Identities Online","authors":"Farrah Sheikh","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20201902.129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20201902.129","url":null,"abstract":"This ethnographic study explores the ways in which Korean Muslim youth are employing strategies of dialogue to build trust and acceptance through the use of Facebook. Using public posts and facilitating discussions within the private message setting, Korean Muslim youth are engaging mainstream Korean society in the hope of fostering solidarity, acceptance and normalization of their existence as Korean Muslims. Through these efforts, Korean Muslim youth are re-working notions of Korean identity through their personal conversions to Islam.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"5 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72553246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.33526/ejks.20191901.73
Dong-Hee Yim
Recent residential developments in Pyongyang (P’yŏngyang) show a pattern distinguished from previous eras in the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il periods. Since Kim Jong Un’s rise to power, major developments, such as the Mirae Scientist Street and Ryomyong Street developments, resemble real estate developments in other capitalist cities. Instead of repeating the same designs, they provide unique designs in each building, and dedicate more to commercial spaces and residential units, while reducing supporting amenities such as daycares, schools and civic amenities that are not profitable in the market. With signs of the transformation of Pyongyang, this paper addresses how residential developments have been occurring since the reconstruction of the city in relationship to socialist microdistricts, and how recent developments challenge the idea of the socialist microdistrict.
{"title":"Rise and Fall of the Microdistrict in Pyongyang, North Korea","authors":"Dong-Hee Yim","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20191901.73","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20191901.73","url":null,"abstract":"Recent residential developments in Pyongyang (P’yŏngyang) show a pattern distinguished from previous eras in the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il periods. Since Kim Jong Un’s rise to power, major developments, such as the Mirae Scientist Street and Ryomyong Street developments, resemble real estate developments in other capitalist cities. Instead of repeating the same designs, they provide unique designs in each building, and dedicate more to commercial spaces and residential units, while reducing supporting amenities such as daycares, schools and civic amenities that are not profitable in the market. With signs of the transformation of Pyongyang, this paper addresses how residential developments have been occurring since the reconstruction of the city in relationship to socialist microdistricts, and how recent developments challenge the idea of the socialist microdistrict.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90540674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.33526/ejks.20191901.229
Xiaoxuan Lu
Focusing on the interplay between memory and place, this article examines the rationale behind the use of axonometric drawings (axons) in a geographical research study of the Tumen/Tuman River region encompassing the borders shared by China, Russia and North Korea. The concepts of “memory of place” and “place of memory” guide the structure of this project and the flow of this article. “Memory of place” emphasises the lived experience of our physical senses, and helps determine the great potential of visual methodologies in the fields of geographical and landscape research and study. Drawn up using the graphic production techniques of abstracting, foregrounding, highlighting and juxtaposing, axons avail themselves of and inform both realist and idealist states of mind. In contrast, “place of memory” references a particular type of materiality and helps us understand Tumen Shan-shui as a library of memories that reveals a profusion of contested aesthetic, cultural and political meanings. Axons serve to tell narratives revealing desires, actions and undertakings that have shaped and continue to shape the substance of the memory sites in question including infrastructure, architecture and signage. Initially adopted by the author as a medium for recording and communicating due to security restrictions imposed in the border areas in question, the creation of axons generated new insights on methods of documentation in landscape research, and the places and landscapes themselves.
{"title":"Divergent Memories of Tumen Shan-shui","authors":"Xiaoxuan Lu","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20191901.229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20191901.229","url":null,"abstract":"Focusing on the interplay between memory and place, this article examines the rationale behind the use of axonometric drawings (axons) in a geographical research study of the Tumen/Tuman River region encompassing the borders shared by China, Russia and North Korea. The concepts of “memory of place” and “place of memory” guide the structure of this project and the flow of this article. “Memory of place” emphasises the lived experience of our physical senses, and helps determine the great potential of visual methodologies in the fields of geographical and landscape research and study. Drawn up using the graphic production techniques of abstracting, foregrounding, highlighting and juxtaposing, axons avail themselves of and inform both realist and idealist states of mind. In contrast, “place of memory” references a particular type of materiality and helps us understand Tumen Shan-shui as a library of memories that reveals a profusion of contested aesthetic, cultural and political meanings. Axons serve to tell narratives revealing desires, actions and undertakings that have shaped and continue to shape the substance of the memory sites in question including infrastructure, architecture and signage. Initially adopted by the author as a medium for recording and communicating due to security restrictions imposed in the border areas in question, the creation of axons generated new insights on methods of documentation in landscape research, and the places and landscapes themselves.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75930578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.33526/ejks.20191901.87
R. Winstanley-Chesters
With recent work in mind from the fields of Critical and Human Geography and Philosophy on webs of political life and ruins as lively matters, in process and becoming the paper considers the futures for North Korean non-urban landscapes from a temporal (and spatial) frame beyond that of Pyongyang’s present. Following a change of status quo on the Korean Peninsula in which North Korea as we know now it ceases to exist, how will both state bureaucracy and popular cultural power impact on terrains so heavily transformed by the ideology and political culture of North Korea? Will post-transformation forces consider architectures of ideological memory entirely ruined, attempt to write their own cultures and memories on these spaces, or unwrite previous ones, co-producing new landscapes of memory on the Korean Peninsula? In particular, this paper examines the physical and material futures for two important sites in North Korea. Firstly, the Samjiyon Grand Monument and the Birch Trees of Lake Samji, representative within North Korea’s historical narrative of both military struggles in the area and the first acknowledgement of Kim Il Sung and his first wife, Kim Jong Suk’s relationship. Secondly the paper considers Mt. Paektu and very specifically the Secret Guerrilla Camp below it, and Jong Il Peak, part of the mountain now graced by Kim Jong Il’s signature written in huge Korean script. Both sites, along with North Korea’s wider rural and wild spaces are in a sense ruined by their enmeshing with the political narratives of Pyongyang. However, in their ruination the paper sees the unpicking and untwining of this state, through the processes of time and culturalpolitical re-configurations.
{"title":"Ruins, Memory and Vibrant Matter: Imagining Future North Korean Rural Terrains","authors":"R. Winstanley-Chesters","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20191901.87","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20191901.87","url":null,"abstract":"With recent work in mind from the fields of Critical and Human Geography and Philosophy on webs of political life and ruins as lively matters, in process and becoming the paper considers the futures for North Korean non-urban landscapes from a temporal (and spatial) frame beyond that of Pyongyang’s present. Following a change of status quo on the Korean Peninsula in which North Korea as we know now it ceases to exist, how will both state bureaucracy and popular cultural power impact on terrains so heavily transformed by the ideology and political culture of North Korea? Will post-transformation forces consider architectures of ideological memory entirely ruined, attempt to write their own cultures and memories on these spaces, or unwrite previous ones, co-producing new landscapes of memory on the Korean Peninsula? In particular, this paper examines the physical and material futures for two important sites in North Korea. Firstly, the Samjiyon Grand Monument and the Birch Trees of Lake Samji, representative within North Korea’s historical narrative of both military struggles in the area and the first acknowledgement of Kim Il Sung and his first wife, Kim Jong Suk’s relationship. Secondly the paper considers Mt. Paektu and very specifically the Secret Guerrilla Camp below it, and Jong Il Peak, part of the mountain now graced by Kim Jong Il’s signature written in huge Korean script. Both sites, along with North Korea’s wider rural and wild spaces are in a sense ruined by their enmeshing with the political narratives of Pyongyang. However, in their ruination the paper sees the unpicking and untwining of this state, through the processes of time and culturalpolitical re-configurations.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87504401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.33526/ejks.20191901.161
Mikwi Cho
This paper is concerned with Korean farmers who were transformed into laborers during the Korean colonial period and migrated to Japan to enhance their living conditions. The author’s research adopts a regional scale to its investigation in which the emergence of Osaka as a global city attracted Koreans seeking economic betterment. The paper shows that, despite an initial claim to permit the free mobility of Koreans, the Japanese empire came to control this mobility depending on political, social, and economic circumstances of Japan and Korea. For Koreans, notwithstanding poverty being a primary trigger for the abandonment of their homes, the paper argues that their migration was facilitated by chain migration and they saw Japan as a resolution to their economic hardships in the process of capital accumulation by the empire.
{"title":"Koreans across the Sea: Migration of Laborers to the Metropole, 1910–1937","authors":"Mikwi Cho","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20191901.161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20191901.161","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is concerned with Korean farmers who were transformed into laborers during the Korean colonial period and migrated to Japan to enhance their living conditions. The author’s research adopts a regional scale to its investigation in which the emergence of Osaka as a global city attracted Koreans seeking economic betterment. The paper shows that, despite an initial claim to permit the free mobility of Koreans, the Japanese empire came to control this mobility depending on political, social, and economic circumstances of Japan and Korea. For Koreans, notwithstanding poverty being a primary trigger for the abandonment of their homes, the paper argues that their migration was facilitated by chain migration and they saw Japan as a resolution to their economic hardships in the process of capital accumulation by the empire.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79416669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.33526/ejks.20191901.201
Young-hwan Chong
Since its publication in 2013, Park Yuha’s book Comfort Women of the Empire (Cheguk ŭi wianbu) has become a major point of contention for those concerned with the “comfort women” issue. However, while this book has been frequently cited amidst the recent maelstrom of Japan–Korea relations, the actual content of the book has received insufficient scrutiny. The aim of this article is to concretely examine the content and problematic aspects of Park’s book, building on research that has been carried out since the 1990s into the ‘comfort women’ issue and the question of post-war reparations. Based on the assumption that the Japanese government does not have any legal responsibilities, Park’s book claims that: 1) the “comfort women” victims do not have any right to claim compensation for damages from the Japanese government; 2) even if they did have such a right, the government of the Republic of Korea gave up all rights of claim at the Japan–Korea negotiations that concluded with the Treaty of 1965; and 3) the “economic cooperation” funds that the ROK received as a result of this Treaty were in fact a form of post-war reparations related to the Sino–Japanese War. However, Park has been unable to provide satisfactory grounds for these claims, due to the fact that her book Comfort Women of the Empire does not have an accurate understanding of the preceding research it uses. I argue that Park’s work contains serious methodological flaws, including a failure to define core concepts, such as reparations; the existence of mutually contradictory passages; the arbitrary selection of evidence to support her arguments; and the misuse of previous research. As a result, the book has critical flaws from the standpoint of its fundamental stated aim of promoting historical reconciliation.
{"title":"The Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’ Issue and the 1965 System: Comfort Women of the Empire and Two-fold Historical Revisionism","authors":"Young-hwan Chong","doi":"10.33526/ejks.20191901.201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33526/ejks.20191901.201","url":null,"abstract":"Since its publication in 2013, Park Yuha’s book Comfort Women of the Empire (Cheguk ŭi wianbu) has become a major point of contention for those concerned with the “comfort women” issue. However, while this book has been frequently cited amidst the recent maelstrom of Japan–Korea relations, the actual content of the book has received insufficient scrutiny. The aim of this article is to concretely examine the content and problematic aspects of Park’s book, building on research that has been carried out since the 1990s into the ‘comfort women’ issue and the question of post-war reparations. Based on the assumption that the Japanese government does not have any legal responsibilities, Park’s book claims that: 1) the “comfort women” victims do not have any right to claim compensation for damages from the Japanese government; 2) even if they did have such a right, the government of the Republic of Korea gave up all rights of claim at the Japan–Korea negotiations that concluded with the Treaty of 1965; and 3) the “economic cooperation” funds that the ROK received as a result of this Treaty were in fact a form of post-war reparations related to the Sino–Japanese War. However, Park has been unable to provide satisfactory grounds for these claims, due to the fact that her book Comfort Women of the Empire does not have an accurate understanding of the preceding research it uses. I argue that Park’s work contains serious methodological flaws, including a failure to define core concepts, such as reparations; the existence of mutually contradictory passages; the arbitrary selection of evidence to support her arguments; and the misuse of previous research. As a result, the book has critical flaws from the standpoint of its fundamental stated aim of promoting historical reconciliation.","PeriodicalId":40316,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Korean Studies","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87348642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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