History of the Comfort Women Movement

I trace the history of the comfort women movement, describing what activists in Japan have done collectively for the movement’s major objectives, the Japanese government’s sincere apology and legal compensations. In doing so, I provide sociopolitical contexts for understanding the activist narratives, which are about what they have thought and felt personally. The activists have modified strategies according to the shifting positions of the government and the international community and the changing public attitude in Japanese society toward the issue. I discuss seven topics chronologically ordered with some overlaps in their historical periods: the rise of the movement; the spread of the movement; the Asian Women’s Fund; the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery; lawsuits; legislative resolution; and fighting in isolated Japan.