Can the Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’ speak in English?: Americanization of the ‘Comfort Women’ issue and The Politics of Representation of “I Can Speak”

This article targets the movie “I Can Speak”, which was produced based on the actual case in which the “Resolution on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery (H. Res. 121)” was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007. Through the analysis of “I Can Speak”, this paper critically examines the discourse of ‘Comfort Women’ in the United States. Today, ‘Comfort Women’ issue is raised in the United States as a matter of human rights for universal women, but on the other hand, this discourse omits the issue of American intervention and (neo)colonialism in the Pacific War and post-war processing. At this time, 'universal value' means built by the state-knowledge power of the United States, and at the same time reproduces it. “I Can Speak” puts the U.S. outside the issue by erasing the U.S. political landscape surrounding the ‘Comfort Women’ issue and reducing it to just ‘Korea-Japan’ relations. In “I Can Speak,” the U.S. Congress is represented as a place where historical truth wins, and the victim receives an apology from the audience in a parliament surrounded by a statue of an American great man. This paper confirms that the U.S. Congress is also a powerful place to capture Servalton's speech with its ruling discourse by revealing the action of power that the word ‘universal value’ conceals. What is important is that these limitations are not only “I Can Speak,” but also our view of recognizing the ‘Comfort Women’ issue being publicized in the United States today. Therefore, the analysis of “I Can Speak” allows us to critically examine the discourse and movement that is ‘globalizing’ the ‘Comfort Women’ problem through the United States.