Mulheres, feminismo e relações internacionais: o caso do movimento de reparação das “mulheres de conforto” sul coreanas

Abstract

During the years 1937 and 1945, Imperial Japan actively participated in two conflicts: the Second Sino-Japanese War - a conflict of regional scope; and the War of the Asia-Pacific - also known as the War of the Pacific, the latter was one of the fronts of operations of World War II - and the Japanese participation in the conflicts was stimulated by the desire to expand the territory in East Asia. In the invaded territories, Japanese soldiers abused (raped) local women and, to try to "solve" this problem, a Japanese military leadership implemented the so-called "comfort system", which consisted of taking (or recruiting) women to places that were occupied by the Japanese so that they could “comfort” them through sexual intercourse. It was, therefore, a system of sexual slavery. After the end of the war, there were almost 50 years of silence about this system. As survivors, they began to go public and report what they had suffered, starting a movement that to this day fights for a weapon for the survivors. The reparation movement has impacts on the relations between the States involved - especially between Japan and South Korea. The present research seeks to analyze the case of the South Korean comfort women's reparation movement and how the case helps to understand the process of silencing these women by the Japanese government, which does not recognize your actions during the Pacific War period and the struggle of these women against silencing. We use the feminist theorist Cynthia Enloe to helps us understand the silencing at a macro level, allowing us to look beyond the state and analyze how gender impacts political experiences.