ABSTRACT

This essay provides a closer look at the controversy over the shutdown of an art exhibit titled “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” at the 2019 Aichi Triennale in Japan. While heated debates over freedom of expression ensued following its closure, larger structural issues underpinning the incident and the “Statue of a Girl of Peace,” an artwork symbolizing the victims of sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese military, were left unexamined by the media and the public. This paper takes issue with such absence and explicates how debates over free speech that fails to address colonial legacy, historical revisionism, and obstinate racism can sustain the suppression of the marginalized. This paper considers hypocritical deployment of free speech arguments that perpetuates the subjugation of racial minorities in Japan and concludes with a call for transnational coalitions to combat a growing tide of nationalism, historical revisionism, and misogyny in Japan and beyond.

摘要

本文详细探讨了在2019年日本爱知三年展上题为“表达自由之后吗？”的艺术展览会停摆的争议。言论自由关闭后，随之而来的是激烈的辩论，事件背后的更大结构性问题和“和平女孩雕像””，这是象征日本帝国军队遭受性奴役的受害者的艺术品，媒体和公众对此都没有进行审查。本文对这种缺席问题进行了探讨，并阐述了关于言论自由的辩论如何解决殖民地遗留，历史修正主义和顽固的种族主义问题如何能够维持对边缘化者的压制。本文考虑了言论自由伪造主义的虚假部署，这种言论伪造长期存在于日本的少数民族中，并得出结论，要求跨国联盟与日本及其他地区日益增长的民族主义，历史修正主义和厌女症浪潮作斗争。