Politicising the Manhwa Representations of the Comfort Women: with an Emphasis on the Angoulême International Festival Controversy

Abstract

This article discusses the nexus between comics, collective historical memory and politics in the context of the contemporary relationship between Japan and South Korea by examining the graphic manhwa narratives dealing with the memories of comfort women that were exhibited during the Angoulême Comics Festival in France in early 2014. With a theme of ‘memories of war and gendered violence’, commemorating the centennial of the outbreak of the First World War, the event that accommodated a special exhibition for Korean manhwa attracted controversy because of its political nature, drawing heavy media attention and sparking public debate and diplomatic quarrels. Adding academic depth to this cultural and diplomatic clash by linking the concepts of soft power foreign policy and cultural citizenship, this paper investigates what made the cultural event politically tainted and how the politicisation debate between the two countries escalated throughout the event. Existing studies on soft power foreign policy often leave the core contents of the ‘soft’ part unexplained. This article, in contrast, explores the current limits of accommodating cultural expressions of historical memories through an in-depth analysis of the exhibited artworks and the two countries’ nationalised soft power diplomacy. It argues that both governments’ direct and indirect intervention in the cultural realm nurtured irreconcilable cultural representations in this particular theme and genre of cultural representation under the current research.

Appendix. Plots of Major Comfort Women manga

• 1. Luccica Amagae (2010) The cruel wartime history of women: military comfort woman, how far is shredded snow [Onnano sensouzankokushi: jyuugunianfu, chigirekumo dokomade]. Bunkasya.

Yuki is Japanese. She is sold to the military brothel at 200 yen by her father due to poverty. She is required to provide sex service to Japanese soldier for 1 year in order to be free and be back home again. She makes some foreign Asian comfort woman friends (not mention from which countries) in the brothel. She cries in the arm of a senior comfort woman Eiko when she is devastated, because Eiko encourages her and treats her like a little sister. She is beaten cruelly by some soldiers. However, the brothel owner convinces her that the solider almost die in the war, she should understand the soldiers’ trauma and bear their violent. Yuki is also pregnant because some soldiers are not willing to use condom. Later, the owner died in an explosion. All the comfort women are only able to work for the solider for free in order to have their protection. However, the soldiers treat them cruelly, so they decide to leave the army and wander in the forest. Eiko dies of wound on her back and gives Yuki all the cash she saves before she dies. Finally, Japan lost in WW II, and Yuki brings her kid back to Japan to start a new life.

• 2. Mizuki Shigeru (2010) Young lady [Ku-nyan]. Kodansha.

Japanese troops conquer a small village in China. They notice that there is a young lady underwear on the street. All villagers are hiding at their homes. They broke into an old couple’s house and notice a pair of young lady’s shoes and pants. The old couple deny that they have a daughter, but the troop later find that the young lady is hiding inside a big wooden box. They capture the young lady force her to their camp. As they have not touched a woman for quite long time, they are all eager for having sex with the young lady. However, they make a rule that just one soldier is to have sex with this lady per night. The squad leader is the first guy to have sex with the lady. The lady is still a virgin and does not know the meaning of a comfort woman, so she asks the squad leader to be her husband, because she thinks that she will not be allowed to be back to the village once she has sex with a Japanese soldier. Squad leader likes the lady, but he is confused. The next night, a junior soldier enters the lady’s room to have sex. The lady beats the soldier up and becomes angry. She complains to the squad leader how he can allow other men to have sex with her. Then, squad leader has quarrel and fight with the junior soldier and accidentally kills the junior soldier. Finally, he decides to leave the army and live with the lady in China in low profile. Forty years later, he becomes a dirty old wanderer in China. He bumps into an old comrade on the street one day. He told his old comrade that the young lady died of illness soon after they started living together. He feels guilty of what he has done to the Japanese army and feels shame to be back to Japan again. So he decides to just continue wandering in China his whole life.

• 3. Ichika Okada and Akiko Tomita (2016) Japanese propaganda girl, Vol.2 [Hinomaru gaisenotome Vol. 2]. Seirindou.

Kanade is a high school girl in Tokyo. She has a bosom friend Sakura, who moves to the USA and studies in a high school in Glendale, which is a city in California. A comfort woman statue is established in the central park of Glendale, which irritates the emotion of overseas students there. Kanade has a Skype call with Sakura and realises that Sakura is bullied by Korean students severely there. There are more Korean students than Japanese students in the school. Due to the comfort woman history, Japanese students are regarded as ‘children of the rapist’ and bullied by Korean students. Sakura has a good Korean friend called Yunhi at the beginning. However, Yunhi dislikes Sakura due to the comfort woman history. For saving Sakura from bullying, Kanade decides to form a comfort woman history study group in her class and holds a live debate contest show on the internet with the Korean students in Sakura’s class. The study group also tries to send an email to the mayor of Glendale to express their discontent and request for the removal of the statue. However, the mayor does not reply to their emails.

Below are some points the study group ‘discover’ during their debate preparation.

• The term ‘military comfort woman’ is only be used after 1973. Those women should be called ‘prostitute in battlefield’, not belonging to the Japanese army.

• According to Japanese historian Ikuhiko Hata, there were only 20,000 comfort women during the war. Sixty per cent of them were Japanese, 20% were Korean, and 20% were local women. Hence, there were only 4000 Korean comfort women during the war. However, Korean claims that there are 200,000 Korean comfort women abused, which is a huge misunderstanding.

• Prostitutes are necessary during the war. Otherwise, the army may rape and kill the local women if there are no comfort women to fulfil their sexual desire.

• Some comfort women fall in love with some soldiers, and they get married after the war. Some diaries show that comfort women are happy during the war.

• There is an IWG report investigated by the USA showing that no comfort women are forced to work. Hence, they are not comfort women; they are simply prostitutes.

• During the war, Korean army respect Japanese army during the war. They chose to support Japan instead of China or Russia. However, Korean keeps accusing Japanese after the defeat of Japan.

For further study, Kanade also goes to Osaka to see the ‘Wednesday Demonstration demanding Japan to redress the comfort women problems’ at Umeda. The demonstration is organised by ‘House of Sharing’. Kanade is told that many comfort women live alone without support after the war for many years. So they join House of Sharing, lie about their suffering and attend the demonstration, just for having supportive ‘family members’ in their lonely elderly life. Kanade rushes to the parade and tries to talk to one comfort woman. However, she is beaten by a male protestor. This scene is captured in photo and reported to the media. The teachers read the news and scolds Kanade and the study group. In the meantime, Sakura is also beaten by a violent student, falls down a staircase and is sent to a hospital. Her parents suggest her to transfer to another school, but she decides to confront the bashing. Finally, Kanade’s study group has an online debate with four Korean students in Glendale at 3 a.m. by Skype. The Korean students claim that Japan Prime Minster also admits of the comfort woman history. They also claim that there are many verbal evidences collected during interviews with comfort women investigated by an organisation in Korea. The study group uses most of the points I mention above to debate. They also mention that many verbal evidences provided by comfort women and Japanese army are contradictory and nonsense. They also emphasise ‘harmony’ is a key cultural element in Japan culture. Hence, Japanese are used to apologising causally in order to maintain a peaceful relationship. However, foreigners take advantage of this Japanese weakness to accuse of the Japanese’s ‘fault’. At the end, they said the war ends 70 years ago, and they are born in 2001; they should not be accused of any things they have not done. The debate is a live show on the internet. The study group’s presentation is touching, and they gain many support. The Korean students lose. Yunhi brings a few Korean wild male students to beat Sakura the next day. A Korean even tries to rape Sakura. They are stopped by a black student and a few American students. Korean students leave and say that it is impossible to be friends with the Japanese anymore in future.

• 4. Takayoshi Mizumoto (2014) Stories of military comfort women (prologue) [Jyuugunianfu puroroguhen]. http://seiga.nicovideo.jp/comic/10009; http://seiga.nicovideo.jp/watch/mg81391?track=ct_cover

This is not a story. The manga artist uses manga to present a few points regarding to comfort woman. The points are as below:

• Korea is developing very well these years. Hence, they look Japanese in many aspects. Many foreigners may be confused about the difference between Korean and Japanese. For example, when some Korean commit misconduct overseas, they will say sorry ‘Sumimasen’ in Japanese, in order to mislead the foreigners to think that they are Japanese.

• Some Korean army’s uniforms are very similar to Japanese army uniforms. Hence, foreigners may think that it is the guilt of Japanese army when they look at some brutal Korean soldiers’ photos.

• During WW II, Korea is under the control of Japan. Korean soldiers also fight for Japan against other countries. The comfort women in Korea are Korean. Most of the soldiers who have sex with the Korean comfort woman are also Korean.

• Korea produces some war movies, in which Japanese army is very evil, and use the materials to teach Korean students in school. It makes young Korean think the Japanese are all bad and Korean are all good during the war.

• 5. Aria, Haruko (2014) A story of a Japanese comfort woman [Arunihonjinianfuno mogatari]. Ameba. https://ameblo.jp/aria-in-wonderland/entry-11786561923.html; https://ameblo.jp/aria-in-wonderland/image-11786612225-12864130966.html

Haruko is a 19-year-old Japanese comfort woman, who is working in China’s Canton Province in 1944. She has a star-shaped birth mark on her left hand. She works as a comfort woman for earning money to pay back the debt for her parents. However, her parents do not reply to her letters. It makes her not look forward to going back home. Some Japanese soldiers are shivering and crying while having sex with her. It makes her feel that her comfort is helping the soldiers be stronger to fight for the country. She is pregnant while Japan is losing in WW II and everything is in chaos. She does not know who the father is. She gives birth to her kid in a wild forest because there is no doctor and facilities to help her to give birth. She notices there is a star-shaped birth mark on the baby’s left hand too. However, she does not have any money and any place to stay. She leaves her baby outside a rich family’s home, hoping that the rich family may raise the kid because the rich family does not know the kid is a Japanese. She is saved by two Asian guys because of her beauty when she is dying in the forest. She denies that she is a Japanese because she remembers that many Chinese kill Japanese women and children in Tungchow mutiny in 1937. She is delivered to Korea to work as a ‘Korean Military Comfort Woman—West Princess’ to provide sex service to American soldiers. She feels the cultural difference between Japanese and Americans while working on Christmas.

She is so exhausted and confused. She had a faith of contributing to the Japanese army in the war to protect Japan in the past, which enabled the suffering. Now she was just suffering for survival. She is delivered to Vietnam in 1968 to continue her sex service. One day, she sees a dying young lady in the forest with the star-shaped birth mark on her hand. She realises that the young lady is her daughter. Her daughter dies. She is crying while a child comes out in the forest also with a star-shaped birth mark on hand. She knows that the child is her grand son. She commits suicide with the child in a river because she does not want to suffer any more. She is saved by people and sent to a hospital. After her recovery, she is proposed by the military doctor Kanda. Haruko was Kanda’s first love when she was still working in China many years ago. Finally, they move back to Japan to get married and live together. One day in 2012, Haruko is 88 years old. Her grand grand daughter reads the news about American soldiers raping Japanese ladies in Okinawa and becomes angry about the brutalism of the soldiers. Haruko explains to her grand grand daughter tenderly, saying that the soldier is brutal by image, but if there is no soldier to protect a country, all the women in the country may die brutally.