Table Of ContentEmbodied Reckonings
Embodied
Reckonings
“Comfort Women,”
Performance, and
Transpacific Redress
Elizabeth W. Son
University of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor
Copyright © 2018 by Elizabeth W. Son
All rights reserved
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107
and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public
press), without written permission from the publisher.
Published in the United States of America by the
University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
c Printed on acid- free paper
2021 2020 2019 2018 4 3 2 1
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-0-472-13073-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-0-472-03710-0 (paperback : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-0-472-12364-3 (e-book)
All royalties earned from book sales will be donated to the Butterfly Fund,
which was started by survivors Kim Bok Dong and Gil Won Ok to help
female victims of sexual violence during armed conflicts. https://www.
womenandwar.net
Cover: (top) Survivor Kim Bok Dong at the Wednesday Demonstration on
September 10, 2014, in Seoul. She sits a few feet from a realistically
rendered bronze statue of an adolescent girl that was installed in 2011 to
commemorate the Wednesday Demonstrations and honor survivors. Credit:
© Yonhap via Newscom/ZUMA; (bottom) Survivors (left to right) Gil Won
Ok, Kim Soon-ok, Lee Yong Soo, Park Ok-sun, Yi Ok-seon, and Bae Chun-
hui at the Wednesday Demonstration on July 23, 2008 in Seoul. Photo by
Elizabeth W. Son.
For my mother, Eun Hie Paik, and father, Hun Bae Son
Acknowledgments
I have lived with this project for ten years. It has traveled with me
from New Haven to Seoul, Tokyo, and countless cities across the
United States. I could not have made it through this journey without
so many people by my side.
First, I am indebted to the brave women whose stories are at the
heart of this book. I feel so fortunate to have protested alongside Bae
Chun- hui, Gil Won Ok, Kang Il-c hul, Kim Bok Dong, Kim Soon-o k,
Lee Mak Dal, Lee Soon- duk, Lee Yong Soo, Park Ok-s un, and Yi Ok-
seon. Gil Won Ok, Kang Il-c hul, Kim Gun-j a, Lee Mak Dal, Lee Yong
Soo, and Yi Ok- seon welcomed me into their homes and generously
shared their wisdom with me. I am so grateful to the activists, artists,
and scholars who took the time to share their knowledge and passion
for social justice. I am especially grateful to Yoon Mee Hyang, the
admirable leader of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for
Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, for her support and time. I thank
the wonderful staff members and affiliates of the Korean Council for
their assistance: Kim Dong-H ee, Ahn Sun- Mi, Son Young- Me, Im Ji-
Yeong, Yang Noja, Kang Joo- Hye, and Hanna Song. I thank artists
Bang Eunmi, Peggy Choy, Ito Tari, Chungmi Kim, Kim Eun Sung,
Kim Sam- Jin, and Kim Seo Kyung for taking the time to talk with me
about their artistic work. I also thank Lee Na- Young, Cho Sihyun,
Claire Sung, Ahn Shin Kwon, Kang Jisoo, Stephen Oh, Joseph Oh,
Park Se Whan, and Yang Jinee for sharing their experiences with me.
Sean Kim and Nam Seonu of the Seoul Arts Center and Llen Kim,
Jang Nayong, and Yahng Yoon- Suhg of the Sejong Center for the Per-
forming Arts shared materials relating to the theater productions dis-
cussed in the book. I am grateful to Mina Watanabe, and Fumiko
Yamashita and Yumiko Saito of the Women’s Active Museum on
War and Peace for welcoming me to Tokyo and assisting with my
research. Nakahara Michiko, Shiba Yoko, Takatsuka Banko, and Tsu-
jii Miho also shared their stories. The Han family and Patricia Wilson
helped make Seoul feel like home, and the de Boo family helped
make my stay in Tokyo memorable. Back in the States, I am grateful
to Steven Cavallo, Roy Hong, Keun Hwang, Youngju Ji, Dong Chan
Kim, Phyllis Kim, Michael Kodama, David Lee, Julie Jungsil Lee,
Kathy Masaoka, Young H. Paek, Annabel Park, Chejin Park, Frank J.
Quintero, Zareh Sinanyan, Joachim Youn, and countless others for
sharing their activist work with me.
This project started in Yale University’s American Studies Pro-
gram under the guidance of my doctoral advisers Hazel Carby and
Joseph Roach. Joe taught me to see the world anew through kines-
thetic imagination, while Hazel helped me understand the power of
cultural works to speak against silenced histories. Joe and Hazel are
exemplars of the kind of scholar and teacher I aspire to become. I was
also lucky to work with Alicia Schmidt Camacho and Lisa Lowe.
Alicia has modeled how to bridge scholarship with a passion for so-
cial justice, and Lisa transformed my understanding of the stakes of
studying histories of loss. All four of these scholars inspired my work
on this project and my belief in the world- changing possibilities of
academic inquiry.
I also benefited from the amazing teaching and mentorship of
many others at Yale, among them Elizabeth Alexander, Wai Chee
Dimock, Jonathan Holloway, Matthew Jacobson, Jill Lane, Mary Lui,
Sanda Lwin, Christopher Miller, Diana Paulin, Robert Stepto, and
Laura Wexler. Jill introduced me to the world of performance studies,
and she and Alicia encouraged me to develop seminar papers into a
dissertation. Mary carved out space at Yale for Asian American stud-
ies. My journey into American studies began at Wellesley College
under the inspirational mentorship of William Cain and Lawrence
Rosenwald, who helped me believe that it was possible to pursue a
career in academia.
Northwestern University’s Theatre Department brought Tracy
Davis, Dassia Posner, and Harvey Young into my life. Their generous
and astute advice, thoughtful engagement with my work, and friend-
ship have made me a better scholar and teacher. I am also grateful for
my colleagues in Theatre, Performance Studies, Asian American
Studies, American Studies, and Radio/Television/Film who have en-
gaged with my research or offered encouragement when I needed it
the most: Shana Bernstein, Barbara Butts, Rives Collins, Marcela
Fuentes, Henry Godinez, E. Patrick Johnson, D. Soyini Madison, Su-
san Manning, Sandra Marquez, Miriam Petty, Mary Poole, Ramón
viii | acknowledgments
Rivera- Servera, Anna Shapiro, Nitasha Sharma, Shayna Silverstein,
Jessica Thebus, Will West, Ji-Y eon Yuh, Ivy Wilson, and especially
Joshua Takano Chambers- Letson.
We are all lucky to have Dean Barbara O’Keefe at the helm of the
School of Communication. I am so grateful to Dean O’Keefe for her
support of my research and her unflagging advocacy for the arts.
As a scholar whose transnational research emerges from the worlds
of both Asian and Asian American theater and performance studies, I
am indebted to pathbreakers Suk- Young Kim, Dorinne Kondo, Esther
Kim Lee, Josephine Lee, Daphne Lei, and Karen Shimakawa for show-
ing us the way. In particular, Suk-Y oung Kim offered incisive com-
ments and kindhearted encouragement; her mentorship during my
Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship and her comments
on a draft of the manuscript were invaluable. Catherine M. Cole pro-
vided critical feedback during my manuscript workshop. Suk-Y oung
and Catherine model what it means to be fully committed to the study
of performance and politics.
I am grateful to be part of the Korean Diaspora Working Group,
which started in Evanston, with Anne Joh, Jinah Kim, and Ji- Yeon
Yuh, who have shared their brilliance, jeong, and love of Korean food
with me.
I thank Kaysha Corinealdi, Amina El- Annan, Kathy Foley, Melissa
García, Anne Joh, Jinah Kim, Mary Lui, Uri McMillan, Christine Mok,
Dassia Posner, Quan Tran, Charlie Veric, and Ji-Y eon Yuh for provid-
ing feedback on parts of earlier versions of this project. Patrick Ander-
son, Aimee Bahng, Herman Beavers, Robin Bernstein, Rhonda Blair,
Jennifer DeVere Brody, Kimberly Juanita Brown, Kornel Chang, Tina
Chen, Jasmine Nichole Cobb, Soyica Diggs Colbert, Brian Herrera,
Jade Huell, Daniel Kim, Jisoo Kim, Jodi Kim, Ju Yon Kim, Tiffany Lo-
pez, Michelle Massé, Paige McGinley, Yana Meerzon, Sean Metzger,
Bonnie Oh, Joshua Pilzer, Janelle Reinelt, Freddie Rokem, David
Román, C. Riley Snorton, Kim Solga, Al Tillery, Rima Touré-T illery,
and Sara Warner gave me advice, encouragement, and inspiration. Ear-
lier chapter drafts greatly benefited from discussions at Yale Univer-
sity, Brown University, New York University, Northeastern Univer-
sity, Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis,
George Washington University, the War and Women’s Human Rights
Museum in Seoul, the 2013 East of California/Association for Asian
American Studies Junior Faculty Retreat, the Histories of Violence
acknowledgments | ix
