Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T09:52:24.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Can Transnational Feminist Solidarity Accommodate Nationalism? Reflections from the Case Study of Korean “Comfort Women”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Abstract

This article aims to refute the “incompatibility thesis” that nationalism is incompatible with transnational feminist solidarity, as it fosters exclusionary practices, xenophobia, and racism among feminists with conflicting nationalist aspirations. I examine the plausibility of the incompatibility thesis by focusing on the controversy regarding just reparation for Second World War “comfort women,” which is still unresolved. The Korean Council at the center of this controversy, which advocates for the rights of Korean former comfort women, has been criticized for its strident nationalism and held responsible for the stalemate. Consequently, the case of comfort women has been thought to exemplify the incompatibility thesis. I argue against this common feminist perception in three ways: first, those who subscribe to the incompatibility thesis have misinterpreted facts surrounding the issue; second, the Korean Council's nationalism is a version of “polycentric nationalism,” which avoids the problems of essentialist nationalism at the center of feminist concerns; and, third, transnational feminist solidarity is predicated on the idea of oppressed/marginalized women's epistemic privilege and enjoins that feminists respect oppressed/marginalized women's epistemic privilege. To the extent that oppressed/marginalized women's voices are expressed in nationalist terms, I argue that feminists committed to transnational feminist solidarity must accommodate their nationalism.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alarcón, Norma, Kaplan, Caren, and Moallem, Minoo. 1999. Introduction. In Between women and nation. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined communities. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Asian Women's Fund (AWF), official website: http://www.awf.or.jp/index.html (accessed July 28, 2015).Google Scholar
Bang, Seon‐Joo. 1997. The return of Japanese “comfort women” (Ilbongun ‘wianbu’ ui guihwan). In The truth of the Japanese comfort women system, ed. the Korean Council. Seoul: Yoksa pip'yong sa.Google Scholar
Choi, Chungmoo, ed. 1997. The comfort women: Colonialism, war, and sex. A Special Issue of Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Chung, Chin‐Sung. 2004. Japan's military sexual slavery (Ilbon'gun sŏng noyeje). Seoul: Seoul University Press.Google Scholar
French, Peter A. 1984. Collective and corporate responsibility. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fricker, Miranda. 1998. Epistemic oppression and epistemic privilege. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 25: 191210.Google Scholar
Harding, Sandra. 1993. Rethinking standpoint epistemology. In Feminist epistemologies, ed. Alcoff, Linda and Potter, Elizabeth. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Herr, Ranjoo Seodu. 2003. The possibility of nationalist feminism. Hypatia 18 (3): 135–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herr, Ranjoo Seodu. 2006. In defense of nonliberal nationalism. Political Theory 34 (3): 304–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaggar, Alison. 1998. Globalizing feminist ethics. Hypatia 13 (2): 731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeong, Hyeon‐Baek. 2008. Asian Women's Fund and the voices of the victims (gukmingigeum‐gwa‐pihaeja‐eui‐moksori). In History and responsibility: The issue of comfort women and 1990s (Japanese publication), translated into Korean by A. S. Lee and M. J. Oh. Seoul, Korea: Seon‐In Publishers.Google Scholar
Jeong, In‐Sup. 1997. Problems pertaining to the resolution of the Japanese war crimes (Ilbon‐ui jeonjaeng chaegim ihaengsang‐ui moonjejeom). In The truth of the Japanese comfort women system, ed. the Korean Council. Seoul: Yoksa pip'yong sa.Google Scholar
Kang, Man‐Gil. 1997. The problem with the concept of Japanese “comfort women” (Ilbongun ‘wianbu’ ui gaenyeom gwa hoching munje). In The truth of the Japanese comfort women system, ed. the Korean Council. Seoul: Yoksa pip'yong sa.Google Scholar
Kim, Hee‐Kang. 2009. Positioning “comfort women” at the intersection of nation and gender. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (the Korean Council [KC]). 1996. Collection of Korean military comfort women's memoirs I (2nd edition) (in Korean). Seoul: Han‐ul Press.Google Scholar
Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (the Korean Council [KC]). 1997a. The truth of the Japanese comfort women system (Ilbon'gun wianbu munje ui chinsang). Seoul: Yoksa pip'yong sa.Google Scholar
Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (the Korean Council [KC]). 1997b. Collection of Korean military comfort women's memoirs II (in Korean). Seoul: Han‐ul Press.Google Scholar
Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (the Korean Council [KC]). 2005. Brochure: History that can't be erased: Military sexual slavery by Japan. Seoul: The Korean Council.Google Scholar
Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (the Korean Council [KC]). N. d. Official website. https://www.womenandwar.net/contents/general/general.nx?page_str_menu=2101 (accessed July 28, 2015).Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural citizenship. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Hyo‐Jae. 1997a. The process of the comfort women movement (Ilbon'gun wianbu munje haegyol ul wihan undong ui chon'gae kwajong). In The truth of the Japanese comfort women system, ed. the Korean Council. Seoul: Yoksa pip'yong sa.Google Scholar
Lee, Sang‐Hwa. 1997b. Japanese comfort women's experience after the return (Ilbon'gun wianbu ui quigook hu sam ui gyeongheom). In The truth of the Japanese comfort women system, ed. the Korean Council. Seoul: Yoksa pip'yong sa.Google Scholar
Lu, Catherine. 2011. Colonialism as structural injustice. Journal of Political Philosophy 19 (3): 261–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lugones, Maria, in collaboration with Pat Alake Rosezelle. 1995. Sisterhood and friendship as feminist models. In Feminism and community, ed. Weiss, Penny E. and Friedman, Marilyn. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, David. 2007. National responsibility and global justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moghadam, Valentine. 2005. Globalizing women. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Mohanty, Chandra. 1991. Cartographies of struggle. In Third world women and the politics of feminism, ed. Mohanty, Chandra, Russo, Ann, and Torres, Lourdes. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Mohanty, Chandra. 2002. “Under western eyes” revisited. Signs 28 (2): 499535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakano, Doshio, and Kim, Buja, eds. 2008. History and responsibility: The issue of comfort women and 1990s (Japanese publication), translated into Korean by A. S. Lee and M. J. Oh. Seoul, Korea: Seon‐In Publishers.Google Scholar
Nakano, Doshio. 2008. Introduction (Seo‐jang). In History and responsibility: The issue of comfort women and 1990s (Japanese publication), translated into Korean by A. S. Lee and M. J. Oh. Seoul, Korea: Seon‐In Publishers.Google Scholar
Narayan, Uma. 1988. Working together across difference. Hypatia 3 (2): 133–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishino, Rumiko. 2008. The recovery of dignity for former comfort women (uianbu pihaeja‐ui joneom huebogiran). In History and responsibility: The issue of comfort women and 1990s (Japanese publication), translated into Korean by A. S. Lee and M. J. Oh. Seoul, Korea: Seon‐In Publishers.Google Scholar
Nobles, Melissa. 2008. The politics of official apologies. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2000. Woman and human development. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okin, Susan. 1994. Gender inequality and cultural differences. Political Theory 22 (1): 524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999. The law of peoples. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Said, Edward. 1993. Culture and imperialism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Scholz, Sally. 2007. Political solidarity and violent resistance. Journal of Social Philosophy 38 (1): 3852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scholz, Sally. 2008. Political solidarity. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Smiley, Marion. Collective responsibility. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2009 edition), ed. Zalta, Edward N.http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2009/entries/collective-responsibility/ (accessed July 28, 2015).Google Scholar
Smith, Anthony. 1983. Theories of nationalism. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Soh, Sarah. 2000. Human rights and the “comfort women”. Peace Review 12 (1): 123–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soh, Sarah. 2003. Japan's national/Asian Women's Fund for “comfort women”. Pacific Affairs 76 (2): 209–33.Google Scholar
Soh, Sarah. 2008. The comfort women. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the self. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, J. C., and Oakes, P. J. 1997. The socially structured mind. In The message of social psychology, ed. McGarty, C. and Haslam, S. A.Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1994. Thick and thin. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, Hyunah. 1998. Re‐membering the Korean military comfort women: Nationalism, sexuality, and silencing. In Dangerous women, ed. Kim, Elaine H. and Choi, Chungmoo. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar