제국주의와 성 - 일본인위안부의 표상 -

Abstract

This study discussed the representation of ‘Karayuki-san,’ which led to ‘Japanese comfort women,’ focusing on the period from the early modern times before the Sino-Japanese War. In early modern times, Karayuki-san was represented as ‘ladies of pleasure,’ the disgrace of the country as Christianity and sexual morality were introduced from the west, which had been represented as ‘filial daughters’; however, as its necessity was raised, it formed the central axis supporting Japan’s Imperialist policy. To investigate ‘Prostitute’ Okiyo, who was degraded to a sexual tool, Okiyo internalized herself as a heterogeneous, alienated being who denied her own identity as she was excluded from Japanese people and Japanese women. As examined in this study, it is clear that Japan’s registered prostitution system was human trafficking and sex slavery. Japan has recognized the fact that the registered prostitution and prostitution is a crime since the early modern times. Therefore, it is judged that the scheme that ‘comfort women = prostitutes’ and ‘comfort women = registered prostitutes’ were sex slaves and sex criminals, as insisted by the Japanese right wing and the logic that it was an Asian culture of ‘filial piety,’ in which they were voluntary prostitutes for supporting their families, are just poor excuses for refusing to apologize.