Contentious History and Memory: Comfort Women Issues in Japan and Korea

6 credits · Undergraduate

This course will study a wide spectrum of opinions and views on the issue of ?comfort women.? Students will approach this topic in the context of wartime sexual and gender-based violence at a time when an imperial order was the norm. Students will also probe shifting narratives of wartime responsibilities in the post-war Japanese and Korean societies. Students will engage in issues of reparations, legal accountability, historical memories, truth and justice, apology and forgiveness, and reconciliation both at the personal and structural levels, by directly interacting with the conflict parties who represent such diverse positions. This is a summer study abroad course in Tokyo and Seoul.