Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue

On February 20th, my friends and I went to the Debartolo Performing Arts Center to watch the film Shusenjo, directed by Miki Dezaki. As a South Korean, I was quite familiar with the issue regarding comfort women but never had a chance to delve into it in depth. Knowing how controversial this issue has been for the past decades, I was always cautious to talk about it with others especially when I did not have much knowledge on the topic. This made the film extremely impactful and meaningful for me.

Throughout the two-hour film, different perspectives on numerous aspects of the comfort women issue were introduced. Thoughts and arguments were shared South Korean, Japanese, and American historians, experts, organization leaders, politicians, and even a popular Youtuber. I was particularly intrigued by the arguments of the historical revisionists who believed that the history known today has flaws and misunderstandings and must be revised. For instance, the revisionists questioned the credibility of testimonials from the comfort women. It was argued that the recounting of their traumatic experiences may be exaggerated or inaccurate. However, as the film stated, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for someone to speak out their traumatic experiences in public. Therefore, demanding full accuracy from the testimonials was unreasonable.

Like this, the film presented many arguments that I have never seen in these many different viewpoints. I liked how the film made sure to balance the opinions by addressing both sides of the argument. It was easy to understand why the comfort women issue is still an ongoing controversy. It was also surprising to see that the Korean American community in major cities of the United States were arguing for the comfort women issue. The dispute was mainly on the Statue of Peace and whether the involvement of America is necessary.

Overall, the film provided me incredible amounts of insights about the issue of comfort women. I  was also amazed by the fact that the director, Miki Dezaki, started this film as his college project, but is now on a tour around universities to screen the film. He also mentioned that some people sued him and censored the film. His effort to spread the issue even with the resistance was truly admirable and I was thankful to have the opportunity to watch this film.