$52.24 with 8 percent savings

RRP: $56.95

In stock

US imports may differ from local products. Additional terms apply. Learn More.

$$52.24 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

The enhancements that you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller that you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Ships from

Amazon US

Sold by

Amazon US

Payment

Secure transaction

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (18) from $56.95 FREE Delivery on first order.

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Colour:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the authors

The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan Paperback – 15 February 2009

by C. Sarah Soh (Author)

29 ratings

Part of: Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture (8 books)

See all formats and editions

Or $17.42 /mo (3 mo). View 2 plans

You can select and apply an appropriate plan based on your cart value at checkout.

Payment options	Interest	Total*
$17.42/mo (3 mo) minimum purchase of $50	$0.00	$52.24

Learn more

* The payment amount shown here does not include the cost of any additional selected options. See total payment amount (including shipping cost) at the checkout.

** Latitude: Monthly credit card fee (currently $10.95) will apply. Equal monthly repayments apply, account fees, late fees apply. Provider may charge interest. Exclusions apply. For more details click on Learn more above. You acknowledge that credit is provided to you by Latitude Finance Australia ABN 42 008 583 588, Australian Credit Licence number 392145, and the instalment plan is subject to the terms and conditions imposed on you by Latitude. Equal monthly repayments apply (exact amounts specified in your Latitude statement) and card fees will be charged by Latitude. If you fail to make your minimum monthly payment for two consecutive months, you agree that your equal monthly payment plans (Instalment Interest Free Promotion) with a term of fewer than 33 months will change into a minimum monthly payment plan (Interest Free Promotion) for the remaining duration of the initial plan term. If you fail to make a payment on time, Latitude will charge late fees. Latitude will also charge interest on any outstanding balance at the end of the instalment plan period you select at the rate set out in its T&Cs (currently 29.99% p.a.). Interest may also apply to other Latitude credit card transactions or if you do not comply with the Latitude T&Cs.

Account type	Interest
Zip Pay	Always interest free^
Zip Money	12 mo interest free, 25.9% p.a. thereafter*

Learn more

The payment amount shown here does not include the cost of any additional services. See total payment amount (including shipping cost) at the checkout.

^Zip Pay: This is a credit product and is interest free. Minimum monthly repayments are required. A monthly account fee of $9.95 is charged by Zip and is subject to change. Pay your closing balance in full by the due date each month and Zip will waive the fee. Available to approved applicants only and subject to completion of satisfactory credit assessment by Zip. Other charges may be payable. Fees and charges subject to change. Zip T&Cs apply. T&Cs available on application. See your Zip contract for further details. Credit provided by Zip Money Payments Pty Ltd (ABN 58 164 440 993), Australian Credit Licence Number 441878.

*Zip Money: Interest free term subject to minimum spend and promotional partner offer. Available to approved applicants only and subject to completion of satisfactory credit check. The repayment advertised will repay the transaction balance within the advertised interest free period. A monthly account fee of $9.95 applies and a one off establishment fee may apply for new customers. Under the contract, minimum monthly repayments are required and will vary depending on your credit limit. Instalment plans split eligible purchases of $300 and above into equal repayments within the interest free period. If you turn off instalments, transactions will be reverted to the minimum monthly repayment. Paying only the minimum monthly repayment may not necessarily repay a purchase within the interest free period. Any balance outstanding at the expiry of the interest free period will be charged at the standard variable interest rate, 25.9% per annum, as at 1 June 2023. Other charges may be payable, see T&Cs. Interest, fees and charges are subject to change. Terms & Conditions apply and are available on application. See your contract for further details. Credit provided by ZipMoney Payments Pty Ltd (ABN 58 164 440 993), Australian Credit Licence Number (441878).

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$52.24","priceAmount":52.24,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"52","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"24","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"RxfX79vF5%2FHVy%2FIwTHnReUHCKaObC4L2w6fYGl%2FBimMLKcO7RuO0YXN0zVkzwTCh81PtFqvvRlEexL8%2BZ54eIJywXwxj%2FVwLjuZ1O54HfZC1tPWiS9UFlHg5gF88fSFG%2FJNoXSFT72H3ZFYXaiU2eaiLZYCGMEpEtG2XwUiKd%2BhjDNkqJTeO0o5ZUv5%2FwNkK","locale":"en-AU","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

In an era marked by atrocities perpetrated on a grand scale, the tragedy of the so-called comfort women―mostly Korean women forced into prostitution by the Japanese army―endures as one of the darkest events of World War II. These women have usually been labeled victims of a war crime, a simplistic view that makes it easy to pin blame on the policies of imperial Japan and therefore easier to consign the episode to a war-torn past. In this revelatory study, C. Sarah Soh provocatively disputes this master narrative.
Soh reveals that the forces of Japanese colonialism and Korean patriarchy together shaped the fate of Korean comfort women―a double bind made strikingly apparent in the cases of women cast into sexual slavery after fleeing abuse at home. Other victims were press-ganged into prostitution, sometimes with the help of Korean procurers. Drawing on historical research and interviews with survivors, Soh tells the stories of these women from girlhood through their subjugation and beyond to their efforts to overcome the traumas of their past. Finally, Soh examines the array of factors― from South Korean nationalist politics to the aims of the international women’s human rights movement―that have contributed to the incomplete view of the tragedy that still dominates today.

Product description

Review

"In just 200 pages, it answers a long unanswered question: that there were comfort women in Singapore during World War II, including local women - making the case that though no Singaporean women have come forward, people should not think they were exempt."-- "The Straits Times"

"A brave and impressive book that usefully complicates and adds layers to our understanding of a sordid system."--Jeff Kingston "Japan Times"

"C. Sarah Soh's study of 'comfort women' offers a close-grained yet compassionate analysis of this disturbing experience. She cogently deploys ethnography and history to illuminate a crucial case in gender and international issues."--James L. Peacock, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Since 1991, when Korean comfort women first stepped forward to demand compensation, much has been written about the Japanese military comfort system. Through careful anthropological work, Soh adds to knowledge about this system and provides a nuanced context within which to understand it. . . . In this courageous book, Soh succeeds in her aspiration to write against both adversarial ethnonationalisms and ahistorical international feminisms."-- "Choice"

"This is a courageous, judicious, and well-written book that refuses to yield to knee-jerk responses or politically correct narratives, but rather insists on setting the comfort women within broader historical and cultural contexts. Sympathetic and sensitive, C. Sarah Soh nevertheless challenges both feminist and ethnic nationalist paradigms in an astonishing display of objectivity. The Comfort Women is a lucid, brave, and important work."

--Gail Lee Bernstein, author of Isami's House: Three Centuries of a Japanese Family

"This is a dispassionate, careful, well-researched, and brave book. Embedding her story in the whole history of prostitution and abusive treatment of women from the colonial period to the present, Soh shows that the comfort women system partook not just of the authoritarian politics of Japanese colonialism, but was also deeply rooted in a Korean patriarchy whose effects continued on after 1945. I expect this book will be the standard work on the subject for some time."--Bruce Cumings, University of Chicago

About the Author

C. Sarah Soh is professor of anthropology at San Francisco State University and the author of Women in Korean Politics.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 15 February 2009
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226767779
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226767772
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 522 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 2.21 x 22.86 cm
Part of series ‏ : ‎ Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture
Best Sellers Rank: 777,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 406 in History of Korea
- 556 in Regional Geography
- 1,890 in History of Japan
Customer Reviews:
29 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Chunghee Sarah Soh
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
See more on the author's page
C. Sarah Soh
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

29 global ratings

How are ratings calculated?

Review this product

Write a customer review

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Francisco Javier
Pata vencer la historia de Corea
Reviewed in Spain on 12 January 2023
Verified Purchase

Buena lectura

Read more
Report
Translate review to English
Nerdus Maximus
Profound, informative, thought-provoking...
Reviewed in the United States on 25 September 2012
Verified Purchase
... and most definitely NOT for casual readers or those who are not willing to re-examine their preconceived ideas and views of the wartime comfort women. This work is likewise ill-suited for those who aren't serious readers of history.

C. Sarah Soh, as a native Korean who was fortunate to receive formal education both in her homeland and abroad, has produced a masterful examination of a controversial issue involving Korea and Japan which people from both countries have long oversimplified.

Koreans generally believe that Imperial Japan's leadership ordered, planned, and executed the gunpoint kidnapping of thousands of Korean females and summarily shipped them like chattel to frontline brothels.

Japanese people - at least those who know this issue - either agree that the Koreans were largely victimized, or claim that this is a gross fabrication and that the comfort women were essentially willing prostitutes.

Professor Soh cites several examples, such as interviews with survivors, to show that the truth is far more complex. Some survivors stated they were not forcibly taken by Japanese troops. Others are shown to have bought their way to freedom with earnings - earnings??? Yes. Hence the question - if the comfort women were slaves, they wouldn't have had wages. Then what were they: slaves or prostitutes or something else?

Additionally, Professor Soh does the reader a huge service by detailing the sociocultural contexts of 1930s-1940s Korea and Japan. Information on views on sex, women, and the sexism that characterized pre-modern Korean and Japanese societies is provided, thus presenting the reader with a better understanding of what facilitated the existence of "sex care work" in both societies. Anyone familiar with Korea and Japan today will be aware that extramarital affairs have been generally tolerated, historically speaking, and that older men have often availed themselves of sexual services provided by far younger women.

The comfort women issue did not happen in a vacuum. Japanese generals didn't wake up one day, deciding to 'award' their enlisted men with females to sate their urges, and they didn't decide to violently seize thousands of Korean women at will. As a reader of Korean ethnicity myself, I know this is a painful subject, and I personally believe there were abductions. But as the attentive reader will see, the story is far more diverse and much more complicated that flag-waving nationalists on either side of the East Sea (or, as some call it, the Sea of Japan), would want us to believe.

It is worth noting (somewhat of a spoiler alert) that Professor Soh was shunned and coldly treated by South Koreans who are involved in the redress movement after those activists learned of the fruits of her research. I wonder why. Did Professor Soh's findings upset their ostensibly benign agenda? Is there something she uncovered the redress activists preferred not to even know and prefer that their compatriots remain ignorant of?

If the comfort women issue is of any interest to you, read this book. It is a must-have in the library of any serious student of Korea's modern history.

Read more
Report
Jud
Every Japanese should read
Reviewed in Japan on 26 July 2013
Verified Purchase
This should be mandatory reading in Japanese schools

Read more
Report
H. Nieuwenhuizen
A revelation
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2011
Verified Purchase
This is an amazing book and puts this sensitive issue of comfort women in perspective. Anyone who wants to really understand the background how this could have happened without the sensationalism of the modern times should read this book. The author comes from the same culture as most of the comfort women and understands the reasons much better than any non Asian person could. It makes us understand why it took so many years after the war for these victims to try and find justice and at the same time understand much better the Japanese reaction, even to this day to all the claims and calls for apologies.
It's not an easy to read book and almost reads like a study book, probably because of the author is a professor of anthropoly and she explains that clearly in her reasons for writing this history, which is very well re-searched.
It leans heavily on the Korean culture and ways of life starting from before the war right up to the modern day, for reason that the majority of the comfort women were from Korean origin but goes on to explain how everything changed as the war progressed. I think a must-read for anybody interested in this sad chapter of history which tends or tended to be forgotten, but even by reading the book reasons for that can be clearly understood. Equally well anyone interested in Chinese, Korean and Japanese culture and history should read this book.

Read more
Report
FreeTradeTool
A must-read above all others on the subject
Reviewed in the United States on 15 September 2017
Verified Purchase
After rereading the book recently, I have renewed respect for Professor Soh – she has taken a very courageous step to reject the ‘master narrative’ of the comfort women issue by providing so much on the historical background of Korea as well as revealing information on many of the comfort women survivors, facts that are conveniently left out by activists of the redress movement. It is no wonder that Chong Dae Hyup, the main organization that promotes the movement in South Korea, no longer wants to do anything with Professor Soh, but her name not being on the list of academics supporting the 2015 Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan, an attempt to pressure Japan to further acknowledge and once again account for the ‘past wrongs,’ really speaks volumes.

More than anyone in American academia, she fully understands the complexity of the issue as demonstrated in her extensive research, and she is undoubtedly the most qualified to discuss the matter objectively, having received education in Japanese, Korean, and English. Moreover, she is currently a resident and scholar in the United States, making her independent of any activist groups from overseas, which allows her to speak freely without compromising academic integrity. While I personally do not support transnational feminism which is what the professor identifies herself with, this book must be thoroughly studied in order to partake in any reasonable discussion on the issue of Imperial Japan’s Comfort Women system. A solid 4.5 stars for the depth of the research and the overall objectivity that is maintained throughout the book.

Read more
Report

See more reviews

Recommended Retail Price (RRP)