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ABSTRACT
This essay provides a closer look at the controversy over the shutdown of an art exhibit titled “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” at the 2019 Aichi Triennale in Japan. While heated debates over freedom of expression ensued following its closure, larger structural issues underpinning the incident and the “Statue of a Girl of Peace,” an artwork symbolizing the victims of sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese military, were left unexamined by the media and the public. This paper takes issue with such absence and explicates how debates over free speech that fails to address colonial legacy, historical revisionism, and obstinate racism can sustain the suppression of the marginalized. This paper considers hypocritical deployment of free speech arguments that perpetuates the subjugation of racial minorities in Japan and concludes with a call for transnational coalitions to combat a growing tide of nationalism, historical revisionism, and misogyny in Japan and beyond.
Notes
1. Yamada and Nomura, “Nagoya Mayor Demands Removal of ‘Comfort Women’ Statue.”
2. In this essay, Japanese and Korean names are written with the family name first following the East Asian convention, except for the authors who published their work in English and listed their name following the western convention.
3. Rich, “The Exhibit Lauded Freedom of Expression.”
4. Dafoe, “Facing Public Threats.” On March 27, 2020, the Mayor decided to withdraw the city’s contribution of 33 million yen (approximately $305,000) to the event.
5. For instance, the Mayor of Osaka Matsui Ichiro questioned the use of public funds for “the exhibit that portrays our ancestors as beasts,” see “Shōjozō Tenji ‘Chūshio,’ Kawamura Shichō ga Chiji ni Mōshiiree.”
6. The subsidy was later withdrawn one day after Governor Omura made his announcement of reopening the exhibition on September 25, 2019, see Ueda, “Public Subsidy to Aichi Art Festival Withdrawn over Edgy Exhibition.” After an appeal, the subsidy (reduced from the original amount of 78 million yen to 66 million yen) was approved on March 23, 2020.
7. Dafoe. “Facing Public Threats.”
8. “700 Enter Lottery to View Reopened Art Exhibit at Aichi Triennale”; On its reopening day, Mayor Kawamura staged a sit-in protest in front of the venue and threatened that the city won’t pay its share of the event expenses (33.8 million yen, approximately $315,000). “Controversial Japan Art Exhibit Reopens with Tighter Controls.”
9. Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, “The Constitution of Japan.”
10. Arudou, “Righting a Wrong.”
11. Song, “Japanese Imperial Mentality”; and Itagaki, “Korea-phobia.”
12. According to Ministry of Justice (Japan), as of June, 2019, over 480,000 Koreans are registered as foreign nationals living in Japan. Of which, over 314,000 hold the “special permanent residency” status, which indicates former colonial citizens of Japan and their descendants. Former colonial subjects were deprived of their Japanese nationality in 1952 when Japan signed the Treaty of San Francisco.
13. Ministry of Justice (Japan), “Heito Supīchi,” 33.
14. Ito, “Anti-Korean Sentiment,” 434; LAZAK, “Discrimination Against Koreans,” 29–35; Taka, Reishizumu; Cho, “Quantitative Text Analysis”; and Hiura, “Netto jō ‘Kenkan’ ‘Kenchū’ Habikoru, Nyūsu no Komento Sūjūmanken Bunseki Rikkyo Daigaku Kyōjura.”
15. Report on Racial Discrimination, 5–9.
16. United Nations, “International Convention.”
17. Ibid.
18. Martin, “Striking the Balance,” 472.
19. Bleich, Freedom to be Racist?
20. Lee, “Diversity of Zainichi Koreans,” 2–3; and Ryang, “Introduction,” 1–3.
21. Digital Museum: The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women’s Fund, “How Did the Comfort Women Issue Come to Light?”
22. Most documents pertaining to sexual slavery by the Imperial Armed Forces were destroyed by the Japanese military at the end of WWII, see Lévy, “War Crimes Tribunal,” 12 and 23.
23. Morris-Suzuki, “Japan’s ‘Comfort Women’,” 3; It must be noted that Korean men were also involved in the recruitment of women and management of comfort stations, see Tanaka, Japan’s Comfort Women, 37–8.
24. Ibid.; and Nam, “Video evidence surfaces.”
25. Tanaka, Japan’s Comfort Women, 180.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid., 181.
28. Ibid., 167.
29. Ibid., 87.
30. Ibid., 86.
31. Ibid., 87.
32. Ibid., 82–3, 133–66.
33. On December 28, 2015, the governments of Japan under the Abe administration and now-impeached South Korean President Park Geun-hye reached an agreement on the issue of comfort women, in which Japan offered an apology and promised 1 billion yen ($9 million) for a resolution fund. The agreement has been heavily criticized for not including surviving victims of Japanese military sexual slavery in the process. In 2018, the Moon administration acknowledged that the 2015 agreement failed to consider the wishes of surviving victims and later dissolved a foundation created with Japanese resolution funds to support former comfort women. See Shim, “South Korea Comfort Women Continue Protest Despite Tokyo Deal”; and “Seoul Guts the ‘Comfort Women’ Agreement.”
34. “Can the Statue of Peace Find Peace?”
35. Following her testimony, hundreds of women from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Netherlands shared their experiences of sexual enslavement by the Japanese Imperial military, see Muta, “The ‘Comfort Women’ Issue.” In Korea alone, “239 women officially registered with the South Korean government as former ‘comfort women,’” Lee et al., “Psychiatric Sequelae,” 2; and see also Watanabe, “Trafficking in Women’s Bodies,” 1–2.
36. O’Brien, “Translator’s Introduction.”
37. “Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the Result of the Study on the Issue of ‘Comfort Women’.” This landmark apology has been referred to as the “Kono Statement.”
38. Reid, “Japan Apologizes to Sex Slaves”; and Hicks, Comfort Women, 198.
39. United Nations Digital Library. “Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.”
40. Morris-Suzuki and Rimmer, “Virtual Memories,” 149.
41. Nakano, “Japanese Nationalism,” 2.
42. Surak, “Shinzo Abe and the Rise of Japanese Nationalism.”
43. For instance, Fujioka Nobukatsu’s Kyōkasho ga Oshienai Rekishi [History the history textbooks do not teach] published in 1996 and Nishio Kanji’s Kokumin no Rekishi [The history of the people] published in 1999 became bestsellers; Sakamoto, “‘Will You Go to War?” 1.
44. Nakano, “Japanese Nationalism,” 3.
45. “Abe Admits Telling NHK to Censor TV Program.”
46. Ibid.
47. Morris-Suzuki, “Japan’s ‘Comfort Women’,” 6–7.
48. The House Resolution 121 was introduced by Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA) on January 31, 2007 and passed on July 30, 2007. See the full resolution here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-resolution/121.
49. Kingston, “Revisionists’ Meddling Backfires,” 1.
50. Arudou, “US Author Recounts ‘Lecture’.”
51. Panda, “Japan Denied Revision of UN Comfort Women Report.”
52. “German Museum Removes Comfort Women Statue on Japan’s Pressure”; and Shim, “Sex slavery statue closed off from view at Aichi Triennale 2019.”
53. McCurry, “Osaka Drops San Francisco as Sister City.”
54. Since the newspaper changed hands in 2017, its editorial stance steadily moved to the right. See Saito and Miyazaki, “‘Fear’ and ‘Favor’ Chill Newsroom”; and Kingston, “Revisionists’ Meddling Backfires,” 5.
55. Nakano, “Japanese Nationalism,” 3.
56. Yoshida, “Controversial Art Exhibit’s Closure.”
57. Two recent documentary films on the subject, “Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue” (2019) by a Japanese-American director Miki Dezaki and “Apology” (2016) by Tiffany Hsiung, gained international acclaim winning several awards from international film festivals.
Additional information
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Soo-Hye Han
Soo-Hye Han is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Research Associate at the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her primary research area is political communication.