In December last year, Professor Min You-ki from the Dept. of History at Kyung Hee University (KHU) was recognized by the Korean Ministry of Education (KME) for his outstanding achievements in academic and research support project. His research, conducted from July 2019 until December the following year, focused on perspectives from the international community on the comfort women issue. The results were published in English on the March 2021 special issue of Korea Journal, the oldest and most prestigious Arts and Humanities Citation Index journal in the field of Korean studies. 

What Inspired Him to do the Research?

Prof. Min specializes in the history of Western modern and contemporary urban civilization and holds a Ph.D. in history from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en sciences sociales de Paris, attained in 2003. During a research semester in the United States (U.S.), he noticed critical reporting on the 2015 South Korean Japanese agreement on comfort women by various media outlets like the New York Times, the Guardian, and Le Monde. Astonished by the plethora of attention from the West toward an East Asian issue, he realized the potential global significance of the issue. This realization sparked his research into how major influential states perceive the issue. Notably, he discovered that the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, along with international organizations like the United Nations, recognize the comfort women issue as a women's rights concern. This profound understanding of the issue's international dimension further inspired his research pursuits.

Prof. Min's research required a significant investment of time, involving both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the comfort women issue coverage in prominent foreign newspapers and weekly publications spanning from 1991 to 2020. Supported by funding from the National Research Foundation of Korea, a team of five research members accomplished Western history researchers dedicated a year and a half to conduct this comprehensive study. 

What is the Study About? 

The term "comfort women" refers to South Korean women subjected to forced sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. Prof. Min's research paper offers a comprehensive overview of how the comfort women issue has evolved and been addressed by foreign media over the past 30 years. Notably, the 1963 Kono Statement marked a significant moment when the Japanese government acknowledged both the direct and indirect military involvement in the comfort women system. However, in present times, the Japanese government continues to deny their war crimes, trying to avoid any meaningful engagement with the issue.

The issue of Japan's comfort women has gained global attention due to the focus on human rights, the significance of peace in East Asia, post-war reconstruction efforts, and more. French media extensively covered the justice movement for Korean victims, highlighting Japanese government's denial of war crimes and its impact on democracy. In contrast, the British media criticized the Japanese government for refusing reparations for past colonization and sexual slavery. Prof. Min and his team published the book War and Women's Rights: The Japanese Military 'Comfort Women' Issue in the World as a revised version of their initial paper.

What’s the Significance of the Research?

According to the KME, Prof. Min's research focused on analyzing the perception of the comfort women issue by major countries like the USA, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany over the past 30 years since its emergence in Korea through media reports in them. The findings revealed the international community, including the UN and strong countries, predominantly views the issue through the lens of women's rights. Through a comparative analysis of media coverage worldwide, the study provided a global perspective on Japanese military sexual slavery, Japan's historical revisionism, and right-wing tendencies. This perspective facilitated an impartial and universal recognition of the comfort women issue as a matter of human rights transcending the dichotomy of perpetrator and victim. The significance of this study lies in its proposition that awareness of the comfort women issue serves as an indicator of women's rights and democracy from the standpoint of global citizenship.

Global Citizenship, the Right Way to Treat History and the Future

Prof. Min emphasizes the concept of a global citizen as someone who upholds universal values like human rights, democracy, freedom, and equality, and actively works towards peace and prosperity of the human community. As individuals exist within various overlapping communities, including families, cities, nations, international regions, and the world, fostering global citizenship plays a crucial role in preventing and resolving conflicts. In today's globalized world, people interact with individuals from diverse backgrounds who hold various historical conflicts. Bridging the gap between historical sentiments and personal experiences became vital in fostering understanding and harmony.

According to Prof. Min, when a country violates the international laws, it is natural to harbor uneasy sentiments towards that country and criticize the denial of history without proper reflection or apology to the victims. However, it is essential not to prejudge individuals based on their nationality. In contrary, embracing ethnocentrism and exclusive nationalism is inappropriate as it inevitably leads to conflicts with other nations.

"History embodies the collective aspirations of past generations and the journey towards fulfilling those aspirations," he said. A positive and constructive understanding of history shapes the path towards the future. Thus, the professor hopes students to develop a desirable historical awareness for global citizenship through KHU's liberal arts courses, extracurricular activities, and their own fields of study. He also wishes students to become proud protagonists of history and be committed to both personal growth and the betterment of the community.