SIS 640-002 International Communication's Group 3: Final report on "Rape as Weapon of War-The Case of 'Comfort Women'"

1. AMERICAN UNIVERSITY-SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL SERVICE
Rape as a Weapon of War
The Case of “Comfort Women”
Abby Buskager, Laine Cavanaugh, Erica Freund, and Sara Ko
12/5/2014
Graduate-level final report for Professor Shalini Venturelli’s
International Communication course (SIS 640-002)

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Executive Summary
This report serves to explore the systemic issue of rape as a weapon of war within a
communications framework through the case study of “comfort women” in the WWII era.
Utilizing two prominent communication concepts, this report analyzes the competing narratives
surrounding this particular case today and the role international media and policymakers have in
shaping/reconstructing narratives surrounding the topic of comfort women. This report then
distills the implications of this case on the violation of women’s human rights at large. The
reports finds that this particular case implicates all international, government and non-government
actors/stakeholders, and recommends that these actors take more active and
progressive roles in addressing the comfort women issue and its resolution. It is recommended
that this may be done through collaboration and the formation of a unified narrative that will
positively impact the protection of women’s human rights. The definition of rape as a weapon on
war, an overall historical review, a description of the comfort women case as well as a review of
the relevant literature on strategic narratives as discussed by scholars O’Loughlin & Roselle in
“Strategic Narratives” and the power of communication networks as discussed in Manuel
Castells’ “Communication Power” will be discussed in order to ground the case study and
recommendations within the topic.

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Historical Context and Narratives
The term rape as a weapon of war is defined as a systematic pattern of rape perpetrated
by fighters most commonly against civilian women and children at a significantly higher rate
than the rate of rape prevailing during peacetime (Hayden, R.M, 2000). Therefore, it is a
particular phenomenon within the overall phenomena of rape. Although open discussions about
rape in general as a violation of human rights has been more openly discussed in the past
century, rape within the context of war has only been uncovered as a specific issue on the
international stage in the past two decades. This short period of time is dwarfed by the length of
time rape has been systematic in the context of war.
In fact, rape in war could be considered an ancient tradition. In virtually every known
historic era, rape has accompanied war in some shape or form. In the Old Testament of the Bible,
mass rape is well documented between the Jewish people and their enemies (Gotschall, 2004, p.
129), and the Ancient Greeks were also known to capture and rape women during wartime
(Smith, 2004, p. 1). In a “worldwide shrug,” (Moore, 2010, p. 110) rape of women during
wartime became a centuries old act commonly viewed through several narratives. One of these
narratives includes rape as an unavoidable consequence of the battlefield. Dominant narratives
perceived war as an experience that leads soldiers to feelings of frenzy where sex becomes a
physical release. This justifies sex, no matters the means, as a consequence of celibacy and issues
faced during war among soldiers. Through the ages of wartime, these perceptions were
perpetuated, normalizing rape as a consequence of war.
The age-old notion of “spoils of war” is also one of the most common associations made
between war and women’s objectification during wartime. In connection to the theme of
conquest, the “spoils of war” has occurred in many historic events, including Columbus’s

4. expedition to the Caribbean. European invaders and their American successors continued to use
rape in conquest. This theme was later shown in the exploration of American West, when miners,
traders, and soldiers in the late 19th century frequently raped Native American women (Smith,
2004, p.138). In connection with wartime, the “spoils of war” are also associated with abduction.
For example, Ancient Greeks captured and raped women during wartime, and kept them as
wives and concubines (Smith, 2004, p. 1). This was also common in the Medieval Arab Slave
Trade, where prisoners of war from non-Arab lands often ended up as concubine slaves
(Abegunde, 2013, p. 194). These men did not respect women’s right to say “no” to sex, because
in the “spoils-of-war” frame of mind, women’s bodies are seen as a right to conquest, and
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thereby objectified (Smith, 2004, p. 138).
However, over the centuries, the narrative surrounding the “spoils of war” narrative was
also commonly warped into rape as a strategic weapon of war. Rape is often used in conflicts as
a way for attackers to perpetuate their social control (Smith-Spark, 2004), as well as, display,
communicate, and produce or maintain dominance (Card, 1996, p. 7). These strategies are often
well organized and systematic. In the 13th century, Warlord Genghis Khan defined man’s
highest function as ruining enemies through the seizure of possessions and women. Through his
overwhelming power, he demonstrated strategic methods of violence at the expense of millions
of women, and played a large role in establishing structured and strategic policies of rape warfare
(Clifford, 2008, p. 5).
Rape as a strategy of war is also displayed in the 1938 “Kristallnacht” or “Night of
Broken Glass,” where a major case of mob rape was committed against Jewish women. In this
scenario, although Nazis were not technically permitted to rape Jewish women in fears of
contaminating Aryan blood, they marched into Polish and Russian villages, looted homes and

5. singled Jewish girls out for rape. The rapes often occurred in front of their families and the girls
were beaten if they showed resistance (Smith, 2004, p. 139). This type of display is meant to
wound the honor of enemies and display power, as the father figures had to stand by and watch
these atrocities happen to their women. Through these examples, frames of rape, as unavoidable
and as war strategy, unconsciously and intentionally inflict shame and guilt on a society of the
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enemy, with the ultimate goal of power.
Case Description: “Comfort Women” and Sexual Enslavement by the Japanese in WWII
In the case of comfort women during WWII, the historic understanding of rape in
wartime, previously discussed, played a role in the atrocities of rape that occurred, and continue
to do so in the competing narratives that one sees around the subject today. However, first, it is
important to describe the case in order to understand the current state of affairs.
During the WWII era, the normalcy of rape as an unavoidable consequence of war as
well as a strategic weapon was embedded and perpetuated by the dominant ideas of the Japanese
elite. Japanese General Matsui Iwane felt that men who did not have wives or girlfriends needed
prostitutes to aid in the release of frenzied feelings, and while he did not necessarily perceive sex
as a strategic weapon, he felt that instead sex workers might keep soldiers from raping civilians
(Moore, 2010, p. 110). During the period of 1932–1945, the Japanese military went so far as to
turn this opinion and the historical conception of rape into action during WWII. Amnesty
International estimates that between 80,000 to 200,000 women were forcibly conscripted into
sexual slavery by Japanese Imperial Army. These comfort women were primarily from Korea,
but many were also from China, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies (Amnesty
International). Due to the Japanese Army’s actions, structuring rape in war was legitimized

6. domestically as a supposed means to prevent the negatives effects of the soldiers’ circumstantial
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celibacy (Moore, 2010, p. 110).
The term of ‘comfort women’ is derived from this paradigm, as the women were
perceived in society as ‘comforts’ to the men during the traumatic experience of war. This
rhetoric formed an easy association with the idea that these women were prostitutes or
individuals who “voluntarily” chose this experience, and not as sexual slaves. In addition to
viewing the comfort women as objects by which can then be subjugated through sex, the
testimonies of comfort women later revealed the pervasiveness of rape as a weapon used to
establish dominance and wound the honor of Japan’s enemies in the region.
While past atrocities demonstrate that systematic rape in wartime was not a new
occurrence, the Japanese case of comfort women is particularly marked by the extremely
concealed nature of the acts for decades. Given the historical narratives surrounding rape in
wartime, the firsthand experiences of comfort women were silenced—shrouded and forgotten—
by Japanese society as a part of a dark, wartime past. Comfort women also cited their own
silence within community as a product of shame, disgrace, and fear of judgment (Taeyeol Park,
2013) that so often comes with the experience of being raped.
The Start of the Discussion: 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Several significant actors and policies have played a role in the illumination of this
atrocity and the re-shaping of the narrative surrounding the issue, including former comfort
women themselves, civic organizations, national and supranational actors, and non-governmental
organizations. However, the first fundamental shift in re-framing issues of rape in war in general
was seen through supranational efforts post-WWII. This shift took the form of a universal
declaration, created under the leadership of U.S. First Lady and Human Rights Activist Eleanor

7. Roosevelt. In light of the WWII conflict, the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights included 30
articles outlining the rights of every individual and was seen as the first foundational framework
and platform to address the definition of and issues/violations of human rights. The Declaration
was adopted by 47 countries on December 10, 1948, and ratified on December 16, 1949. Articles
1, 3, 4, and 5 particularly address rights that are directly applicable to women’s international
human rights, more specifically to the comfort-women case. The conceptualization of inherent
equality and dignity, right to security of person, freedom from forced servitude or degrading
treatment were ratified in word and the document held the countries who ratified it responsible in
deed. While the articles were not specific to women’s human rights, it certainly served as a
strong precedent for the future and exemplar for the global community to recognize human rights
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issues and take actions.
The Declaration not only created a standard by which to re-shape conceptualizations of
human rights at the governmental level, but mobilized the creation of non-governmental
organizations such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1976); The European
Convention on Human Rights (1953); The American Convention on Human Rights (1978); The
African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (1983). With such support, in the 1980s, Korean
religious and secular human rights groups also began to mobilize around combating the
narratives that specifically existed around comfort women.
“Comfort Women”: From Domestic to Global Exposure
It was not until the 1990s, however, that these atrocities endured by comfort women
began to collectively expose and/or re-shape narratives about rape on a global scale and within
the international community. A pivotal moment occurred on August 14, 1991, when a female

8. Korean atomic bomb victim brought Kim Hak-sun, a 67-year-old, childless widow and former
“comfort woman” in Manchuria, to openly share her story at a convention at the offices of
Korean Church Women United. This woman’s courageous decision created the momentum to
unleash competing dialogue/stories that frames comfort women as women whose human rights
had been violated. An outpouring of angry responses were observed in both Korea and Japan,
and new narratives continued to be exposed domestically. “In a series of public forums in
December 1991 sponsored by the Japanese Women's Network Group, she told audiences in
several Japanese cities her story” (Chai, 1993, p. 79). Domestic and international civic groups
began to act, and their efforts instigated the start of an evolution surrounding this issue. These
change agents and their networks/influence quickly reached the issue to the scale of the United
Nations, who, after raising the issue at the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1992, widely
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discussed and officially condemned Japan in 1996 for sexual slavery in the WWII era
(Washington Coalition Comfort Women Issues).
However, this anger felt by other sects of Japanese and Korean actors, and the long-held
narratives surrounding comfort women persisted their civic efforts as well, and continue on
today. The Japanese Women for Justice and Peace’s President, Yumiko Yamamato, delivered a
speech on behalf of a delegation of Japanese organizations at the Foreign Correspondents Club
of Japan on April 9, 2014, that is exemplary of how little the narrative surrounding comfort
women has changed over time in sects of Japanese society. In the speech, Yamamato uses “a
document,” created by the United States Office of War Information 1944, to make the plea that
comfort women were not “sexual slaves” but rather “were nothing but well paid prostitutes” in
wartime. The evidence of this notion was loosely supported by the document which states that
comfort women were “near luxury...they had plenty of money to purchase desired articles, and

9. they amused themselves by participating in sports...picnics and social dinners” (FCCJchannel,
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2014).
Current Affairs
Japan’s government has been perceived by the international community as generally
resistant to the accusations and resolutions made by the UN and other supranational and civic
organizations. While the Japanese government did create an Asian Women’s Fund that provided
monetary, health, and welfare compensations to elderly comfort women victims from 1995 to
2007, this act has come under international scrutiny for providing moral yet lack of legal
responsibility. The Japanese government’s willingness to publicly confirm the competing
narrative of comfort women’s experiences as atrocities that violate women’s human rights today
is dismal and inconsistent, even despite the 2007 U.S. House of Representative Resolution that
affirmed the Japanese government “should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept
historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces’
coercion of young women into sexual slavery, ” (G.R. No. 162230, 2010) and the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay’s confirmation in August 2014 that Japan
“has failed to pursue a comprehensive, impartial and lasting resolution” to address the rights of
comfort women from the Second World War. The push for the Japanese government to
collectively admit this piece in history and address legal responsibility for those who headed or
participated in the sexual slavery acts has reached a standstill.
These actions said volumes about what was really going on from a communications
perspective—these actions were not just reflective of a battle on legislation or a fight for
compensation, but a war on narrative, and whose narrative prevails. The pervasive understanding

10. of comfort women as prostitutes and rape as an unavoidable consequence of war in Japanese
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society clearly affected the way the Japanese government reacted to the accusations.
In sum, there continues to be a battle on how to properly reconcile this historical issue—
in terms of what the dominant narrative is surrounding the events, the legislation that should be
implemented, and to what extend these measures allow individuals reach a place of peace with
their experiences.
The Role of International Media
It is the role international media plays in this narrative battle that is essential to re-shape
the understanding of this issue as a violation of women’s human rights. International media in all
its forms (broadcast new, print, online, etc.) are essentially structured networks. These networks
are not bound by physical space, rather, they transcend it, with the ability to send messages and
create shared meaning across societies. This is a powerful tool. As Manuel Castell affirms in
‘Communication Power’, “networks perpetuate ideas…distribute stories… inform, influence,
and reshape opinions and narratives (Castells, 2013) giving these networks the power to reach
and shape the perceptions of a wide audience. Since the media coverage of Kim Hak-sun’s story,
the international media has had opportunities to be facilitators of this shift in ideas. In fact,
international media has already been implicated as a vital facilitator by civic groups to reveal
these once shrouded experiences. From January 1992 until today, victims, human rights groups
and other allies, that defend the violations of comfort women’s rights, have staged weekly
Wednesday protests in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. International media outlets such
as the Huffington Post and NBC News covered these protests and gathered stories from the
participants (Brooks, 2013; Lieu, 2014; Williamson, 2013).

11. Hundreds of articles have been published that cover the movement of the debate from
civic organizations to the world stage and the legislation that has come to pass in response to
these new ideas about the comfort women topic and women’s human rights in general. The
public networks connected to media outlets further distributed the rhetoric stemming from these
events to create a new understanding about comfort women, in the form of independent pieces,
blogs and social media. In the Information Age, one sees this movement metaphorically
reverberate off the walls of television studios, and into the homes of people connected to other
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online and offline networks.
The Role of Policymakers
O’Loughlin and Roselle’s scholarship on “Strategic Narratives” demonstrates just how
vital policymakers in conjunction with international media are in changing perspectives on the
comfort women issue, and even further, the historical “story” of systematic rape in wartime as a
whole. Strategic narratives are defined as “a means for political actors to construct a shared
meaning of the past, present, and future…in order to shape the opinions and behavior of actors at
home and overseas” (Miskimmon, O’Loughlin & Roselle, 2012, p. 60). Actors within the
political/policymaking realm have the opportunity to use their position of power to impact the
framing of events and what these events mean to national and international communities in order
to change opinion and act as agents for action. Policymaking groups such as the United Nations,
the U.S. government, and several other political actors have “condemned” the comfort women
issue through the use of policymaking, and international media’s facilitatio n of this to a wide
audience.
But the same is true in Japan, as ones sees, based on the government’s decision to set up
the Asian Women’s Fund in the manner they did, the policies sent a clear message to their

12. domestic and international audience about what their perspective on the “truth” of narrative is
without having to use rhetoric. There are also several media stories in national outlets that
discuss the same ideas that the government’s lack of taking responsibility demonstrates. Given
these competing narratives, international media, and policymakers seem to find it difficult to re-construct
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the narrative in a substantial way.
Recommendations
From a communication perspective, it is crucial and necessary to understand the level of
power international media and national/supranational policymakers have on this battle of the
narrative surrounding comfort women. Especially so, since the current affairs are in a stagnant
state, and higher levels of engagement of these actors can more efficiently shape and re-conceptualize
the comfort-women narrative. “Political leaders have long understood the power
that comes from setting an agenda and determining the framework of a debate”(Nye, 2008, p.
95), yet relative to other human rights issues, the comfort women ordeal has been put aside when
it comes to implementing a true “agenda.” Just as strategic narratives must be told and re-told,
and agendas set and reset, so too, will the new narrative about the violations the Japanese
military have committed. However, without creating an agenda and keeping it on the world
media stage consistently, the strategy becomes ineffective.
Thus in order to be more effective in their efforts and to reach a higher level of
engagement in the issue, it is recommended that political leaders cooperatively collaborate, using
the strength that broadcasting outlets and governmental groups collectively hold, to change what
scholar Joseph Nye would call “soft power” tactics to “hard power” consequences. One way to
do so would be to utilize alliances held by supranational bodies, public-private partnerships, and

13. civic groups to present a unified stance against these violations of women’s human rights to the
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International Criminal Court.
Additionally, in conjunction with changing the political tactics, policymakers must also
define and shape the narrative for international media for clear communication. “Power is
primarily exercised by the construction of meaning in the human mind through processes of
communication” (Castells, 2013, p. 416), therefore, in order gain power and communicate
meaning that is set by policy makers, there needs to be close collaboration and cohesiveness
between these two areas. Disconnected narratives, such as referring to comfort women in some
articles as “sex slaves” while others as “victims” or further “prostitutes,” is not effective in re-shaping
the narrative. International and supranational governments, with the facilitation of
media, must create a fused front when it comes to tackling this issue. Overall, it is recommended
this be done so in words (through narratives) and in deeds (through hard power).
Future Research
There are several other interesting facets of this issue that extend and contribute to the
communications perspective on the comfort women issue. Researchers and scholars must carry
out further studies on the competing narrative of comfort women as prostitutes that has been a
widespread sentiment of certain sects of Japanese society. Particularly, the undertones of the
rhetoric deserve additional investigation into the “identity” of individuals in Japan. Often times,
“resisters” of the narrative of comfort women because this rhetoric “degrades
Japan”(FCCJchannel). In associating the opposing narrative with a form degradation to Japan,
sects of Japanese society that affirm comfort women as well-paid prostitutes also affirm
themselves in their loyalty to upholding the integrity of Japan. Yamamato asserts the people who
disagree with the stories of comfort women, saying “we are not [Japanese] nationalist, but

14. patriots” (FCCJchannel). The concepts of nation and identity are therefore closely linked to the
Japanese historical narrative. How does this change the effectiveness of progressive thought on
the comfort women issue, given identities serve as a core component of shaping experiences and
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perceptions?
Geopolitics is another element of the current state of affairs that affects the narratives and
the subsequent actions taken by stakeholders. The women who endured sexual enslavement by
the Japanese Army were from several different Asian nations. These nations have had a complex
history with one another, which cannot be overlooked when attempting to understand the present
movements in re-shaping the narrative. How does the geographical location, political structure,
cultivation of civic engagement, level of adherence to human rights, and foreign relations affect
how these other nations perceive and communicate about this issue?
Lastly, in projecting a future when the Japanese government apologizes for this part of
their wartime history and actions are made to spread this news to a wider audience, how might
that implicate other cases of the violation of women’s rights through rape in the context of war?
There is a plethora of other examples, if illuminated the way that comfort women have been
highlighted today, might strengthen the power of the overall movement to being exposed on the
international stage to international action.
Conclusion
In all, while the shroud surrounding the atrocious violation of women’s human rights by
the Japanese during the WWII era has been lifted in many ways, the battle for the prevailing
narratives continues. From a communication perspective, supranational action (such as the
Declaration of Human rights or the UN’s condemnation of the Japanese Army), civic action
(such as the creation and advocacy work of women’s human rights groups in the Asia region),

15. and international media’s actions (utilizing their networks to deliver a progressive narrative to a
wider audience), have been vital in creating new sentiments shared by groups around the world,
and delegitimizing the long-held perception of the rape of women as byproducts of war.
However, more needs to be done on this issue from these actors as well as from scholars in
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furthering research.
The brave women who have come forward with their painful and distressing stories
fought the very real narrative being told about their own identities by different societies. These
feats, and the nature of communication as a tool to develop change amongst societies, create a
positive atmosphere for change to happen in the future, and for women to break free from
outdated versions of what rights women have as human beings.

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