Journal of the Korean Geographical Society ISSN:1225-6633(Print) 대한지리학회지

This study examines how the statue of comfort women in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul contributes to forming a public discourse with its symbolic and affective characteristics. Since the independence in 1945, former comfort women have gone through traumatic experiences as well as the periods of sexual slavery during World War II. Even though they were set free from sexual abuses since World War II, family members and neighbors of former comfort women have had critical views on their experiences within comfort stations. This indicates that numerous people in Korea have considered former comfort women as violators of virginity rather than victims of sexual crimes committed by the Japanese army and government. Taking account of this vulnerable condition for human rights of comfort women, this study focuses on symbolic strengths of the statue of comfort women, which have played an important role in reversing negative views about sexual crime victims and forging collective affection for former comfort women. In analyzing the landscape of memory in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, we can be aware of how counter-memory of marginal groups can be represented within urban space despite the sociocultural vulnerability and utilized for conducting place-based politics of victims of war crimes.