Miki Dezaki’s ‘Shusenjo: The Main Battlefield of the Comfort Women Issue’

Miki Dezaki’s ‘Shusenjo: The Main Battlefield of the Comfort Women Issue’ film screening and Q&A with the Director.

One of the most painful and lingering controversies of Japanese imperialist and WWII history is the issue of so-called “comfort women”, the women who were forced into sexual slavery. Within Japan the issue divides the country across clear ideological lines. Supporters and detractors are caught in a relentless battle over empirical evidence, the validity of oral testimony, the number of victims, the meaning of sexual slavery, and the definition of coercive recruitment.

While he was a graduate student at Tokyo’s Sophia University, Japanese-American Miki Dezaki was drawn into this conflict after an online video he posted about racism in Japan drew the attention of Japanese rightists. The outcome was this feature-length documentary (originally, Dezaki’s graduate thesis). The film has drawn wide attention in Japan and South Korea where it has been commercially released, and it has received international recognition for surpassing previous documentary film treatments of this subject in its ‘breadth and detail’.

We are delighted to have Miki Dezaki join us at Essex to introduce his film and answer questions about it following this screening.

All welcome to attend.