Wendy Li, Period 6, 5/3/23

Wendy Li

Period 6

4/30/23

Modern Mythology 2023

Literature Circle- A Thousand Ships

While reading “A Thousand Ships” by Natalie Haynes, one of the characters, Briseis, reminded me of Comfort Women in Japan. In the novel, Briseis is a Trojan princess who becomes Achilles’s prize after he kills her husband and brothers. In fact, Achilles specially chooses her because of her “honey” colored hair. The following sentence reads “And now, she belonged to him, and there was nothing either of them could do”. In other words, Briseis is viewed as an object that is traded or owned in this patriarchal society. As the novel progresses, she suffers abuse from the men around her, vulgar comments from the soldiers, and multiple attempts of assault. 

Similarly, between 1932-1945, young girls aged 14-18 from Korea and China were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army. The purpose of recruiting young girls was kept a secret as military officials told their families that they were needed to work in factories to produce uniforms. In reality, the girls were treated as objects and used by the soldiers to relieve their stress from the ongoing World War II. Many of them would work from 8 am to 5 pm for years, where older soldiers would form a line outside the room. If they resisted, the girls were often beaten, starved, or abused until they complied. As a result around 75% of the girls were estimated to have died and the remaining survivors continue to suffer from PTSD from the extreme trauma and other health-related issues. To this day, the Japanese government refuses to confront this issue, instead, relying on money to try and silence the victims.

Although both issues differ in the level of intensity, the common issue of human trafficking stands. Many of these ideas are carried over from the traditional patriarchal ideal where men were expected to be the head of the household, while women were viewed as a vessel for childbirth. As time passes, society has evolved further away from these gender roles, yet being able to face those past mistakes is just as important as any other change. 

Sources:

1. "Life As A “Comfort Woman”: Story of Kim Bok-Dong| STAY CURIOUS #9." YouTube, uploaded by AsianBoss, 27 Oct. 2018, youtu.be/qsT97ax_Xb0.

2. "Psychiatric Squelae of Former “Comfort Women,” Survivors of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery during World War II." National Library of Medicine, 18 Apr. 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5912496/.