Chinese comfort women: silencing, voices and resistance of subaltern bodies (1931-1945)

• Grant number: 24/23925-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Rozely Menezes Vigas Oliveira
• Grantee: Isabella Padula
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present scientific initiation project aims to explore, through the boundaries between silence and the testimonies of comfort women, the system of domination over women's bodies. The system of comfort was implemented by Japanese imperialism from 1931 to 1945 and was exacerbated by Japan's involvement in World War II. This study will focus on twelve accounts of these women, personally interviewed by researchers Su Zhiliang and Chen Lifei, whose testimonies were published in the book "Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves." This book is considered the first specific study of Chinese comfort women in English, and, like the present research, aims to internationalize the discussion surrounding the comfort system, which enslaved and tortured thousands of women and has yet to be recognized as a war crime. Thus, this research also seeks to reclaim the voices of these Chinese women and deepen understanding of the topic through the narratives of the women themselves, who are not only victims but also witnesses and subjects of subjugation.