by John Suter

Disruption

A young Asian woman onstage at a local high school play stands with long jet black hair that gently moves with the air.  She could be Korean.  She is good at her role, engaged with the music and with the moment.  She is fortunate.  K-Girl seems such a contrast from the lives of Comfort Women, those Korean young women who might have looked and acted just like this student.  But Comfort Women lived during a time of war.  They lost much of their lives under brutal treatment, required to provide sex and comfort for Japanese soldiers on the war front.  

Recent articles by historians argue over whether or not the Comfort Women gave themselves voluntarily or were forced into a kind of slavery.  Whether or not they signed a contract may be a point of argument, but legalism falls short and cannot cover the extent of experiences that comfort women may have had.  It does not describe an imagined last kiss to a young soldier who, on the following morning, fought bravely until his body was riddled with bullets.  He too was conscripted and forced to fight.  

History cannot always find an answer.  The Old Testament provides a story of two women brought to King Solomon, each claiming to be the mother of a newborn.  Solomon came up with a plan that would force the women to make a decision, a quick decision, and thereby he could know what was in their hearts. Their decision would tell him who would make the best mother.  But neither he nor we will ever know the biological mother.  A similar situation in today’s courts would find each woman with a lawyer who does all the talking.  The question at hand would be resolved with a simple DNA test, yet we would still be unskilled at reading the heart.  

Abuse and selling of children into slavery has been around a long time.   We know another story from the Old Testament, the story of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers.   Stories and songs make up a culture with spoken or unspoken expectations. The stories themselves may or may not be true, but they may convey some truth about a hidden personal strength or about the necessity of making connections.  Such a truth is found in a song by Peter, Paul, and Mary who sang about a young woman dressed like a man so she could follow her lover to battle.  

History

One recent article on the Comfort Women controversy brings in many names of other apparently well-known historians who may themselves have doubts about the authority of any writer who disputes previously established facts.  The article does not discuss the history of Japan and Korea leading up to WWII. A brief look at online sources such as Wikipedia reference the control of Korea by Japan for 35 years prior to WWII and previous control by China.  Korea was, fortunately or unfortunately, a passageway for both trade and fighting between Japan and China.  This history may have some bearing on the attitude of Japanese toward the Koreans, treating them as if they were property.   

In cultures that revere parents, it may also be true that fewer questions were asked.  Deals may have been made under the table by parents who needed the money.  So the issue of contracts v. no contracts for indentured servitude does not clear everything up.  It may be expecting too much to say that the cultural story and history of indentured servitude with abuse of women would have no bearing on the situation during the following period of WWII.

The extent of the #MeToo movement should not have been a surprise had we been paying attention.  Women do have power if they act together however.  Women could have ended our involvement in Vietnam if they gave their boyfriends and husbands an ultimatum: “if you leave to fight, I will not be here when you return.” One can imagine this leading to beatings or worse, but it would have ended the war.    

Privilege of the elites has kept them away from the battlefield.   It is privilege and the power of the sword that leads to treatment of those below them as commodities and women as property.  Hubris, pride, lack of information, lack of imagination, fear. These tend towards moral paralysis and war.  When the Pentagon Papers first became known to top advisors they should have resigned, at the very least.  But they all seemed to be waiting in the wings, waiting to be tapped for some higher position. 

Justice

Justice is not enough.  Black Lives Matter should ask for more.  They should ask for more leadership training, even with the leadership skills that already exist.  They should ask for better schools.  They should ask for drug treatment and ways to deal with crime in their neighborhoods. Local people must take the lead in finding ways to get it done and not depend only on the police. 

With social media one can never lose, but never win either.  So it is a tool, but by itself social media will not solve problems.  Many good people join the online virtual battle to get justice for Comfort Women, but they remain unconnected to the real world and limited in power.  They will give up power to people who can organize and create divisions of labor to get things done. 

Sensitivity training is good.  Boys need to learn how to treat women with respect.  Girls, on the other hand, may need toughness training.  Shahid Buttar, the only democrat in many years to seriously challenge Pelosi for her seat in Congress, was accused of sexism.  So Cancel Culture came out of the woodwork on social media to kill his chances of succeeding – ever.  Was his accuser planted by the opposition?  We may never know, but if so, it was a judo maneuver by the Pelosi campaign, using the power available to those on the Left to turn and defeat themselves.   As a practical matter, if women are to be leaders, they must learn how to keep eye contact with anyone long enough to read faces and emotions but yet be tough enough to deflect and discourage unwanted behavior.  This is toughness training. 

Pain

In the case of Comfort Women, their case may be heard by an international tribunal who may find their story to be correct.  But a court decision cannot give meaning and purpose to one’s life.  When it is all over, the lawyers and their supporters will leave, and in the morning the comfort women will still remember the pain.  What gives meaning to this pain? 

One can use pain as a source of energy to work with others on outside issues to give meaning and purpose. One might suggest two outside issues for these comfort women to work on, though they cannot do it alone.  The first of these is human trafficking, a current and ongoing problem.  Human trafficking is something that is happening today, not 75 years ago.  The goal would be to find out where and how trafficking happens, put a foot in the door, and make it stop.

The other issue is the reduction of nuclear weapons to zero.  With more countries developing weapons, the chance of thermonuclear war approaches certainty.  According to Henry Kissinger, everything becomes unpredictable after the first weapon is dropped.   Then no one will care about women or children anymore.  

This seems like David against Goliath, but if citizens don’t take the lead, who will?  Not politicians.  Not people in the military.  Probably not most religious leaders or people in the media, for reasons stated above.   

Joining with others to make progress on some issue can help to lessen the pain. Korean women could work with Japanese women on nuclear disarmament, something with which the Japanese are well acquainted.  It should be some outside issue not too close to one’s own suffering.  It is also how lasting change comes about.   And it can use non-violence.  Non-violent methods bring change that can last longer than military solutions.  Comfort women would know that. 

Even if we believe that we cannot force an opponent to dismantle, it is still possible for our side to get rid of all our nuclear missiles.  This may be the only way to end the nuclear arms race.  And we must go to zero.  If one believes that decreasing from 10K missiles to 5K missiles is progress, one does not understand the power of each missile.  Only a handful of missiles can end modern civilization as we know it.  One can argue that the role of the military is to hold the background stable while we citizens solve problems.  The purpose of the military then should not be to destroy human life on earth like a body’s immune system run amuck.  

Process

Why even consider the efforts of the seemingly powerless and victimized?  Why consider non-violent methods?  Courts don’t understand non-violence as a source of power since the courts themselves depend on force.  This is what maintains the current social hierarchy.  Force pervades any top-down organization that uses courts and contracts as the primary way to hold people accountable.  Our monetary system requires force of arms to maintain the integrity of the money supply and prevent counterfeit money.  So force is not all bad, right?  Yet the same social dynamics is what drives us to create nuclear weapons. By itself, force of arms will not get us to the next level.   

Hierarchies that depend primarily on force have difficulty finding and moving useful information, especially moving up to the next level up or giving feedback to the boss. 

It was no surprise that Donald Trump had nothing good to say about Greta Thunberg.  It was a surprise however, that she had already been in the news for many months before he was ever aware of her.   Obviously there was no discussion of Greta by his circle of advisors in the White House.  This is how dictators fall.  Those who are close and afraid to speak up make their leader ignorant, a cycle maintained by a social hierarchy based on the force of arms.  

Social Hierarchies create layers of power and layers of resistance to the movement of useful information and ideas.   It can be difficult to get information up the ladder.  The current pandemic is just one example.  We got off to a very slow start because of resistance to the movement of useful information.  With Ebola too, we were months behind before the US decided to help fight the spread.  This makes one wonder not only whatleaders talk about, but howthey talk.  What processes do they use to find and move useful information?  

Even media companies follow the bias of the owner.  This bias is easy for outsiders to see but obscure to those within.  A chilling effect can come from the outside due to threats, or from various social dynamics inside the organization.  It will continue if people at or near the top are not aware of what is happening.  They must create neutral pathways or a process to find better information.   Of course we want to find people who will speak truth to power, but real truth can only be seen in retrospect.  We are all playing a guessing game when we look at what tomorrow will bring.  

For Comfort Women we can provide opportunity and have expectations.  They cannot do it alone. But they are not alone.  Finding the right process will give us an opportunity to find new ideas from unexpected people in unexpected places.  We must know how to look.  It is not simply a matter of listening but rather doing, pushing a bit, and anticipation.