Dear editor:
The name of a specific historical event should deliver a clear description of the incident; particularly in case of atrocities, readers or listeners must be able to indisputably identify victims and perpetrators. From the Greek hólos and kaustós meaning "whole" and "burnt", the name "Holocaust" well demonstrates the gravity of the crime against humanity from the victims' perspective; everyone can thus effortlessly sympathize with its victims and reach consensus on whom to blame and how to deliver justice.
A glossed euphemism at best and gross ambiguity at the worst, the word "comfort" in the phrase "comfort women" remains too misplaced to effectively convey the element of "coercion" central in the devastating agonies of women forced into sexual slavery. To invite clarity, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012 directed her departments and affiliated agencies to adopt the clearer expression "sexual slaves" rather than "comfort women" in all US documents and statements to correctly place unequivocal blame on the Japanese Empire at the time.
Admittedly, calling the victims sex "slaves" may discomfort the public opinion at first; however only such an explicit articulation demonstrates how "comfort" in "comfort women" fails to delineate the lives of tortured souls. The more accurate description further exposes vividly horrific accounts of the victims while unmasking Japan's disguised "sincerity" in endeavoring complete, verifiable, and irreversible atonement. Before a due apology as well as compensation as a series of efforts to serve the overdue justice, the victims of sexual slavery deserve an uncorrupted recognition of their anguish.
The name of a specific historical event should deliver a clear description of the incident; particularly in case of atrocities, readers or listeners must be able to indisputably identify victims and perpetrators. From the Greek hólos and kaustós meaning "whole" and "burnt", the name "Holocaust" well demonstrates the gravity of the crime against humanity from the victims' perspective; everyone can thus effortlessly sympathize with its victims and reach consensus on whom to blame and how to deliver justice.
A glossed euphemism at best and gross ambiguity at the worst, the word "comfort" in the phrase "comfort women" remains too misplaced to effectively convey the element of "coercion" central in the devastating agonies of women forced into sexual slavery. To invite clarity, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012 directed her departments and affiliated agencies to adopt the clearer expression "sexual slaves" rather than "comfort women" in all US documents and statements to correctly place unequivocal blame on the Japanese Empire at the time.
Admittedly, calling the victims sex "slaves" may discomfort the public opinion at first; however only such an explicit articulation demonstrates how "comfort" in "comfort women" fails to delineate the lives of tortured souls. The more accurate description further exposes vividly horrific accounts of the victims while unmasking Japan's disguised "sincerity" in endeavoring complete, verifiable, and irreversible atonement. Before a due apology as well as compensation as a series of efforts to serve the overdue justice, the victims of sexual slavery deserve an uncorrupted recognition of their anguish.
Choi Si-young
Founding editor-in-chief of Yonsei European Studies, Yonsei University
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