This study explores the temporalities of the representation of the postmemory generation on "comfort women". "Comfort women" is the euphemistic term to refer victims from all over the Asia and the Netherlands who were forced to do sexual service for soldiers and civilians attached to the military in a battlefield, occupied territory and an army post from the first Shanghai Incident in 1932 to the defeat of Japan in 1945. After coming out of Kim, Hak Soon who was former "comfort women" in 1991 in Korea, it has become "transnational memory" such as Holocaust and Hiroshima. It means that the memory regarding these tragedies does not anymore limit to those who perpetrated or endured directly but belong to all who lived the world after the war.
Visual representation has been one of the most influential media to make this issue as transnational memory. In the 1990s and 2000s, it was documentary films based on victims' oral statement that did a vital role to make this issue global. In the 2010s, visual representation on "comfort women" has become diversified. Several feature films were made, and documentary film focused on the current political situation surrounding the issue rather than victims' experience was produced.
This study analysed the chronopolitics of two films among recently made ones. One is a feature film titled I Can Speak (2017, Korea, Director: Kim, Hyun-Suk) and the other is a documentary titled The Main Battleground (2018, USA, Japan and Korea, Director: Miki Dezaki). Both of two films intriguingly dealt with the entanglement of colonialism and Cold-War regime over "comfort women" issue from the viewpoint of the generation who had not experienced sexual exploration during the war. The Cold-War regime still influences East Asia, unlike Europe, and it is the main reason why reconciliation over the past is still impossible in this region. This study will show how multiple layered temporalities that have formed current "comfort women" issue are pictured and what implies regarding the chronopolitics in the representation of post-memory on "comfort women."
