Reactive Nationalism and its Effect on South Korea's Public Policy and Foreign Affairs

Abstract

In 2013 Sejong University Professor Park Yu-ha published a widely criticized book titled “Comfort Women of the Empire.” In her thesis, Park calls for a more complex and nuanced understanding of Korean involvement in the recruitment of comfort women and their varied experiences that challenges the prevailing victim's narrative about this system operated by the Japanese military in the 1930s and 1940s (Park 2013). Leaving aside judgments as to the accuracy, or not, of Park's research and assertions, the response was highly predictable, with massive grassroots and national-level condemnation quickly emerging given its direct challenge to the generally accepted conventional wisdom in South Korea regarding Japan's colonial and war-time transgressions. Widespread, vocal disapproval was followed by a court order to pay 10 million won (roughly $8,262) to each of the remaining survivors for defamation of character (Choe 2016).