日本過去三十年「慰安婦」問題研究回顧

A Review of Issues in Japan’s Studies on“Comfort Women”in the Past 30 Years

1990年代初，日本軍事性奴隸「慰安婦」制度問題浮上檯面，到現在已經過了三十多年。1990年代，相關歷史研究開始著手進行，此問題漸漸地進入公共輿論的視野，但「亞洲女性和平國民基金」（Asian Women’s Fund）登場後導致受害者之間的分裂，問題因此更形複雜。及至2000年，在公民運動努力下，「審判日本軍性奴隸制度的女性國際戰犯法庭」得以成功舉辦，而在2000年以降，「慰安婦」問題的相關研究也開始引入比較史、男性研究等新的視角。到了2010年代，歷史否定主義者的反彈越來越強勁，但相關研究也在爭議當中被進一步改造，在廣度和深度上都有所提升。除了歷史研究之外，「慰安婦」問題的相關研究，亦與性別、社會運動、文化研究、國際法和國際關係等各種領域的課題交織，使得其內涵越來越多樣化。本文整理過去三十年間日本學界的「慰安婦」問題研究趨勢，並探討其中三個爭論點：一、強迫性，二、民族主義，三、受害者的主體性。這三個爭論點在討論台灣「慰安婦」問題時當然也很關鍵。最後，本文析論2021年初「慰安婦」問題的最新進展，並強調2014年第12屆「日軍『慰安婦』問題亞洲團結會議」當中通過的「以受害者為中心」原則，試圖重新申論其重要性。

It has been 30 years since the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery, i.e.“comfort women”, surfaced in the early 1990s, and the issue has gradually entered the realm of public discussion. Since then, historical studies have also been conducted. However, the initiation of the Asian Women’s Fund has led to divisions among victims and further complications. The efforts of civil organizations succeeded in convening the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery in 2000, and new perspectives such as those of comparative history and male studies were introduced into the field of comfort women studies. In the 2010s, denialist backlash has grown stronger, but new research has also been forged by the controversy, increasing the discussion in both breadth and depth. The study of“comfort women”has become diverse, intersecting with various fields such as gender studies, social movement studies, and cultural studies, as well as international law and international relations. This article sketches the trends in Japanese research on the comfort women issue over the past 30 years and introduces some of the representative results and three of the dimensions of argument: (1) the coercion of the comfort women system, (2) nationalism and the comfort women issue, and (3) the subjectivity of the victims of the comfort women system. These three arguments are also crucial in the discussion of the comfort women issue in Taiwan. Finally, this article reports on the latest comfort women issues in early 2021 and emphasizes the importance of the proposal passed by the 12th Asian Solidarity Conference on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery in 2014, that the principle of a“victim-centered”perspective is imperative.