New Genres, New Audiences: Retelling the Story of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery

Abstract

With the remaining survivors of the WWII-era “comfort system” aging and increasingly unable to tell their own stories, how can their histories and campaigns for justice be kept alive and remain urgent, especially for younger audiences of English speakers, such as university students? Asian and American women writers, in particular, have been using new ways of reaching those readers. They have turned to genres such as futuristic speculative fiction, illustrated/graphic narratives, and experimental forms of poetry to do so. This essay surveys a small sampling of texts that are currently being incorporated successfully into classroom teaching. It ends by suggesting that instructors further a sense of engagement by encouraging students to produce creative works of their own, while modeling how to do that, and includes as examples three poems by the author.