Women and War in Modern East Asia : Themes

A poster from the Cultural Revolution Ballet, “Red Detachment of Women”

Part I: Combatants

This theme touches on the questions of how women as agents of war disrupt the standards of what is considered feminine in society.

In this section we looked at cases from China . We learned about women involved in the national revolution in the 1920s and 1930s by reading Xie Bingying's autobiography, A Woman Soldier's Own Story . We also learned about women on the Long March (1934-1935) in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

Part II: The home front

In this part of the course we thought about how the ideals of a society become less or more flexible during war. What role do ideas of defending “home and hearth” play in a wartime society? In this section we looked at cases from China and the example of Song Meiling, Japanese women during the 1930s and 1940s, and Korea , including excerpts from Lousie Yim's autobiography, My Forty Year Fight for Korea (NY: Wym, 1951).

 

 

Part III: Victims

In what ways are women particularly vulnerable in war situations? The modern history of East Asia provides many examples of women as victims. We looked at two issues of women's experiences during WWII in Asia : The Rape of Nanjing and the issue of comfort women.

Part IV: Opponents of war

Do women's roles as mothers “naturally” lead to pacifism for women? In what ways did the wartime experiences shape the pacifist visions of some women in East Asia ? We examined particularly Japanese women's pacifist movements that were born out of the wartime experiences of the Japanese—most notably the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945.

 

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