Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the initial development and evolution of histories concerning the “forced recruitment” and “forced labor” of Koreans. It considers the marginality of Korean hibakusha in Japanese-language historical writings. The book also examines works concerning women subjected to enforced military prostitution—the so-called “comfort women.” It focuses on a group of narratives from the decade of the 1970s and then examines the ways in which they use earlier works dating to the period during and immediately after the Allied Occupation of Japan. The book shows that the issue has had a prominent place in Japanese public discourse throughout the post-war period, although it has been framed in different ways compared to better-known and more widespread writings published since 1991 on the subject.