Mémoire
| Résumé : | The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the question of the conflicting historical memories of the State of Japan and South Korea regarding the comfort women issue, in order to seize the impact this has on their current foreign political relationship. The article accomplishes this using a constructivist approach and the data analysis method of content/discourse analysis. The paper mobilizes previous academic research by Berger, Kimura, as well as Chun and Choi to define the concepts of historical memory, collective memory, gain understanding of the ways in which the question has been approach before, present the reasons for the emergence of the comfort women as an issue and justifications for the failure of Japanese – South Korean cooperation on this topic. The dissertation comes to the conclusion that the main criticisms emanating from South Korea concerning the 2015 comfort women agreement regard the fact that Japan does not involve the victims in its negotiations, refuses to take legal responsibility for its past actions, continues to let administration officials make statements that contradict its apologies, and refuses to offer individual reparations. |
