To date, the Japanese government persistently tries to deny the criminal nature of the WWII "comfort stations", in which tenthousands of women were sexually enslaved to strengthen "the body and spirit of the Japanese soldier". Observing this from Germany, I am struck by the question: Why does Japan mobilize so much resources and energy to obliterate the historical reality? As a matter of fact, the German case also suggests that there is a particularity to acknowledging sexual crimes and dealing with its consequences. While present-day Germany is willing to acknowledge the German role in WWII and the Holocaust, sexual violence is remarkably and persistently absent from such discourses.

In my lecture, I want to explore both cases and discuss a similarity, namely that in both countries this form of violence seems to be treated in particular ways, which differ from the treatment of other forms of violence. Why is this the case? And what does it mean?

Nähere Informationen: http://www.geas.fu-berlin.de/events/lectures/muehlhauser_18.html