Korean Diaspora Literature) Chunja’s Nanjing

About the book

Chunja’s Nanjing is the first novel about “comfort women” of the Japanese military in Korean-Chinese literature as well as in Chinese literature.

The novel follows Jonghyeok, a Korean-Chinese student and the grandson of the former “comfort woman” Chunja, in his travels with his Japanese girlfriend Haruko to Yanbian, Heilongjiang, Nanjing, Matsuyama, and Tokyo. As the story unfolds, the personal and historical aspects of the yet-to-beresolved issue of Japanese military sex slaves come to the fore, revealing the conflicts, discord, and changing historical consciousness of Korean-Chinese, Chinese, and Japanese over three generations.

Chunja’s Nanjing is a literary masterpiece that artistically presents the possibilities of a new peace and development in East Asia while testifying about the poignant history of the victims of Japanese military’s sexual war crimes.

Table of Contents

Part I

Botchan Karakuri Clock

A Testimony in Spring

A Tragedy in Deer Valley

Flower Grave

A Hymn on a Moonlit Night

Part II

Into the Tunnel

Factory Girl Recruitment

Khaki-Colored Terror

A Party in Hell

The Fiery Lake of Burning Sulfur

A Pipe That Couldn’t Be Played

Blood Rain

Part III

Haruko’s Nanjing

Cats Cry for Spring

Monochrome Memories

A Sturdy Pipe

Our Time

Endnotes

Publisher book reviews

How would you feel if you found out that your grandmother is a surviving “comfort woman”? When Jonghyeok, a Korean-Chinese student studying in Japan, falls in love with a Japanese girl named Haruko, he decides to introduce her to his grandmother, Chunja. Yet, upon his arrival at the small village in Yanbian, China, he finds his grandmother surrounded by reporters. He learns that she used to be a “comfort woman” who had been forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II. Through Chunja’s retelling of her past experiences, Chunja’s Nanjing delineates violent historical injustices perpetrated by Japan against Koreans and Chinese in the border region of Gando (Jiandao) and in Nanjing.

Yet, rather than simply dwelling on the tragic past, the book brings the issue of “comfort women” to the present through Jonghyeok and Haruko-the grandson of a Korean comfort woman and the granddaughter of a Japanese soldier who served in China during the war. It is through these two young people that the author offers a glimpse of hope for reflection and reconciliation as they come to understand each other’s pain and search for a way to move forward.

Chunja’s Nanjing is an artistic journey that takes the readers through a powerful testimony about the appalling treatment of Korean “comfort women” during the war and the possibility of a new peace and resolution in Northeast Asia.