1st Edition
The Politics of Trauma and Integrity Stories of Japanese "Comfort Women"
Prologue
1. Introduction: Trauma and Recovery
2. Conspiracy of Silence in the Post-War Japan
3. Kikumaru: Between Voice and Silence
4. Shirota Suzuko: The Victim-Survivor-Activist
5. The State-Licensed Prostitute as a Dutiful Daughter
6. "Comfort Women" as a Gendered National Subject
7. Epilogue
Appendix: Brief Life Stories of Some Japanese "Comfort Women"
Biography
Sachiyo Tsukamoto is Honorary Associate Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is also a volunteer Associate Researcher for the Asia- Pacifi c Peace Museum of ALPHA Education (Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia) based in Toronto, Canada.
Joint Winner of the Carole Pateman Gender and Politics Book Prize 2023
https://auspsa.org.au/prizes-and-awards/carole-pateman-gender-and-politics-book-prize/
“Sachiyo Tsukamoto’s The Politics of Trauma and Integrity contributes to a broad understanding of the state and its gendered subject dynamics by critically engaging with the interplay of narrative, memory and identity… The book introduces the reader to multiple sides of debates along with theoretical and empirical evidence collected from primary sources such as interviews, autobiographies and diaries… In this light, this book significantly contributes to the memory and trauma scholarship in international history and politics.”
Kanchan Panday, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, writing in Memory Studies, 16.4, 2023 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17506980231176043c
“Sachiyo Tsukamoto’s book The Politics of Trauma and Integrity: Stories of Japanese ‘Comfort Women’ makes a significant contribution to the historiography of ‘comfort women,’ particularly concerning the experiences of Japanese victims/survivors. … Tsukamoto adopts Judith Lewis Herman’s model to analyze different stages of recovering from trauma, as seen in the stories of the two Japanese victims/survivors she primarily focuses on: Yamauchi Keiko (also known as Kikumaru, her geishaname) and Shirota Suzuko. … Tsukamoto delves into Shirota Suzuko’s postwar activism and how she regained agency by becoming the author of her story, thus asserting her own identity. … The epilogue includes a final reflection on the two victims/survivors’ experiences, in connection with the notion of human integrity and our individual responsibility as members of a society that is today more interconnected than ever.”
Agnese Dionisio, Waseda University, GSICCS, writing in the Journal of Cotemporary History, 60.1, 2025 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/00220094241307428b
