경상남도 일본군‘위안부’ 역사관 건립과 제도적 부인 — 인권 기반 접근

초록

Gyeongsangnam-do, a leading region for victim support and memorial projects, promoted the establishment of a public history museum on the Japanese military’s use of ‘Comfort Women’. However, the project was thwarted in 2023 after the provincial government made the unilateral decision to suspend the project. This study analyzes how the politics of denial surrounding the ‘Comfort Women’ issue operated at an institutional level to block the establishment of the Gyeongsangnam-do Public History Museum. To this end, the paper performs the following tasks. First, it illuminates the significance of memory spaces constructed through solidarity between victims, activists, and civil society from a human rights perspective. Second, it examines the operational modes of academic denial and institutional denial surrounding the ‘Comfort Women’ issue within the context of the politics of denial. This analysis reveals the specific aspects of institutional denial that emerged during the museum’s development process, including the distortion of research results, lack of expertise, and disregard for the public-private consultative body. The paper points out that this led to institutional injustice, infringing upon the right of the ‘Comfort Women’ and citizens to truth and the symbolic reparations. Third, based on these considerations, this paper proposes that the museum be established as a regionally-based human rights memorial, and suggests that the required ordinances and institutional mechanisms should be enacted as soon as possible.

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