"Comfort Women" Movement: In Search of Justice

SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 2023 AT 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM CDT

@McCord Auditorium, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

Panels: Jung-Sil Lee, Mindy Kotler, Mike Honda

9:30 AM - 10:00 AM Reception

10:00 AM - 12:30 PM Screening of "I Can Speak" / Discussion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Can_Speak

12:30 PM - 1:00 PM Light Lunch

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Premiere Viewing of "Cry Out! Comfort Women Redress Movement in the US (1992-2022)

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM Panelist Speaks

Jung-Sil Lee, Ph.D. is an art history professor, curator, author, filmmaker, and adjunct Professor at George Washington University, Georgetown University, Maryland Institute College of Art, and University of Maryland. Her research interests span from peacebuilding memorials, ritual practice, feminism, decolonization, and grassroot activism for social justice. She co-chaired for the construction of two such memorials, conferences, and curated “comfort women” themed art exhibitions including “Collateral Damage,” “Unveiling the Truth,” and “Truth: Promise for Peace.” For 15 years, she has served as Vice President, President, and Chairman of the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues, Inc. She co-edited Comfort Women: A Movement for Justice and Women’s Rights in the United States (2020) and published “Unforeseen Controversy: Reconciliation and Re-contextualization of Wartime Atrocities through “Comfort Women” Memorials in the United States” in Teachable Monuments: Using Public Art to Spark Dialogue and Confront Controversy (Bloomsbury, 2021).

https://comfort-women.org

Mindy L. Kotler is founder and director of Asia Policy Point (APP), a membership nonprofit research center in Washington, DC studying the U.S. policy relationship with Japan and Northeast Asia. Her focus is the connection between history and Asian regional security. She writes on the politics and policy implications of Comfort Women, prisoners of war of the Japanese, and historical memory in Asia. She advised Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) in his drafting and defense of the 2007 Comfort Women resolution (H Res 121). She was also part of a team that garnered an apology from the Japanese Government in 2009 to the American POWs of Japan. Ms. Kotler received her M.A. in International Relations from Yale University and her B.A. in Government and History with High Honors in Chinese History from Smith College.

https://www.jiaponline.org

Mike Honda is a Japanese American politician and former educator. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in Congress from 2001 to 2017. Initially involved in education in California, he first became active in politics in 1971, when San Jose mayor Norman Mineta appointed Honda to the city's Planning Commission. After holding other positions, Honda was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 1990, and to the California State Assembly in 1996, where he served until 2001. In November 2003, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Terry McAuliffe appointed Honda as Deputy Chair of the DNC. In February 2005, Honda was elected a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee under the chairmanship of Howard Dean. He championed for 2007 passage of House Resolution 121, “comfort women” resolution and has demanded the official apology, exposure archives, and public education by the Japanese government. Lived through unjust Japanese Internment Camps (Amache internment camp in Colorado).

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4921168/user-clip-mike-honda

https://time.com/.../rep-mike-honda-japanese-internment.../

https://abc7news.com/san-jose-state-university.../12821764/

https://www.foitimes.com/internment/Hondapressrelease.htm