Essay Questions

Akiko is an epitome of the suffering, trauma, and depression that the comfort women suffer at the hands of the soldiers during the second world war. Illustrate the truthfulness of this statement based on Nora Okjer Keller’s “Comfort Women.”

Keller’s “Comfort Women” is a novel that draws its title from the works of most of the women characters during the second world war. The novel follows the life of the female character Akiko in a series of flashbacks in which Akiko presents her life to the reader and Beccah, her daughter. While on her deathbed, Akiko presents the story of her life, employing her perspective. As a child in Korea, Akiko was sold off by her sister to the soldiers by her sister, who needed the money for her dowry as a comfort woman. In other words, she was sold to provide sexual relief to the soldiers despite being only a child at the time.

At the camp, Akiko sets off by first cleaning the stalls of the other prostitutes until one night, one of the women sexual slaves rebels. After the rebellion, her stall remains vacant and, as such, requires a substitute. Akiko is thus forced into sexual slavery as the male soldiers line up at her stall for sexual relief. Akiko is humiliated and suffers as a result of her maltreatment at the camps. She is robbed of her own autonomy and personal identity. Her name is changed to Akiko 41, the name of the stall in which she operates. The novel points out how women are treated as objects for the soldier’s sexual fulfillment. In a way, it forms Keller’s way of criticizing the sexual objectification of women in contemporary societies.

Spiritualism plays a vital and pivotal role in Akiko’s life as an outlet for the trauma and depression that she had suffered earlier on at the hands of the soldiers during world war two. Illustrate based on Keller’s “Comfort Women.”

Having suffered extremely at the hands of the soldiers in world war two, Akiko is depressed and traumatized by her mistreatment at the camps. The soldiers there objectify the women who are bought regardless of whether or not they are willing to work as sex slaves. Additionally, Akiko has psychic powers that cause her to lose herself more often than not in trances and weird dances. In the novel, Beccah is presented as being resentful of her mother particularly due to her emotional unavailability.

Akiko, in order to cope with her apparent trauma, lack of personal identity, and lack of value as a result of her earlier life resorts to spiritualism, something that she finds peaceful and relaxing. Akiko takes on a job at Auntie Reno’s shop as a psychic and medium. She performs seances as well as trances for her customers, finding comfort in her work moving on with the belief that her earlier suffering and traumatic experiences played a crucial role in her understanding of the world of spirits.