Emily Jungmin Yoon is the author of A Cruelty Special to Our Species, published in 2018. The collection of poems confronts the histories of sexual violence against women, focusing in particular on Korean so-called “comfort women,” women who were forced into sexual labor in Japanese-occupied territories during World War II. Moving readers through time, space, and different cultures, and bringing vivid life to the testimonies and confessions of the victims, Yoon takes possession of a painful and shameful history even while unearthing moments of rare beauty in acts of resistance and resilience, and in the instinct to survive and bear witness.
Your collection of poems, A Cruelty Special to Our Species, highlights the stories of Korean “comfort women” forced into Japanese sexual labor. How did you become interested in this dark part of history, and what inspired you to write a book focused on it?
This book was born out of my MFA thesis at NYU. As a student at the time, I wanted to gain a deeper knowledge about historical events that shaped contemporary Korean cultural memory and identity. I was also surprised that most people that I met in the US did not know about the "comfort women" history, or much about the history of US military intervention in Asia in the first place. So it made me think about the stories that are important to me, and what I can do to extend the lives of those stories. I did not set out to write a book that specifically focused on "comfort women," but I did want to consider the role of gender in historical narrativizations and experiences. When I looked at the books I checked out from the library, though, a lot of them were about the "comfort women"; I supposed I found myself drawn to this history.
Can you share insights into your research process for the book? What sources did you consult, and what challenges did you encounter?
The research was basically reading a lot of testimonies and history monographs about the "comfort women." If I were a more experienced writer who had specifically set out to write a book on a certain group of people, I might have explored interview opportunities or trips to archives. But frankly I did not know how to go about any of that. It is emotionally challenging to encounter these harrowing narratives, but I also wanted to remain sensitive and affected by the stories. I did not want to become desensitized from repeated exposure. So it was important to step away to reflect, while also continuing to read and learn.
Can you discuss the significance of the title A Cruelty Special to our Species, and how it reflects the themes present in your collection?
The title actually comes from a line in my poem called "Bell Theory," which is not about "comfort women" but weaves colonial Korean history with my personal experiences as a Korean immigrant girl in Canada. I thought "a cruelty special to our species" is fitting for the whole collection, though, because it broadly speaks to the brutalities that we as humans enact.
Your poems often bear witness to the experiences of marginalized individuals, including survivors of sexual violence. How do you see poetry as a means of amplifying these voices and fostering empathy?
I do think that writing and sharing poetry is one way of saying that we are not alone. There is power in reading something and thinking, This is exactly how I feel too, thousands of years later, thousands of miles away from this author. I also appreciate that poetry is an exercise in agency and precision in telling our truth. A poem is usually a relatively short text, of distilled language that illuminates and centers emotion rather than "plot," or well-contextualized explanation of events. This means every line in a poem is intentionally and carefully placed; a poem demands one to slow down, absorb every line, and pay careful attention to how the language feels, what the poem is saying.
Since the book came out in 2018, what progress or movement have you seen regarding representation and scholarship of “comfort women?”
I think there are diverse efforts to shed light on the history of "comfort women." Scholars, for instance those at Sungkonghoe University's Institute for East Asian Studies, continue to excavate archival materials and share research findings in publications. Grass, a graphic novel by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim based on the testimony of former "comfort woman" Yi Ok-seon, was translated into English and published in 2019 (it won the Harvey Award for best international comic book the following year). Traffic in Asian Women, a scholarly monograph by Laura Hyun Yi Kang, examines the Japanese military "comfort system" and was published in 2020. Novelist Kim Soom wrote a number of novels based on the testimony of former "comfort woman" Kim Bok-dong.
How does the history of “comfort women” impact the rest of the world? Why is it important that these stories are told?
The history of the "comfort women" is not "just" relevant to Korea and Japan but to the world in that the "comfort system" was created through the logic and forces of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, and militarism that extend and circulate beyond the context of those two countries or even the countries directly involved in World War II. We must acknowledge and remind ourselves that all the histories of military occupation and oppression are connected, and all of them matter to all of us.
Thank you so much!
Learn more about Emily Jungmin Yoon's works here.