The mass abuse of women always seems to follow in the wake of war. During World War II, the government of Imperial Japan was involved in the management of so-called ‘comfort stations’, or brothels for Japanese soldiers. Historians estimate that between 50,000 and 200,000 woman and girls from various countries were kidnapped, coerced, or…
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While researching for my earlier piece on rape during wartime, I kept coming across the Japanese military use of “comfort women” during the mid-20th century through World War II. I had never heard about this before, which prompted me to read further. Comfort women, or “ianfu,” a euphemism for “shofu,” meaning prostitute, were women and…
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In Falling Snow is an intergenerational story of love, family, and the struggle between dreams and reality. Alternating between WWI and the late 1970s, the novel traces the lives of two women as they balance work in the medical profession with societal obligations. Iris has travelled from Australia to war-ravaged France to bring her underage…
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In Year 12, my English teacher set Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader as one of our texts. The Reader is set after World War II and a major part of the novel is a trial of an SS officer who is being tried for war crimes. Schlink is a crafty writer. He neither wanted to condemn…
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The Harbour is an emotive historical epic which sees an unconventional Western couple surviving the brutality of Japan’s World War II invasion of Hong Kong. Stevie is a Brooklyn writer who takes pleasure in disarming people with provocative statements. She throws off gender norms impressed by traditional society, and is sensual, determined and proud. She…
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Barbara Demick tells the stories of those locked in to an unyielding series of bombings and sniper attacks in Besieged. I first became aware of Demick’s work through reading her award-winning Nothing to Envy. She provided an amazing and rare insight into the lives of North Koreans. I was excited to learn of her new…
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Darwin is probably my favourite place in the world. My parents took my brother and me there on long trips when we were younger and, to me, there’s always been something magical about the Top End. Despite this, my knowledge of how Darwin, and other places north of Australia, were affected during World War II…
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Coriolanus is a modern adaptation of a little-known, Shakespeare play. Like Baz Luhrmann’s take on The Bard’s Romeo & Juliet, here the viewer is offered a Shakespearian tragedy with old English dialogue and a modern setting thanks to little twists like news stories on TV and modern warfare raging against the ancient politics underpinning the story. Caius Martius…
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To call Denise Leith’s What Remains a book of fiction wouldn’t be quite right but it isn’t non-fiction either. This incisive look into the world of war reporting is built around facts and actual events but Leith infuses her story with a gripping narrative and peppers it with characters so real you forget they are…
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black women enlisting at higher rates in US military Black women now represent nearly a third of all women in the US armed forces, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. Their representation in the military, which is at about 31 per cent, accounts for twice the number of black women in the…
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