Private Memory and Public History in Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life and in Christina Park’s The Homes We Build on Ashes
Private Memory and Public History in Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life and in Christina Park’s The Homes We Build on Ashes

Summary/Abstract: Former comfort station medical staff Doc Hata’s reminiscences of Kkutaeh in Chang-raeLee’s A Gesture Life (1999) and Minjoo’s narrative of her accidental kidnapping and subsequent afflictions punctuated with Nara’s factual input in Christina Park’s The HomesWe Build on Ashes (2015) offer a near-historical portrayal of Japanese military sexual slavery. In an attempt to uncover how private memory and public history are linked in the two novels, this paper will discuss the following points: storylines and narration, the perpetrator’s tale, Doc Hata and Minjoo’s respective stories of sexual military slavery, and finally, the author’s comments on their motivation, sources, and insights.

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