“Comfort women, not a problem to solve, but the history to remember” read the text on the projected slide posted by presenters at the Seoul National University Institute for Peace and Unification studies. This statement gets to the heart of why relations between South Korea and Japan remain frigid more than seventy years after the end of Japanese imperial rule. In our discussions with Seoul National University students held in their Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, an overarching theme became clear. While our group had walked in solutions-oriented, an overwhelming amount of thoughts and the presentations from the Seoul National University students revolved around the idea of resetting that agenda and instead “remembering” first and foremost. It appears that too often, former colonial or imperial powers refuse to remember or hear the memories of the oppressed and healing is blindly and vainly sought by the oppressor through “solutions,” usually in the form of some physical reparations. Yet, money cannot heal wounds, nor can it make a nation forget. One cannot solve something that is unsolvable. 

Giving voice to the memories is a “call for justice”. Presently, around the globe, interest regarding memory has peaked resulting in an “upsurge in memory” through “lieux de mémoire.” This has lead to a broadening of the usage of memory. Rethinking peace studies requires a memory that at its center is representative of individual voices and stories. Harkening back to a more traditional view of memory is a call for an upheaval of power structure, for justice, and to broaden narratives which are told. As an American, I compare my own country’s dark past of colonialism and history as oppressors. I begin to see the smiling soldier’s face from the photo as a frightening mirror. His countenance reflected a nightmarish nonchalance, one that could be repeated if memories continue to be neglected by the perpetrators of oppression. Ethnocentric evaluations of another culture, swift judgements, ignoring traditionsーinsidious drops of privilege from which stems depravity.

Power over another and the suppression of equality can lead to a multitude of terrors. No excuses, apologies, or solutions exist to heal memories of the past. Instead, can memory be a transformative agent against that power and how then “do we transform mere power into justice?" Perhaps the first step is to remember together.