The comfort woman statue: Analysis of heritagization, dissonance and historical conflict between the Philippines and Japan

• Main Author: Arroyo, Keren Happuch D.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Comfort women > Philippines; Statues; Asian Studies; International and Area Studies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_intlstud/34; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=etdm_intlstud
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Philippine Comfort Woman statue failed to complete its heritagization process when the Philippine Department of Works and Highways (DPWH) removed the statue in 2018 and when the artist refused to give it back to the organizers on the day, it was to be reinstalled on the Redemptorist Baclaran Church. While the Philippine Government intervened in installing a Filipino Comfort Woman statue as it hinges on Philippine-Japan foreign relations, which may entail economic repercussions. The Filipino Comfort Women and the organizers, on the other hand, raised their ire and dissent over the statue’s removal and withdrawal. As a result, contesting narratives between the Philippine Government and Filipino Comfort Women and its supporters burgeoned, thereby making the Filipino Comfort Woman statue part of dissonant heritage. Using the theory of dissonant heritage and the underpinnings of the heritagization process, this research investigate the factors that contributed to failure of Filipino Comfort Women to achieve full-scale heritagization. Overall, this research argues that the Filipino Comfort Woman statue failed its heritagization process because the Filipino Comfort Woman statue became a conflicted heritage material. Keywords: Philippine Comfort Woman Statue, Filipino Comfort Women, Filipino Comfort Women Civil Organizations and Supporters, Dissonant Heritage, Heritagization, Collective Memories