A Nation Built by Women - Flowers by Fire by Hawon Jung

Season 5 Episode 2

In our second episode about the book Flowers of Fire by Hawon Jung, we explore how the bodies of women and girls were used to build up the nation of South Korea.

The government needed the physical labor in the form of factory girls to help gain economic strength, which helped usher in the "Miracle on the Han River."

Comfort women were used not only during WWII, but after, as well, and it was the government who oversaw the system of comfort women working in camptowns.

The government also needed women to give birth to babies, yet also controlled reproductive health access for women in more recent years.

Mature themes will be discussed in this episode.

Links:

• Factory Girl Literature by Ruth Barraclough [Book]

• Blood, puss and pitiful pay: Why Korean factory workers are calling it quits [Hankyoreh]

• A Brutal Sex Trade Built for American Soldiers [The New York Times]

• After 40 years in US camptown sex trade, S. Korean woman rejoices in court victory [Hankyoreh]

• Koreans & Camptowns: Reflections of a Mixed-Race Korean [Korean American Story.org]

• Polish Women Hold 'Black Monday' Strike To Protest Proposed Abortion Ban [NPR]

• Korea decriminalized abortion, but has anything actually changed? [Korean JoongAng Daily]

• Not illegal but not legal: The murky landscape of abortion in Korea [The Korea Herald]