Paving the Road to Peace: Transnational Solidarity for Survivors of Military Sexual Slavery by Imperial Japan through the Observation of the Wednesday Demonstration

The Wednesday Demonstration is a weekly protest for former comfort women to demand an apology and legal compensation from the Japanese government. This thesis examines the different aspects of the comfort women movement through an analysis of the Wednesday Demonstration and its participants, drawing on participant observation and interviews conducted in South Korea. It also draws on secondary sources to offer a contextual analysis of the historical and political background of the comfort women movement. In this thesis, I provides a critical framework for understanding what changes have occurred within the Wednesday Demonstration that enables it to persist until today; explores how the survivors and their supporters have become allies beyond a generation gap through the weekly protests; and, through the lens of feminist perspectives, reviews how the Wednesday Demonstration has evolved into a national and transnational movement to foster solidarity.