Memorials are connected to the geographical and historical moment during which they were built. Despite the myriad of monuments and memorials created in the wake of World War II, the widespread rape of women, has been largely absent from this commemorative landscape. Now that rape is considered a crime of war, there have been isolated attempts to establish memorials for victims of rape. These attempts have appeared in different geographies, which have created different kinds of memorials. In the Pacific Theater, the Japanese Imperial Army from 1932 to 1945, brutally coerced tens of thousands of Asian women into the “comfort system” to work as sex slaves. These sexually exploited women were euphemistically called comfort women. In East-Central Europe, approximately two million German women were raped during the Soviet liberation and occupation, 1945 to 1949. This thesis examines three public memorials that memorialize rape as a particular violent assault against the individual woman and will consider the political, historical and geographical contexts of these three memorials.
","abstract_html":"<p>Memorials are connected to the geographical and historical moment during which they were built. Despite the myriad of monuments and memorials created in the wake of World War II, the widespread rape of women, has been largely absent from this commemorative landscape. Now that rape is considered a crime of war, there have been isolated attempts to establish memorials for victims of rape. These attempts have appeared in different geographies, which have created different kinds of memorials. In the Pacific Theater, the Japanese Imperial Army from 1932 to 1945, brutally coerced tens of thousands of Asian women into the “comfort system” to work as sex slaves. These sexually exploited women were euphemistically called comfort women. In East-Central Europe, approximately two million German women were raped during the Soviet liberation and occupation, 1945 to 1949. This thesis examines three public memorials that memorialize rape as a particular violent assault against the individual woman and will consider the political, historical and geographical contexts of these three memorials.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Beck, Abigail Jean"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"History, MA","degree_level":"Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis","degree_discipline":"School of Arts and Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Wendy Lower"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:28Z","subjects":["Comfort women","German women","Memorials","Rape","Representations","Sexual Violence","History","Museum Studies"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/666","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Wendy Lower"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Beck, Abigail Jean"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-12-02T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["School of Arts and Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["History, MA"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Comfort women","German women","Memorials","Rape","Representations","Sexual Violence","History","Museum Studies"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/666"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Memorials are connected to the geographical and historical moment during which they were built. Despite the myriad of monuments and memorials created in the wake of World War II, the widespread rape of women, has been largely absent from this commemorative landscape. Now that rape is considered a crime of war, there have been isolated attempts to establish memorials for victims of rape. These attempts have appeared in different geographies, which have created different kinds of memorials. In the Pacific Theater, the Japanese Imperial Army from 1932 to 1945, brutally coerced tens of thousands of Asian women into the “comfort system” to work as sex slaves. These sexually exploited women were euphemistically called comfort women. In East-Central Europe, approximately two million German women were raped during the Soviet liberation and occupation, 1945 to 1949. This thesis examines three public memorials that memorialize rape as a particular violent assault against the individual woman and will consider the political, historical and geographical contexts of these three memorials.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Memorializing Wartime Rape During the Second World War"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Wendy Lower"],"dc:creator":["Beck, Abigail Jean"],"dc:date.available":["2023-12-02T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Memorials are connected to the geographical and historical moment during which they were built. Despite the myriad of monuments and memorials created in the wake of World War II, the widespread rape of women, has been largely absent from this commemorative landscape. Now that rape is considered a crime of war, there have been isolated attempts to establish memorials for victims of rape. These attempts have appeared in different geographies, which have created different kinds of memorials. In the Pacific Theater, the Japanese Imperial Army from 1932 to 1945, brutally coerced tens of thousands of Asian women into the “comfort system” to work as sex slaves. These sexually exploited women were euphemistically called comfort women. In East-Central Europe, approximately two million German women were raped during the Soviet liberation and occupation, 1945 to 1949. This thesis examines three public memorials that memorialize rape as a particular violent assault against the individual woman and will consider the political, historical and geographical contexts of these three memorials.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/666"],"dc:subject":["Comfort women","German women","Memorials","Rape","Representations","Sexual Violence","History","Museum Studies"],"dc:title":["Memorializing Wartime Rape During the Second World War"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["School of Arts and Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["History, MA"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:28Z"}