미군 ‘위안부’의 약물 중독과 우울, 그리고 자살 : ‘위안’하는 주체의 (비)일상과 정동 정치

Abstract

This paper attempts to approach the affect of “comfort women” for the US Army unlike existing studies that focus on the history of policies or movements. Experiences in drug addiction and deprivation of everyday life were examined as the background that had great effects on psychology of women. There was a collective and widespread abuse of drugs and addictive medicines in the military camp town. In everyday life, women suffered depression and committed suicide after experiencing bodily pain, psychological loss and social exclusion. Depression and suicide of “comfort women” for the US Army in the camp town flatly reveal the pain of people who provide ‘comfort’ in a complex network of patriarchal militarism in the Cold War Era, deceptive prostitution policy and sexuality control, booming of drug medicine and production-consumption system in the era of drug development. Especially, depression of women was formed by object relation with ‘comfort’, the nation’s strategy to control affect. Depression cannot simply be interpreted as passive response of women. Depression and suicide of women are their practice of revealing violence of ‘comfort’ under gender hierarchy. They represent voices of silent others that reveal the ugliness of patriotism forced to protect the blood alliance and dollars. Sharing, spreading and transmission of depression was sometimes the foothold of resistance efforts such as demonstration of “comfort women”.