Oleh: Andri Fernanda

The book entitled Traces of Trauma: Cambodian Visual Culture and National Identity in the Aftermath of Genocide written by Boreth Ly discusses the psychological trauma which is known as baksbat and snarm, and how it is represented in contemporary Cambodia’s visual culture. Moreover, the book also interrogates the roles visual images played in terms of promoting the revolutionary Ideology of Khmer Rouge and national identity.  Furthermore, according to Ly (2020, p. 59) how the huge impact of the malicious action has damaged not only cultural identity, but also the dignity of the Cambodian nation and its diaspora. Thus, this book engages with Adorno's seminal question and dilemma about the possibility of life and art after atrocity—The Khmer Rouge regime—by examining the post-genocide cultural landscape of Cambodia.

The book meticulously focuses on the ways in which art and visual culture represent and mediate our understanding of memory, trauma, conflict, morality, ethics, recuperation, healing, and aporia in the aftermath of the genocide. Indeed, Ly explores the survival mechanisms and the process of cultural renewal within a nation whose moral foundations were devastated by a trilogy of tragedies: civil conflict, US serial attacks, and the Khmer Rouge's genocidal regime. She ultimately frames the visual culture produced by contemporary Cambodian artists, photographers, filmmakers, court dancers, poets, and writers both in Cambodia and in the diaspora as "traces of trauma" (Ly, 2020, p. 7).

I believe, this aligns with what happened In July 1992, the former Chinese and Korean Jugun Ianfu held protest and asked compensation to the Japanese government (Nurpratiwi et al., 2017, p. 8). Kim Hak-sun was one of them, she became jugun ianfu when the Japanese soldiers deceived her and took her from Pyongyang to Northern China when she was 17 years old. At that time, she was forced to serve 300 soldiers until she managed to escape and married a merchant. The Jugun Ianfu is a concept that refers to the women who considered as the victim of Japanese army’s sexual lust during the colonialism era, or it can be said as comfort woman. (Hartono, A. B., & Juliantoro, D., 1997).

Later, in 2010, journalist Hilde Janssen and photographer Jan Banning held a photo exhibition at Erasmus Huis Office in Kuningan, Jakarta entitled "Jugun Ianfu" Indonesia that featured photos of 18 former jugun ianfu who shared their stories, experiences, and wounds of their past along with taboos that surrounded them all this time. In the following period, specifically im 2015, there was a novel with history genre published entitled Jugun Ianfu: Jangan Panggil Aku Miyako. The story of the book is based on the biography of Mardiyem—a Jugun Ianfu from Indonesia—which written by Eka Hindra and Koichi Kimura in 2007.

In conclusion, the Jugun Ianfu case—I personally believe—corroborates Boreth Ly's explication of how trauma lingers in cultural memory. It makes me remember of Silverman’s scene from Chris Marker's film Sans Soleill in Hirsch (2012, p.174), "Who says that time heals all wounds? It would be better to say that time heals everything except wounds. With time the hurt of separation loses its real limits, with time the desired body will soon disappear, and if the desired body has already ceased to exist for the other then what remains is a wound, disembodied.”

Bibliography

Hartono, A. B., & Juliantoro, D. (1997). Derita paksa perempuan: Kisah Jugun Ianfu pada masa pendudukan Jepang, 1942-1945. Pustaka Sinar Harapan.

Ly, B. (2020). Traces of trauma: Cambodian visual culture and national identity in the aftermath of genocide. University of Hawaii Press.

Nurpratiwi, H., Joebagio, H., & Suryani, N. (2017). Jugun Ianfu: The construction of students’ awareness on gender. International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding, 4(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.18415/ijmmu.v4i1.6

Hirsch, Marianne. (2012). The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After Holocaust. New York: Columbia University Press.

 

 

Andri Fernanda Saat ini sedang menempuh PhD in Asian Languages and Cultures di University of Washington, USA. Merupakan salah satu penerima beasiswa Fulbright Scholarship. Pernah mengambil studi S2 Ilmu Sastra di Universitas Gadjah Mada, dan menyelesaikan tesisnya di Monash University, Australia. Merupakan salah satu penerima hibah tesis luar negeri FIB UGM 2016. Ia merupakan dosen Sastra Inggris di Universitas Bangka Belitung. Saat ini ia sedang menyibukkan dan menikmati hari-harinya sebagai mahasiswa sambil mengawasi Mediatikusastra, dan ngopi tentunya.