Exploring the Recovery Process of Former Taiwanese Comfort Women through Drama Therapy

Abstract

During World War II, some women from Taiwan, herein referred to as “comfort women,” were forced to go to the battlefield, not to fight, but to be used as sex slaves for the pleasure of Japanese soldiers. These women endured sexual abuse, in addition to other forms of mistreatment and left survivors with serious lifelong physical and psychological traumas. This study utilizes the framework of drama therapy and a hermeneutical research approach to examine the effects of drama therapy on women who have endured psychological and emotional abuse. It briefly examines the historical background of the issue and the role of drama therapy. Although the comfort women were victims of sexual abuse in a special historical situation, the focus of this work is not the historical aspect. Rather, it attempts to explore the role of drama therapy in the process of recovery from trauma. In this connection, this work does not discuss details of the complicated historical and other issues arising from these women's experiences. Instead, it focuses on the psychotherapeutic aspects of their treatment and recovery, especially during their old age.Essentially, drama therapy is employed to create space for respondents to express their feelings about their experiences. Its process entails three stages, namely, warm-up, self-dialogue with the “past self,” and a healing stage. Through these stages, respondents were able to grieve for themselves, accept the trauma through self-dialogue with their “past selves’ and develop the ability to self-heal, a first step towards recovery.

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