From the war crimes trials following World War II to contemporary international criminal tribunals, the issue of wartime sexual violence has gradually come to be recognized as a grave crime. Throughout this process, the global movement surrounding Japanese Military Sexual Slavery played a decisive role, and civil society's awareness of gender-based violence committed during conflicts has continued to deepen. However, the issue of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery was not adjudicated in the war crimes trials conducted by the Allied powers. In the postwar period, victims of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery and the movement seeking a resolution to the issue have fought for decades against injustices that persisted as the Cold War order took shape, amid unredressed colonialism, deeply rooted patriarchy, and other factors. Why did the war crimes trials fail to address the issue of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery? What consequences has this gap left to the present day, and what challenges does it continue to pose? What approaches can we pursue to address these challenges?

This conference will provide an opportunity to revisit this unresolved issue more than eight decades after the end of World War II, and to share, through recent research, the evolving scholarship and activism on sexual violence in conflict zones around the world. By inviting long-standing experts in this field, relevant activists, and emerging scholars newly embarking on research, we aim to contribute to expanding domestic and international researcher networks and fostering international research exchanges.

Part 1: An Experimental Field for Feminism: Can the Law Become Practice?
Part 1 examines what the legal pursuit of accountability for wartime sexual violence, including the issue of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, has achieved and what it has overlooked. From the civil initiative of the 2000 Women's International War Crimes Tribunal to legal struggles in domestic and international courts in the 21st century, and the gender-related issues overlooked in the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals, this section critically explores whether the law can function as feminist practice.

Part 2: Gender-Based Violence Between War Crimes Trials and Punishment
Part 2 reveals the colonialism obscured by the Class B and C war crimes trials through the existence of Korean POW camp guards, and examines how the politics of “leniency” operated in China's handling of Japanese war criminals despite wartime sexual violence being treated as a crime. Furthermore, by illuminating the dual weaponisation of gender-based violence amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza, it connects the gender vacuum of punishment left by war crimes trials and its historical continuity to contemporary issues.