Korean comfort women 1945 photo/ US archives
In investigating how the historical issue of comfort women shapes and is shaped by Korean-Japanese relations, I must first investigate the issue of comfort women itself. In this section, therefore, I endeavor to recount the actual truth of what happened through undeniable factual evidence, and the truth of what happened to the victims through their memories. This section may seem to be mostly “anti-Japanese” due to my partial reliance on Korean witness testimonies, and because of the conclusion I arrive at, namely, that the systematic Japanese appropriation of Korean women was a historical atrocity.
Sexual slavery in imperial Japan was a bureuacratized system of predominantly forced prostitution. Historians estimate that approximately 140,000 women of many nationalities were coerced into becoming comfort women against their will. Girls and women were tricked, threatened, or simply abducted into the system if they didn't go voluntarily(1). In a 1992 Japanese report, entitled “Results of Investigation into the Question of ‘Military Comfort Women’ Origination from the Korean Peninsula”, 127 distinct historical documents were uncovered that described in detail the elaborate system that imperial Japan used to establish and manage comfort women stations(2). These documents showed the extent to which the practice of comfort women was bureaucratized, from the standardization of deceitful recruitment to tactics to personal hygiene within stations. Women that were disobedient or thought to be rebellious were often tortured or killed(3).
It would have been more surprising, historically, had Japan not instituted a "comfort system" for their armies in the Second World War. Since the Tokugawa period, Japanese armies had used “comfort stations” to relieve troops, and there existed a military ideology of sex needing to coexist with violence for success(4). It would be more surprising, considering Japanese history, if Japan hadn’t employed institutionalized prostitution during the Second World War.
The comfort women system was a moral and humanitarian atrocity. Many of the women involved were swindled into prostitution without consent and with no understanding of the consequences of their agreements; they were made to sign contracts in Japanese, which most didn’t understand, and were promised that they would be performing menial labor. More were simply abducted from their homes secretly, or taken by force. Also, there are the ages of those involved. 80% of the girls the Japanese recruited were between the ages of 14-18, and these girls were forced to have sex upwards of ten times in a day, with or without their consent. Finally, these girls were shipped to the front lines to experience the same dangers horrors of war that the soldiers had to(5). They went through the experience of not only rape and forced prostitution, but also trauma on and near the battlefield. Although it is true that some women involved themselves in prostitution voluntarily and collaborated with the army to serve the Japanese empire, that does not detract from the institutional violation committed against women who did not volunteer.
Sexual slavery in imperial Japan was a bureuacratized system of predominantly forced prostitution. Historians estimate that approximately 140,000 women of many nationalities were coerced into becoming comfort women against their will. Girls and women were tricked, threatened, or simply abducted into the system if they didn't go voluntarily(1). In a 1992 Japanese report, entitled “Results of Investigation into the Question of ‘Military Comfort Women’ Origination from the Korean Peninsula”, 127 distinct historical documents were uncovered that described in detail the elaborate system that imperial Japan used to establish and manage comfort women stations(2). These documents showed the extent to which the practice of comfort women was bureaucratized, from the standardization of deceitful recruitment to tactics to personal hygiene within stations. Women that were disobedient or thought to be rebellious were often tortured or killed(3).
It would have been more surprising, historically, had Japan not instituted a "comfort system" for their armies in the Second World War. Since the Tokugawa period, Japanese armies had used “comfort stations” to relieve troops, and there existed a military ideology of sex needing to coexist with violence for success(4). It would be more surprising, considering Japanese history, if Japan hadn’t employed institutionalized prostitution during the Second World War.
The comfort women system was a moral and humanitarian atrocity. Many of the women involved were swindled into prostitution without consent and with no understanding of the consequences of their agreements; they were made to sign contracts in Japanese, which most didn’t understand, and were promised that they would be performing menial labor. More were simply abducted from their homes secretly, or taken by force. Also, there are the ages of those involved. 80% of the girls the Japanese recruited were between the ages of 14-18, and these girls were forced to have sex upwards of ten times in a day, with or without their consent. Finally, these girls were shipped to the front lines to experience the same dangers horrors of war that the soldiers had to(5). They went through the experience of not only rape and forced prostitution, but also trauma on and near the battlefield. Although it is true that some women involved themselves in prostitution voluntarily and collaborated with the army to serve the Japanese empire, that does not detract from the institutional violation committed against women who did not volunteer.
- Hicks, George L. The Comfort Women : sex slaves of the Japanese Imperial Forces. London: Souvenir Press, 1995.
2. ibid
3.ibid
4. Soh, Chunghee Sarah. "The Korean "Comfort Women": Movement for Redress." Asian Survey 36, no. 12 (1996): 1226-240. doi:10.2307/2645577.
5. Hicks, The Comfort Women.
Draftees to the Women's Voluntary Service Corps, some of whom were sent to comfort stations. (Dong-A Daily)