Comfort Women: The Forgotten Horror of the Japanese Military’s Sex Slaves

They were used, literally, to “satisfy” military men. Raped and exploited as sexual slaves by Imperial Japanese forces during World War II and in the years immediately preceding it. They were the military comfort womena literal English translation of the Japanese expression jūgun ianfu (military comfort women), a sinister euphemism to indicate women forced to prostitute themselves in brothels organized by the Japanese military authorities themselves in the countries under their military occupation.

Over the years, there have been official apologies on official apologybut only two years ago a historic ruling condemned Japan to pay 100 million won (around 75 thousand euros) as compensation to at least 12 (only) comfort women.

A drop in the middle of the ocean if we consider that, according to various studies, there were between 70 thousand and 200 thousand womenmostly Korean (but also Chinese and Filipino), who were forcibly hired to serve as prostitutes in the so-called comfort stations, real brothels established in 1932 by the Tokyo government to “keep the morale of the invading Japanese forces high ”.

The “comfort women” came mainly from Korea, Taiwan and China, but also, to a lesser extent, from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, India, the Pacific Islands and the Netherlands.

Thanks to the discovery of some documents and the testimonies of some former Japanese government officials, it is now known that the forced prostitution camps were an integral part of the country’s military policy. Their official purpose was to improve morale and in this way the war performance of the troops, to control the sexual activity of the soldiers avoiding the spread of venereal diseases and to reduce the permits for those who were at the front.

The greatest amount of information to date comes from the direct testimonies of the surviving victims, former comfort women of various nationalities who have found the courage, thanks to various associations, to talk about their experiences. The association is an example of this Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issuewhich collected the testimonies of Korean comfort women.

How comfort stations worked

Women were segregated in the military camp, poorly fed and forced to live in terrible hygienic conditions. During the day they were forced to indulge in the sexual release of the private soldiers, while at night it was the officers’ turn. Wednesday was a “day of rest”, but in reality entirely dedicated to mandatory medical visits to prevent the spread of venereal diseases among the troops.

Most of the survivors testified that they suffered 5 to 20 sexual intercourses per day (in some cases up to 30 violences per day), for a minimum of 5 days in a week for an average of 3-5 years of detention. Calculating the minimum of 5 rapes for 5 days, we obtain 1,800 rapes suffered in a year by a single woman, which, counting the minimum three years of detention, becomes 5,400 in total. Chilling.

The sentences and the apologies

These are, clearly, crimes committed by the Japanese state against humanity. Nevertheless, the only court among approximately 50 that were established between 1945 and 1951 in Asiato issue conviction sentence against Japanese soldiers for forced prostitution was the court of Batavia (now Jakarta), under Dutch aegis. But that’s not enough: 14 Japanese officers were convicted in Batavia, but only for the sexual exploitation of 35 Dutch women.

Only in 1992, after the “Asahi Shinbun” published an article on incriminating documents found by historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi in the archives of the Japanese Ministry of Defense library in Tōkyō, which indicated that the government had actively participated in the planning, construction and operations of military prostitution camps, the Japanese authorities officially admitted the involvement of the military high echelons in the prostitution camps (until then they said they had exploited but not promoted the fields).

On January 14, 1992, Japanese government spokesman Koichi Kato issued an official apology in which he stated that “We cannot deny that the former Japanese army played a role in the kidnapping and detention of “comfort girls” and we want to express our apologies and (our) contrition”.

And on July 6 of that year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katō Koichi expressed the Japanese government’s sincere apologies and remorse in a statement to the press.

In 1996, a United Nations report condemned Japan for forcing thousands of Korean women into prostitution, demanding an official apology from Tokyo and financial compensation for the victims.

The 2021 ruling

In January 2021, a South Korean court ordered the Japanese government to compensate 12 sex slaves from the Second World War. This is a historic ruling, because the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the Japanese government will have to pay 100 million won to each of the victims or their families.

This is the first court case regarding girls as sex slaves exploited by Japanese occupation troops and the ruling two years ago today is the final part of a trial that lasted eight years. Tokyo, in recent years, has boycotted the proceedings and claims that all compensation issues arising from its colonial rule have been resolved with the Treaty of 1965 which normalizes diplomatic relations with neighboring countries.

The Japanese government denies being directly responsible for wartime abuses, arguing that the victims were recruited from civilians and that military brothels were run by private individuals. The dispute has escalated despite Seoul and Tokyo reaching an agreement in 2015 aimed at resolving the issue “permanently” with a Japanese apology and the creation of a billion yen fund for survivors. But the South Korean government of Moon believes that agreement to be flawed and canceled it, citing the victims’ lack of consent.