Behind the Story: The Legacy of Comfort Women

Generations later, the issue of “comfort women” is still being reconciled by the survivors and their families whose lives were shattered during World War II, when the girls and women were taken for days and sometimes years to serve in military brothels throughout Japanese-occupied territories. In the Philippines, where the Japanese Imperial Army sexually enslaved an estimated 1,000 women through abduction, coercion and deception, the fight continues for historical inclusion, a formal apology and restitution even as the Japanese government quietly undermines them. Photographer Cheryl Diaz Meyer recounts a stunning discovery that among the few remaining living comfort women—two sisters are still alive. The images are a testament to the strength of girls and women even under the most horrific circumstances.

[baxsterm]

The Hunted Red Mansion brought me here...Filipinos called it "Bahay na Pula" where the abuse took place. I hope their souls rest in peace 😢😢😢

[monicamuramatsu]

The history of comfort women has often been distorted by Japan's former adversaries in the war and exploited for political gain.
There are growing unsubstantiated claims that the Imperial Japanese Army kidnapped 200, 000 sex slaves (comfort women) in World War II, mostly from Korea.
There were two kinds of "comfort women."
(1) Japanese and Korean women (both Japanese citizens) made up more than 95% of the "comfort women." They were not coerced by the Japanese army. They were recruited by brothel operators.
(2) Local women on the battlefields (Dutch women in Indonesia, Filipino women in the Philippines, etc.) They made up less than 5% of the "comfort women". Dozens of them were coerced by Japanese soldiers in violation of Japanese military rules. The Japanese soldiers who coerced the local women were tried and some executed. But the existence of a soldier committing a crime in violation of the Imperial Japanese Army's rules is off the charts, and can it be called a state crime?
In wars, soldiers sometimes rape innocent women. To prevent this from happening, in the early 1930s the Japanese military used existing brothels in Manchuria as comfort stations. As it moved into China and Southeast Asia, more comfort stations were needed. So brothel operators recruited women and operated comfort stations to meet the growing demand.
The women who worked there for high salaries are called "comfort women." To work there, it was mandatory to obtain a travel permit and a work permit, and the Imperial Japanese Army did not "forcibly take" the women or make them work as "sex slaves" like the Korean activity group myth .
These two types should have been identified differently. But when "comfort women" became a problem in the early 1990s, all the women who provided sex to the Japanese military were uniformly identified, and that created a lot of confusion.
Westerners confuse these two cases and misunderstand that Japan committed a state crime. It is the Korean and Chinese activist groups that spread propaganda all over the world to induce such misunderstandings.

Calm down and think about it. The Japanese military was at war with the US, Australia, Britain, China, and more. All the generals always wanted more troops and supplies. That is a fact of life. There is no way the generals would spend those resources kidnapping women when the US military and its allies were marching. They had a war to fight.
What kind of foolish general would dedicate the resources to kidnap, guard, transport and feed 200, 000 women? It makes no sense, and would have created a new war in Korea.

To prove that this legend is not true, I am attaching here a newspaper clipping from the war period on the Korean peninsula in the 1930s. They have English translations.
There have been many cases of women being kidnapped and trafficked on the Korean peninsula. According to the statistical data on the number of kidnapping and human trafficking crimes on the Korean Peninsula by the Korean General Government, there were 1, 616 cases in 1931, but the number dropped to 342 in 1943. By the way, looking at the number of the people arrested in 1943, out of 428 people, only one was Japanese, and the rest were all Korean. As the data shows, the contribution of the Japanese police was very high.
Despite the existence of such evidence, statues of comfort women have been installed one after another around the world, for the purpose of deception by the propaganda of activist groups.
It is ridiculous to see Koreans today shout out loud that Japan has committed a national crime against the heinous crimes committed by their Korean ancestors and demand apologies and compensation from the Japanese people today.
Why did Osaka have to end its 60-year sister city relationship with the installation of a single statue in San Francisco? The answer is easy to understand once you understand that background.
Read the San Francisco inscription. You can see that the target of the attack is limited to Japan. In addition, the fact that the content of the inscription is not historical facts further hurts the hearts of the Japanese. War crimes have been committed in several countries, including the United States, but why only mention Japan?
If his appeal to all victims of sexual violence in the world is true, then the war crimes committed by South Korea in the Vietnam War must also be mentioned.

[dowlernatasha]

But they were not sex slaves though？Right？