Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II

My father was an intelligence officer in the Navy during WWII and was involved with debriefing a number of fairly senior Japanese officers during the war because he spoke Japanese reasonably well. One of the things that came out time and again is how the military systematically destroyed records because they feared that members of the military would be turned over to Chinese and Korean forces for trial. The true depth of the abuses of the Japanese military vanished with those documents forcing us to use mostly oral sources to discover the truth. However the oral stories from around the Pacific Rim are largely the same: with a few notable exceptions young women were kidnapped and forced in to sex slavery. Unlike the German government the Japanese government has never accepted their crimes. I suppose it's natural to be ashamed of so much cowardice and cruelty but it means that this wound will always blacken the whole nation of Japan, long after the criminals are all dead. Why say all this? Because so much of this book relies on oral histories (even the best Japanese documents are often letters home that describe the brothels rather than official documents). The apologist cling to their desperate plea of "almost no official documents" as if somehow a government letterhead spelling out the crimes is better proof than a thousand tearful stories from a dozen nations that match so well that an organized system of sex slavery is clearly what existed. Reading this is not easy and you may come away with a bias against the Japanese. Remember that many nations have committed dark acts and yet went on to do great and good things. It is not the purpose of this book to condemn a nation, merely to condemn the criminal cowardice of the Japanese Army of that time. One day Japan will embrace that truth, and on that day they will have their honor back.

Yoshimi did much of the ground-breaking research, and this book shows the results. He writes like a true scholar: presenting the facts he discoverd and giving a clear reasoning for the conclusions he draws from then. He is explicit about his own convictions, but keeps them separated from the facts, carefully avoiding overstatements. Japan can take pride in this historian.

This book documents through research the direct involvement and approval of Japanese Government in setting up such brutal and abusive system on Asian women. The Japanese invaders lured occupied countries women by force, lies, deceptions and kidnapping into military sex slaves with fancy names as "comfort women". These poor young women suffered repeated gang rapes and violence with physical and psychological damage and carried the shames and scars till now. Japanese soldiers murdered most when Japan lost the war. I had met a few survivors and listened to their nightmare and testimonials. Their lives were in ruin. Now, sixty years after Japan's unconditional surrender, there were survivors in Philippine, Korea and China. They broke their silence to testify in US Congress lately with the help of Congressman Mike Honda. How shameful of the Prime Minister of Japan Abe to deny this large scale of international violation of human right. The Japanese government raped these poor women once more! How can we trust Japan for world peace? Reading this book on Japanese crime against humanity and their shameful denial now would make you join the global campaign to condemn the Japanese now and then!

I feel that this book is finally getting some recognition that it deserves. What I do find disturbing is the justification or downright arrogance of Japanese past actions. There are many jumbled facts about what has happened and the numbers of what is true. But, there is an agreeance. It did happen. One reviewer states that a military documentation had these women earning 1000-2000 yen a month on average. According to most accounts there were 200,000 to 300,000 women in these brothels. That meant the Japanese government would have been spending anywhere from 100,000,000 yen to 600,000,000 a MONTH on these women. That's like saying the US will now spend 1/4 of the national budget on the hookers of Las Vegas to keep the populous happy. Someone must have been misinformed. Then, another reviewer states that these women were well compensated. As if that made their lives more fulfilling or happy or extending from their OWN CHOICE. That's like saying the Japanese people that lived in the internment camps in the US were happy because the US provided a roof over their head. Not so funny when the shoe is on the other foot. Then, to have the gall to say that the Japanese soldiers tried to take care of the women with "good intentions." These women are not cattle. These women were kidnapped. They should not have been put in this situation in the first place. These CRIMES did happen. Recently, there was an incident in Korea when a Korean actress insensitively depicted herself in photos as a comfort woman. There was outrage from the victims of these crimes because there were true victims out there. This book is not trying to sensationalize this story. Nor, is it popular subject matter. Women from these Asian countries should NOT have been kidnapped and forced into these conditions. And no one should trivialize or eradicate the suffering of these women. This book touches on a familiar subject in this country: slavery. Yoshiaki Yoshimi opens it up and exposes it for what it is.

It is a delight to find a scholarly work that is so accessible to non-academics. This fascinating examination of "comfort women" should be read by every WWII scholar, feminist, historian, college student, and thinking person! Particularly of interest is the critical introduction; Ms. O'Brien (who translated the book from the Japanese) has provided an excellent overview that not only examines this work but demonstrates a wide comprehension of similar works by contemporary authors. Superb.