Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-2z2hb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-10T23:25:59.526Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Government, the Military and Business in Japan's Wartime Comfort Woman System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Hayashi Hirofumi
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article deals with the Japanese Imperial Government's and Military's involvement in the wartime military comfort woman system (1931-1945) and presents new archival evidence documenting the use of comfort stations by Japanese businessmen as well as soldiers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , e19
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2007

References

Notes

[1] The first half of this paper was presented at the “Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery” held in Tokyo on 8 December 2000. The full paper is based on a talk delivered at the “International Conference on Japanese Crimes Against Humanity” on 29 November 2001 at the University of California, Riverside and subsequently revised and developed.

[2] Yamada Akira, Daigensui Showa Tenno [Grand Marshal Emperor Showa], Tokyo, Shinnihon-Shuppansha, 1994, Yamada Akira, Showa Tenno no Gunji Shiso to Senryaku [Emperor Showa's Military Thought and Strategy], Tokyo, Azekura Shobo, 2002 and Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, New York, HarperCollins, 2000.

[3] Hayashi Hirofumi, Japanese Comfort Women in South East Asia, July 22, 1999 at [www32.ocn.ne.jp/~modernh/13eng.htm] This article contains extensive documentation on the composition, recruitment, and nature of the comfort woman system in Southeast Asia and other areas under control of the Japanese military.

[4] Concerning Japanese military comfort women and comfort stations, see Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II, New York, Columbia University Press, 2000; also Yoshimi Yoshiaki and Hayashi Hirofumi (eds.), Nihongun Ianfu [Japanese Military Comfort Women], Tokyo, Otsuki Shoten, 1995; Yoshimi Yoshiaki (ed), Jugun Ianfu Shiryo-shu [Documents on Military Comfort Women], Tokyo, Otsuki-Shoten, 1992; and Yuki Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual slvery and prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation, London: Routledge, 2002.

[5] See Kim Puja & Song Yo-ok, co-editors, Ianfu, Senji Seiboryoku no Jittai: Nippon, Taiwan, Chosen Hen [The Actual State of Comfort Women and Wartime Sexual Violence: Japan, Taiwan and Korea], Ryokufu Shuppan, 2000; Nishino Rumiko & Hayashi Hirofumi, co-editors, Ianfu, Senji Seiboryoku no Jittai: Chugoku, Tonan-Ajia, Taiheiyou Hen [The Actual State of Comfort Women and Wartime Sexual Violence: China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific], Ryokufu Shuppan, 2000.

[6] Hayashi, Hirofumi, “Japanese Comfort Women in Southeast Asia”, Japan Forum, Vol.10, No.2, 1998;

[7] On the Philippines, see Dan P. Calica, Dan Nelia Sancho, (eds), War Crimes on Asian Women: Military Sexual Slavery by Japan during World War: The Case of Filipino Comfort Women, Manila, The Task Force on Filipina Victims of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, 1993; and Asian Center for Women's Human Rights, From the Depths of Silence: Voice of Women Survivors of War, Quezon City, Asian Center for Women's Human Rights (ASCENT), 2000; Maria Rosa Henson, Comfort Woman. A Filipina's Story of Prostitution and Slavery Under the Japanese Military (Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999).

[8] On comfort stations in Malaya, see Hayashi Hirofumi, “Marei Hanto no Nihongun Ianjo” [Japanese Military Comfort Stations on the Malay Peninsula] in Sekai [World], March 1993, “ Singapore no Nihongun Ianjo” [Japanese Military Comfort Stations in Singapore], in Senso Sekinin Kenkyu [Report on Japan 's War Responsibility], No.4, June 1994.

[9] This document is preserved in Keisatsu Daigaku [the Police Academy] in Tokyo.

[10] The files of Taiwan Takushoku Kaisha [Taiwan Colonization Company] are preserved in the Taiwan Provincial Documents Board, Taiwan.

[11] Hayashi Hirofumi, “ Burma Mandalay no Nihongun Ianjo Kitei” [Regulations on Japanese Military Comfort Stations in Mandalay, Burma], in Senso Sekinin Kenkyu [Report on Japan 's War Responsibility], No.6, December 1994.

[12] See e.g. “History of Military Administration in Burma”, and “Records of regional industries under the Southern Army Administration”, at the Library of the National Institute for Defense Studies, Defense Agency, Tokyo.