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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, determined to promote Japan as (in the words of his book) a “beautiful country,” whose school students will be taught to love it and whose citizens will be offered a version of its history in which they can take pride, finds himself in the incongruous position of sinking deeper and deeper into a shameful mire over his refusal to accept state responsibility for the mass mobilization of women for the sexual slave services for the Imperial Japanese Army during the Asian and Pacific wars to 1945.
[1] Age, 13 March 2007. Those issues were again headlines when Abe met President George Bush in Washington in April 2007 (Weekend Australian, 28-9 April 2007).
[2] Nanking rape rewritten', Australian, 2 March 07, p.12; ‘Tokio and Beijing in historical divide’, Australian, 23 March 07, p.11
[3] Canberra Times, 9 March 07; Weekend Australian, 3-4 March 07. Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ‘Japan's “Comfort Women”; It's time for the truth (in the ordinary, everyday sense of the word)‘, provides an excellent summary of the current debate and its background. Keiko Tamura also provided information.
[4] Jan Ruff-O'Herne, 50 Years of Silence, Editions Tom Thompson, Sydney, 1994.
[5] Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), Interrogation Reports, Vol 1, Chihara Miyaji, Australian War Memorial (AWM) 55.
[6] ATIS, Interrogation Reports, Vol 1, Kazo Arita, AWM 55.
[7] Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, Amenities in the Japanese Armed Forces, using information available to 31 March 1945, p.19, AWM55, 12/92.
[8] ATIS report on amenities, p.17.
[9] ATIS report on amenities, p.17. ‘Hainin’ indicates of petty officer rank.
[10] ‘Reports from Rabaul – Interrogation of three natives escaped from Buna, 1942‘, AWM 54, 608/4/1.
[11] Signed statement of 10 September 1944, ‘Statements made in September 1944 …‘, AWM 54, 1010/4/155.
[12] When Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese had to fill in forms giving their occupation, many told their captors that they were brothel testers or beer tasters. The rumour of the brewery advertising for beer tasters is an Australian working man's fantasy, not then one of New Guineans who were prohibited from drinking alcohol – a condition of the mandate.
[13] Native Conditions in Rabaul, Statement of Chouka of Mouk Island, Manus, 1944, MP1587/1, Item 97I, National Archives of Australia (NAA), Victoria.
[14] Presumably Chouka gave his interview in Pidgin. The term ‘consort’ seems unusual, but Chouka could certainly express the idea in Pidgin. There are also statements from Chouka (Choka) in the Angau War Diary, attached to August 1944, AWM52, 1/10/1. ‘Chauka’ was awarded Loyal Service Medal 194. It is the same man as the citation gives the same history (Appendix HQ A14 to Angau War Diary, August 1944).
[15] H. Nelson, ‘Zentsuji and Totsuka: Australians from Rabaul as prisoners of war in Japan’, in Y. Toyoda and H. Nelson, eds, The Pacific War in Papua New Guinea: Memories and Realities, Rikkyo University Centre for Asian Area Studies, Tokyo, 2006, pp.423-56, and ‘The Return to Rabaul 1945‘, Journal of Pacific History, Vol 30, No 2, 1995, pp.131-53 give accounts of the fate of those captured in Rabaul.
[16] D. Hutchinson-Smith, Guests of the Samurai, typescript, copy held by H. Nelson and copy also in AWM, p.9.
[17] Sister ‘Tootie’ McPherson in H. Nelson, Prisoners of War: Australians under Nippon, ABC, Sydney, 1985, p.76.
[18] Hutchinson-Smith, p.35.
[19] Hutchinson-Smith, p.35.
[20] Murphy quoted in H. Nelson 1985, p.158.
[21] Joseph Nason and Robert Holt, Horio You Next Die, Pacific Rim Press, Carlsbad, 1987, p.107.
[22] James McMurria, Trial and Triumph, privately published, 1991, p.13.
[23] Alice Bowman, Not Now Tomorrow: ima nai ashita, Daisy Press, Bangalow, 1996, p.67.
[24] Gordon Thomas, ‘The Story of Rabaul’, Pacific Islands Monthly, March 1946, pp.30-1 and April 1946, pp.32-3, is a summary history of Rabaul and reflects Thomas's affection for and romantic recall of old Rabaul.
[25] The four civilians were Alfred Creswick (engineer with Coconut Products), James Ellis (electrical and refrigeration contractor), George McKechnie (marine engineer) and Gordon Thomas. Thomas was in Ramale, just inland from Rabaul, when the Australians reoccupied Rabaul.
[26] Gordon Thomas, Rabaul 1942-1945, typescript ms, p.96. H. Nelson has a copy and Pambu has made a microfilm. There are slight differences in the typescripts as a result of minor editing.
[27] Thomas, ms, p.96.
[28] Thomas, ms, p.116.
[29] Thomas, ms, p.116.
[30] Thomas, ms, p.144.
[31] Thomas, ms, pp.117-8.
[32] Thomas ms, p.145.
[33] Thomas, ms, pp.33-4. The priest was probably Father W. Barrow who was a priest in Rabaul. He became ill and was released to join other members of the Catholic Church at Vunapope. As an Irishman, he was from a neutral country. He died later in 1942. Father McCullagh, the only MSC priest to be interned with the civilians in Rabaul and to die on the Montevideo Maru, did not join the civilian internees until after the incident described by Thomas. McCullagh was an Australian.
[34] Thomas ms, p.34.
[35] Thomas, ms, pp.138-9.
[36] Thomas ms, p.34.
[37] Thomas ms, p.35.
[38] Thomas ms, p.35.
[39] Thomas ms, appendix iii.
[40] Thomas ms, p.158.
[41] Thomas ms, p.158A
[42] John Miller jr, United States Army in World War II The War in the Pacific Cartwheel: The Reduction of Rabaul, Department of the Army, Washington, 1959, p.230.
[43] The United States Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific) The Allied Campaign against Rabaul, Naval Analysis Division, Washington, 1946, pp. 23-5.
[44] Hisashi Noma, The Story of Mitsui and O. S. K. Liners lost during the Pacific War: Japanese Merchants Ships of War, published in English and Japanese, 2002, p.160. One of the New Guineans, Yanganoui, who escaped from Rabaul and was interviewed in 1944, said the comfort women left on a hospital ship that was sunk and all died (AWM54, 779/9/4, Interrogation of natives evacuated from Pondo and Gazelle Peninsula); but Noma claims that the only Japanese hospital ship sunk was the Buenos Aires Maru. It did leave Rabaul late in 1943 and was carrying women. Noma claims they were 63 nurses (Noma p.150); but Keiko Tamura who has researched the fate of the nurses says that some comfort women were also on board.
[45] Kentaro Igusa, The Jungle and Leaf of Hibiscus: Memoirs of a Navy Surgeon in the South Pacific, privately published, Canada, 1987, p.16. The late David Sissons brought Igusa's book to my attention.
[46] George Hicks, The Comfort Women, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1995, pp.82-3.
[47] Noma Hisashi, p.221. He gives no indication that there were women on board.
[48] Hiromitsu Iwamoto notes some 471 books: ‘Japanese perceptions on the Pacific War in Papua New Guinea: views in publications’, in Yukio Toyoda and Hank Nelson eds, p.50.
[49] The most prolific of those translated is probably the fighter pilot ‘ace’, Sakai Saburo.
[50] Watanabe Tetsuo, The Naval Land Unit that vanished in the Jungle, translated and edited by Hiromitsu Iwamoto, privately published, 1995, pp.8-13. The Japanese version was published in 1982.
[51] Watanabe, p.14.
[52] Watanabe, p.13.
[53] Igusa, p.1.
[54] Igusa, p.17. The Okinawans, although not in the same category of colonised peoples as the Koreans, were outsiders. Wakayama projects south from the Osaka area. When David Sissons wrote his pioneering article on Japanese prostitutes in Australia he found that most of them were from Nagasaki and the nearby peninsula of Kumamoto (‘Karayuki-san: Japanese prostitutes in Australia 1887-1916‘, Historical Studies, Vol 17 No 68 pp.323-41 and No 69 pp.474-88. The origins of the women are given in part one).
[55] Igusa, p.18.
[56] Igusa, p.19
[57] Igusa, p.16.
[58] A third doctor has recorded his reminiscences, Captain Aso Tetsuo. Having been in both China and Rabaul and having trained in obstetrics and gynaecology, he had detailed knowledge. His 1939 report on comfort women in China is a basic document. A Christian and an English speaker, he became a friend of one of the Australians, Lieutenant Frank Nicholas, in Rabaul after the Japanese surrender. His diary of being in Rabaul after the surrender has been translated, but not his other writings. AWM PR86/278. Keiko Tamura brought Aso to my attention. His Rabauru nikki (Rabaul diary) was published privately in 1972.
[59] The web site refers to John G. Bishop, Cameras over the Pacific which was probably privately published in 2003.
[60] Hicks, pp.150-1.
[61] I was reading the reports for other reasons, but a reference to finding Japanese or other women should have been sufficiently unusual for me to note it.
[62] See, for example, the trial of General Imamura in which several of the crimes committed by his subordinates were against Indians (Trial of senior Japanese officers, NAA Victoria, MP742/1, 336/1/1205). For investigation of crimes against New Guineans see NAA Victoria, MP742/1, 336/1/1955.and AWM54, 1010/6/65 Reports which were subject of a trial referred to as the Vunarima Massacre Case …
[63] Observers say that they saw women who were ‘almost black’ (Hutchinson-Smith) and these may have been Malay or Indian women, but it is unlikely that they were local Melanesians. Thomas spoke Kunanua, the language of the Tolai people from around Rabaul, and it is likely that he and others would have mentioned seeing any local women in the brothels.
[64] Thomas, ms, p.24; and Strategic Bombing Survey, p.35.
[65] A Report on Taiwanese Comfort Women, The information on the 253 sent to ‘Rabble’ is said to come from a contemporary Japanese source.
[66] Hicks has a concise summary of the emergence of the comfort women into public consciousness, chapter 8, pp.153-78.
[67] A Japanese woman, Shirota Suzuko, had described her experiences on radio, and Yoshida Seiji had written My War Crimes: The Forced Draft of Koreans, San-ichi Shobo, Tokyo, 1983.
[68] Usuki Keiko, Contemporary Comfort Women, Tokuma Shoten, Tokyo, 1992, and Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II, Westview Press, Boulder, 1996, chapter 3, ‘Rape and War’, pp.79-109.
[69] Ruff-O'Herne, pp.144-5.
[70] Peter Stone, Hostages to Freedom: The Fall of Rabaul, Oceans Enterprises, Yarram, 1994 (but 1995 on the Foreword).
[71] The headlines show the sequence: ‘Japanese denial on wartime sex slaves’ (Weekend Australia, 3-4 March 2007), ‘Abe orders new sex slave inquiry’ (Canberra Times, 9 March 2007), ‘Abe apologises for sex slaves’ (Canberra Times, 27 March 2007), and ‘Japan tries to defuse row over sex slaves’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 2 April 2007).
[72] Thomas, ms, p.24.
[73] Hicks, p.82, makes the point that the women were ‘brought in “as quickly as the ammunition”‘.
[74] Douglas Gillison, Australia in the War of 1939-1945: Royal Australian Air Force 1939-1942, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1962, p.578 notes a heavy raid of August 1942.
[75] Hiromitsu Iwamoto, ‘The Japanese Occupation of Rabaul, 1942-1945‘, in Y. Toyoda and H. Nelson, eds, 2006, p.255.
[76] Tanaka, p.95 points out that that there were three types of brothels: those run directly by the army, those with civilian managers but in fact run by the army, and those run by civilians and allowing some civilian customers but having an agreement with the army.
[77] Igusa, p.16.
[78] Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City A Diary, Metropolitan Books, New York, 2005.
[79] Thomas, ms p.35. It is interesting that Thomas with his notion of a strict hierarchy of races did not mention Melanesian women.
[80] David Dexter, Australia in the War of 1939-1945: The New Guinea Offensives, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1961, p.392; Gavin Long, Australia in the War of 1939-1945: The Final Campaigns, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963, p.272. The total of Japanese landed on the New Guinea mainland was over 100,000.
[81] US Bombing Survey, p.35.
[82] P. Cahill, The Chinese in Rabaul 1942-1945, MA qual, thesis, History Department, University of Papua New Guinea, 1970, p.83.
[83] Cahill, p.83
[84] Cahill, pp.84-5. Cahill went back to this material in his MA thesis: The Chinese in Rabaul 1914-1960, History Department, University of Papua New Guinea, 1972, pp.145-7. Cahill concedes that he was reluctant to press for details and that different Chinese gave different accounts. Chinese women also suffered sexual assault by some New Guineans.
[85] Cahill 1972, p.160.
[86] David Y. H. Wu, The Chinese in Papua New Guinea: 1880-1980, Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 1982, p.77 says that informants told him the Japanese were ‘well disciplined’.
[87] Report on Native Conditions in Rabaul, NAA Victoria, B3476, 24.
[88] As noted earlier, one of the main charges against General Hitoshi Imamura was his responsibility for the ill-treatment and death of the prisoners (NAA Victoria, MP742/1, 336/1/1205, Trial of Senior Japanese officers, and see evidence of Major Waheed, 1st Bn Hyderabad Infantry for a detailed statement of what happened to the Indians).
[89] Reports which were subject of a trial referred to as Vunarima Massacre … AWM54, 1010/6/65.
[90] Keiko Tamura has pointed out that it is the Japanese term ‘ian-fu’ that has been translated as comfort women. ‘Ian’ is still used in terms such as ‘ian ryoko’ (comfort trip) and ‘ian-kai’ (comfort party). Both terms are used within work places. They indicate that a company is accepting responsibility for the pastoral care of employees and are not just providing occasions for indulgence. For the Japanese military, the use of the term ‘ian’ may have implied that the women were made available as part of the military meeting its obligations to look after what were seen as the needs of the men (and to protect them and others from the spread of venereal disease) rather than simply providing for sensual pleasure.
[91] See footnote 66. Aso Tetsuo's material is obviously important.
[92] A final qualification: nearly all the material used here to build up a picture of what was known about the comfort women and how they worked in Rabaul has been gathered while researching other topics relating to Rabaul. It could be that research directed at comfort women in New Guinea and other parts of the southwest Pacific, and drawing on documents in both English and Japanese, would make a more substantial contribution to the international debates on comfort women and to the broader debates on nations' acknowledging their own histories.
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