The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War

by George L. Hicks

"The most extensive record available in English of the ugly story."―Elisabeth Rubinfein, New York Newsday Over 100,000 women across Asia were victims of enforced prostitution by the Japanese Imperial Forces during World War II. Until as recently as 1993 the Japanese government continued to deny this shameful aspect of its wartime history. George Hicks's book is the only history in English regarding this terrible enslavement of women.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Japan, Asia, War, World War II, Historical

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

Reviews

[Tuscany Bernier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where to start? This was a very hard read on subject matter alone. However, I kept reading because I really craved to hear the stories these women kept inside for years. This book was published around 1995 - just a few years after Japan admitted that it had committed war crimes against the women forced into prostitution.

Intertwined with the author's textbook rendition of the events were actual interviews and stories from the women affected. There were also photos (nothing sexually explicit, of course!) in the middle that brought the words off the pages. We could see how women at different stations lived and survived. Overall, very interesting and well-researched for the time it was published it.

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is written in a style where information is presented in a chapter, and that is added to by material on specific women who were used as comfort women. The book covers were the women were obtained, how they were obtained, and how they were treated. The first woman recalls beatings she received; the second how she was brought from Korea to become a comfort woman.


There were general health measures followed, including inspections for desire, requirement of the use of a condom (which was not always followed), and temporary isolation of sick women. The exact number of comfort women is unknown; the author estimates there were some 139,000 at most.


The three main methods for getting the women was by trickery, by kidnapping them, or in some other means coercing them to become comfort women. Some died during the war; some returned to their homes after the war, and some ended up being used in comfort stations in Japan for the use of the occupation troops.


Prostitution was legal before the war, although prostitutes had to be licensed and subject to medical inspection. The author notes that the Roman army had a comfort women system, and names a particular Spanish army that also used them. in 1598. The British has a military prostitution system in India, so none of this type of thing was exactly new.


There was also some superstition involved in the Japanese use of comfort women. For a man to have sex with a woman just before going into battle was good luck. Any guy who was a virgin should have sex at least once before going into battle.


The first comfort station under direct Japanese military control was in Shanghai in 1932. This was set up to reduce the number of rapes that the Japanese soldiers were carrying out. The women in the station were Koreans. 'The number and sizes of comfort stations were linked to the strength of Japanese units in the area.'


Women who were not generally subject to use as comfort women were those who were daughters of the landlord class and local officials, this being used to help placate local populations.


Despite all the stations, the number of women used and what they went through, 'The only cases of forcible seizure for rape and prostitution which led to war crime trials involved Dutch women internees in central Java, in Indonesia.'


Japanese professional prostitutes that worked as comfort women were kept in more secure base areas and made available to the higher ranking soldiers. Koreans and others were sent to the front lines.


Some Chinese women became comfort women because they were destitute and had no other means to survive, and some did in order to spy for the Chinese.


Sometimes comfort women were sent out with a small group of troops that had a special mission, like getting supplies.


The kempeitai, or Japanese secret police, kept records of comfort women in Manchuria and China.


The book has a whole chapter on different regulations that had to be followed in different areas in the use of comfort women. He also has some interesting information on how Okinawa, although technically a part of Japan, had its own distinct way of doing things, including finding ways to avoid the draft and the professional prostitutes refusing to become comfort women. Comfort women use in various areas of the empire are covered.


The relationship of kamikaze to comfort women is covered, along with what happened to the comfort women when the war ended. A good part of the book is taken up with an examination of how people gradually became aware some time after the war of the use of the comfort women, and the drive for greater historical awareness of their use, and the drive official Japanese acknowledgment of their use, apology for their use, and some form of compensation. None of this is really settled even yet.


A good, although depressing, book.

[ジェイミー · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sensitive topic that needs to be treated with responsibility. The book is not one that attempts to provide an objective, fair, and reconciling understanding of the circumstances surrounding the comfort women. The main goal of the book is to give voice to the horrible and painful experiences of these women. In this way, the book is very important as their voices should not be quieted or diluted in anyway. The author does not, however, provide any larger understanding of humanity and how these circumstances come about in the world. In this way, he both does and does not provide justice to these women. I didn't like the book because it lacked any larger perspective that can move us forward in the world to prevent a bigger understanding of humanity. You can read this book and think the problem is just with Japan and "their" people. In this way, it's a small-minded book that, at its worst, sensationalizes these poor women as a means to support a self-centered anger and racism.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A shocking story, and the Japanese reluctance to apologise and recompense these women adds insult to injury.

[Sebastien · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those atypical books that I assume I will enjoy reading going in but actually end up destroying parts of my soul and leaving me anguished.

The book is presented in an odd style. Information is given on the institution of comfort women based on the points of view of different groups or institutions, and then personalized accounts from comfort women are given.

It is an interesting book. It is not fun or enjoyable. It is horrifying what happened to these people. 80 percent of comfort women were minors. Post-war, most of their countries' cultures left them alienated and did not allow them to express what happened to anyone. Japan institutionalized legal slavery for men and women during wartime, with most women being forced into sexual slavery. Most women were raped tens of thousands of times over the course of their slavery, sometimes forced to service fifty men per day.

Much of the book focuses on Korean comfort women. There is a strange loophole that Japan still attempts to use to defend themselves as during the war, Korean women were considered Japanese subjects and thus it was argued that they were doing a duty towards their country. How they or their families who suffered eternally and powerlessly doesn't really figure into Japan's reasoning. They just didn't want their soldiers to go without sex.

What is intensely upsetting is that, as Hicks mentions, a kind of collective amnesia over the reality of institutionalized sexual slavery has come over the Japanese, even though at the time everyone knew that it was going on.

As a whole, it's a decent book. The style is a little hodge-podgey for my taste, with no clear flow. The personalized accounts are shocking to read. The book is presented in an informative manner and the information itself is, while horrifying, relevant to our times. I doubt any non-Japanese who read this book will ever think of Japan in the same way again.

[Adar Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

So heartbreaking 💔....
A book which tells different kinds of stories of little girls, literally teenagers, getting kidnapped from their homes, slapped, beaten and even shot to death, only to "serve" military "men" and eventually getting their lifes SHATTERED, DEVASTATED, CRASHING DOWN... there's so many more to describe the life of the beautiful souls that suffered so much.

English isn't my first language so there were some things I didn't quite understand, but to read that the Japanese refused to talk about the comfort women and apologize to them and compensate them....is just sad.
also to know that still till this day, the subject isn't really thought in Japanese school as something in history is just bad. this book really describes how bad it is to NOT teach the new generation these things, as we can learn from the past and never do such things....

Furthermore, seeing actually footages of what's written in the book just made it so much more alive and realer and uncomfortable and sad. seeing the line of soldiers waiting outside the comfort station with a smile on their faces ......I understand how they hate men....I mean I hate men too and I am thank God not one to know exactly how they feel, fortunately.

but I hope they find their peace, and if not in this life then hopefully in the next ❣️.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is definitely built upon the work of others, one helpful thing about the place it holds is that it can tell about the hearings that happened in the early 90s. One might hope that we would have learned something after all this time, but the raging against Critical Race Theory and attempts to make even saying"gay" a crime are not encouraging.

For this book, for all of the research and statistics, I appreciate that each chapter has the stories of people. The bare facts hint at the horror, but it is always followed by that touching base: these are real people, and this is what it did to their lives.

As much as there are people who don't want to know, it is important to know. Facing the past is crucial to change, which explains the reluctance of some, but is still necessary.

[LA · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book that is well written and has many anecdotal cases. It was, however, surprising to read that Hicks was unaware of this topic for many years. Since he is very familiar with Asian nations and grew up during the WWII, Korean, and Vietnam conflicts, logic would argue that the intersection of sexual abuse during wartime would not be a new phenomenon.

Regardless, the book is well done and thoroughly researched. It also includes when appropriate, treatment of these women when they sought to return to civilian life.

[Pia Jormel *manosalaobra_apn*]

I recently finished a romance book that is set in a futuristic society that seems to be related to what this book is about. I tried finding something in Goodreads and the first result I got was by a Japense author, I had to turn to the Amazon search to find this book. Hopefully it'll be good. I usually don't read nonfiction.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is an interesting book. It's sad to see how much the patriarchy has deemed women as lesser, in many of the countries involved. No true apology nor real acknowledgment has been made for the victims. What these women have gone through, as the poorer classes, no matter the country, have always been looked as, as disposable. These women deserve so much better.

[Melissa Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

He somehow managed to make a topic like this incredibly boring and at the same time extremely upsetting.

[Pamela Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an eye opening book. Incredibly maddening and sad.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

The warcrimes committed by the Japanese and men in general is disgusting and should deserve more light.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a hard read due to the content, but history is not pretty. It is important to learn about their stories and hopefully do better going forward.

[Ariel Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy read, somewhat slow in some parts. However, the survivors’ stories are so heartbreaking.

[Giorgia Catalano]

A hard read but an important one.

[Bryden Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, in depth retelling of the horrible treatment of women by Japan during the war.

[Michael Connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several tens of thousands of women, mostly Korean, but also Chinese, Malayan and Filipino, were enslaved as prostitutes for the Japanese army during World War II. At first the Japanese arms used Japanese prostitutes. But as the war expanded, this supply proved to be inadequate. The Japanese wanted to avoid their troops raping the local women of conquered territories, as had happened in earlier wars. So they kidnapped local women and forced them into prostitution, starting in Korea, which they had already occupied since the 1905 war between Japan and Russia. Besides spending years being raped on a daily basis, the comfort women who survived the war became infertile and suffered deep emotional wounds. The Japanese were able to cover it up after the war, because the United States needed Japan's support for the Cold War against the Soviet Union, and thus reluctant to prosecute Imperial Japan for its war crimes.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has several personal stories from comfort women, but I didn't get a real sense of continuity - there were multiple flips of countries and years so I still don't have a solid sense of what happened where and when.

Now, having said that, the author does bring up a very interesting theory as to why the comfort woman system existed, proliferated, and was not recognized* as a war crime after the war: because countries and governments did not recognize women's rights. Hicks makes a pretty convincing argument here, and points out that it was likely no coincidence that the personal stories of comfort women coincided with the growth of women's rights groups throughout Asia and the Pacific.


*The one exception: The Dutch government did prosecute members of Japan's military for crimes against Dutch women, but not for crimes against women of other nationalities or backgrounds.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

margaret recommended another book about the same thing but this was all the library had. It was very factual which is why it took 3 months to read. There were personal accounts but they were usually very short-i would have liked to hear more about people personal experience. Good book for facts but not an easy read.

[sheena d! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of over-simplified and bouncy, but Hicks does present a moving narrative about how destructive and calculating the combination of patriarchy and militarism can be when it comes to a woman's humanity.

(How do you write about organized, institutionalized rape?)

Interesting (if kind of stereotypical) discussion on Japan, the priority of masculinity, and the values of lives.

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea about the mostly Korean women kidnapped and used as prostitutes for the Japan Army, so this book was illuminating and very sad at the same time.

Non conoscevo la storia delle donne rapite in Corea (per la maggior parte) e costrette a prostituirsi per l'esercito giapponese, quindi questo libro é stato interessante e molto triste allo stesso tempo.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Groundbreaking.
Essential to the understanding of the depth of Japan's involvement in this dastardly well thought of, systematic execution of sexual slavery and the ramfications of which still makes the headlines today.

[Deedee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 3 1/2 stars. Exhaustive account of the subject. Hicks left no stone unturned in his research. Containing every stat one could think of made for a long, tiring read. But excellent example of discrimination against women. An important book if you can get through the minute details.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

For information, it was good. But it's a little unprocessed--raw material for maybe a more narrative history.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I cried almost every page of this book. Another one not for the faint of heart, but a must read for those interested in Japan, women, WWII, and modern Asian history.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

General overview of the "comfort women" (women who were systematically forced into sexualized slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army and subsequently silenced by the world because #patriarchy).

[Chad]

please

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opening, you don't hear this side of history. Worth the read!

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skimmed the book. Tragic stories.