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Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture
Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II
Available for the first time in English, this is the definitive account of the practice of sexual slavery the Japanese military perpetrated during World War II by the researcher principally responsible for exposing the Japanese government's responsibility for these atrocities. The large scale imprisonment and rape of thousands of women, who were euphemistically called "comfort women" by the Japanese military, first seized public attention in 1991 when three Korean women filed suit in a Toyko District Court stating that they had been forced into sexual servitude and demanding compensation. Since then the comfort stations and their significance have been the subject of ongoing debate and intense activism in Japan, much if it inspired by Yoshimi's investigations. How large a role did the military, and by extension the government, play in setting up and administering these camps? What type of compensation, if any, are the victimized women due? These issues figure prominently in the current Japanese focus on public memory and arguments about the teaching and writing of history and are central to efforts to transform Japanese ways of remembering the war.
Yoshimi Yoshiaki provides a wealth of documentation and testimony to prove the existence of some 2,000 centers where as many as 200,000 Korean, Filipina, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Burmese, Dutch, Australian, and some Japanese women were restrained for months and forced to engage in sexual activity with Japanese military personnel. Many of the women were teenagers, some as young as fourteen. To date, the Japanese government has neither admitted responsibility for creating the comfort station system nor given compensation directly to former comfort women.
This English edition updates the Japanese edition originally published in 1995 and includes introductions by both the author and the translator placing the story in context for American readers.
Yoshimi Yoshiaki provides a wealth of documentation and testimony to prove the existence of some 2,000 centers where as many as 200,000 Korean, Filipina, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Burmese, Dutch, Australian, and some Japanese women were restrained for months and forced to engage in sexual activity with Japanese military personnel. Many of the women were teenagers, some as young as fourteen. To date, the Japanese government has neither admitted responsibility for creating the comfort station system nor given compensation directly to former comfort women.
This English edition updates the Japanese edition originally published in 1995 and includes introductions by both the author and the translator placing the story in context for American readers.
262 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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About the author
Yoshimi Yoshiaki
7 books2 followersYoshiaki Yoshimi (吉見 義明 Yoshimi Yoshiaki, born 1946) is a professor of Japanese modern history at Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan. Yoshimi is a founding member of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility.
He was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and he studied at the University of Tokyo.
(from Wikipedia)
He was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and he studied at the University of Tokyo.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 12, 2017
3.5 stars
Some years ago I heard this euphemistic word 'comfort women' in the news reports on television related to their exploitation and atrocities while being cunningly abducted or rounded up to work in the comfort stations in various camps under the Japanese imperial army taking control of strategic points in China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Southeast Asia and Indonesia prior to the end of World War II in 1945. From the author's documentary research and the women's testimonies, there were some 2,000 stations (also called centers) that involved around 200,000 Korean, Filipina, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Burmese, Dutch, Australian, and some Japanese women. (front and back flap)
A complacent, obviously masculinism-oriented quote "Might is right," I think, could have been misunderstood, taken it for granted in mind and inhuman action ensued by means of sexual assault by conquering soldiers. However, such inhumanities might have been taken into account by those in charge because one of the reasons is that such misunderstanding should be reeducated in any related fields instructed and researched for everyday knowledge, skills and noble mindset applicable in terms of students' intelligence quotient (IQ), morality quotient (MQ) and other essential Qs (quotients, if need be) in faculties/schools of humanities and social sciences worldwide for more civilized human resources.
In short, I think I would no longer say anything on the bitter and notorious aftermath in terms of those unfortunate sexually abused women whose horrible, unthinkable and drama-like fate before the end of World War II still lingers on while their voices seem weaker, those in power seem not to hear from those ageing women in their 70s and 80s; therefore, the women's testimonial accounts of their inhumanity in the comfort stations seem to be soon forgotten like the shadow of the wind and perish in the passage of time disgracefully inexplicable to posterity in the years to come.
Some years ago I heard this euphemistic word 'comfort women' in the news reports on television related to their exploitation and atrocities while being cunningly abducted or rounded up to work in the comfort stations in various camps under the Japanese imperial army taking control of strategic points in China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Southeast Asia and Indonesia prior to the end of World War II in 1945. From the author's documentary research and the women's testimonies, there were some 2,000 stations (also called centers) that involved around 200,000 Korean, Filipina, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Burmese, Dutch, Australian, and some Japanese women. (front and back flap)
A complacent, obviously masculinism-oriented quote "Might is right," I think, could have been misunderstood, taken it for granted in mind and inhuman action ensued by means of sexual assault by conquering soldiers. However, such inhumanities might have been taken into account by those in charge because one of the reasons is that such misunderstanding should be reeducated in any related fields instructed and researched for everyday knowledge, skills and noble mindset applicable in terms of students' intelligence quotient (IQ), morality quotient (MQ) and other essential Qs (quotients, if need be) in faculties/schools of humanities and social sciences worldwide for more civilized human resources.
In short, I think I would no longer say anything on the bitter and notorious aftermath in terms of those unfortunate sexually abused women whose horrible, unthinkable and drama-like fate before the end of World War II still lingers on while their voices seem weaker, those in power seem not to hear from those ageing women in their 70s and 80s; therefore, the women's testimonial accounts of their inhumanity in the comfort stations seem to be soon forgotten like the shadow of the wind and perish in the passage of time disgracefully inexplicable to posterity in the years to come.
May 31, 2016
Cierro el libro bastante decepcionada. Pensé que iba a leer, por lo menos, relatos contados de primera persona de estas mujeres malamente llamadas "de consuelo", pero no. El autor de una forma muy académica, casi como si estuviera explicando cómo funciona la energía eólica, va dando cifras, nombres y lugares.
Esperaba más empatía ante estas mujeres que fueron engañadas, abusadas y esclavizadas con la finalidad de "entretener" a los hombres durante la guerra.
Esperaba más empatía ante estas mujeres que fueron engañadas, abusadas y esclavizadas con la finalidad de "entretener" a los hombres durante la guerra.
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May 15, 2025Devastador. Es increíble que esto sea historia, y que miles de mujer estén pasando por algo parecido con las guerras en la actualidad.
December 6, 2015
Well, this was a complicated one for me, the reasons behind it being that Japanese narrative can be hard to follow after a translation, also the text was more like the results of an investigation (many footnotes and document citations) so the narrative was heavy most of the time.
I enjoyed learning about the subject, one I was unaware of before. It also left me wanting more, to do some research on the stories of these girls and what their lives became. It's sad to think that most of them may have passed away by now and that so many of their stories went untold and retribution from the Japanese government never received.
So, the book was a bit repetitive and focused a lot on documents as evidence of the existence of the comfort centers, sadly leaving the women and their perils a bit on the side. On the author's notes at the end he states that many of the information given by the survivors in private interviews were not used because the book would be too long and it was also mentioned at some point that the accounts of some survivors contradicted each other or the facts were too vague so they were not used for those reasons.
In my opinion, tha author should have made a second book (maybe he did in Japan already? Who knows!) with that information, even if making it just a bunch of transcriptions. I'm sure other scholars could make some use of them.
I enjoyed learning about the subject, one I was unaware of before. It also left me wanting more, to do some research on the stories of these girls and what their lives became. It's sad to think that most of them may have passed away by now and that so many of their stories went untold and retribution from the Japanese government never received.
So, the book was a bit repetitive and focused a lot on documents as evidence of the existence of the comfort centers, sadly leaving the women and their perils a bit on the side. On the author's notes at the end he states that many of the information given by the survivors in private interviews were not used because the book would be too long and it was also mentioned at some point that the accounts of some survivors contradicted each other or the facts were too vague so they were not used for those reasons.
In my opinion, tha author should have made a second book (maybe he did in Japan already? Who knows!) with that information, even if making it just a bunch of transcriptions. I'm sure other scholars could make some use of them.
May 3, 2008
I was really disappointed with this book. The author's tone was rather more academic than what I thought these women deserved, and I wound up skimming large sections of the text.
The first half was completely given over to proving that, during the Japanese war of aggression against China and throughout World War II, the Japanese Army or agents thereof abducted, coerced or duped as many as 200,000 Asian and Caucasian women into confinement at "comfort stations" in order to sexually service Japanese officers and troops in war zones. These women so deprived of their human rights were rendered pretty much as a nameless, faceless mass in this section.
The voices of the few survivors of the "comfort stations" who finally came forward in the early 1990s didn't even appear until the second half of the book and, even then, only fragments or summaries of their stories were told. Very brief sub-chapters addressed the experiences of "comfort women" who survived the war. Some who were taken to Pacific Islands or to other distant locations were never able to make their way home again. Many of those who did return home faced discrimination in their communities and rejection by their families because of their "disgrace." Many suffered permanent injuries from violence or disease and/or were left infertile. Few were able to rebuild happy lives after the traumas they had suffered.
To give the author some credit, the premise of the book was to bring this forgotten history to the attention of the Japanese people because the wrongs done to these women had never been properly acknowledged, let alone any apologies or attempts at atonement made. The execution was lacking, however. This could have, and should have, been a much more compelling read.
The first half was completely given over to proving that, during the Japanese war of aggression against China and throughout World War II, the Japanese Army or agents thereof abducted, coerced or duped as many as 200,000 Asian and Caucasian women into confinement at "comfort stations" in order to sexually service Japanese officers and troops in war zones. These women so deprived of their human rights were rendered pretty much as a nameless, faceless mass in this section.
The voices of the few survivors of the "comfort stations" who finally came forward in the early 1990s didn't even appear until the second half of the book and, even then, only fragments or summaries of their stories were told. Very brief sub-chapters addressed the experiences of "comfort women" who survived the war. Some who were taken to Pacific Islands or to other distant locations were never able to make their way home again. Many of those who did return home faced discrimination in their communities and rejection by their families because of their "disgrace." Many suffered permanent injuries from violence or disease and/or were left infertile. Few were able to rebuild happy lives after the traumas they had suffered.
To give the author some credit, the premise of the book was to bring this forgotten history to the attention of the Japanese people because the wrongs done to these women had never been properly acknowledged, let alone any apologies or attempts at atonement made. The execution was lacking, however. This could have, and should have, been a much more compelling read.
February 22, 2010
This book was written shortly after many former comfort women came forward (1991) and the Japanese government denied any implicit/explicit involvement in the comfort women system before/during World War II. The author's primary goal was to discredit the Japanese government's stance that they had no involvement in rounding up women for the purpose of government-sanctioned rape, which the author does very well. He shows just how involved the government was in explicitly setting up the comfort stations and securing women, often as the result of fraud (promising earnings to be sent home), for the Japanese troops.
If you are looking for a book about individual experiences of comfort women, then this is not the book for you. You may find that George Hick's book The Comfort Women Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War more to your interest.
If you are looking for a book about individual experiences of comfort women, then this is not the book for you. You may find that George Hick's book The Comfort Women Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War more to your interest.
November 9, 2015
Es un libro bastante interesante, normalmente las guerras están llenas de sucesos indignantes hacia todas las personas, sin embargo en este libro se evidencian los terribles ultrajes hacia las mujeres. Realmente es indignante todo lo que sucedió y al final quede con un amargo sabor de boca.
Ojala y nunca se volvieran a repetir estos eventos.
Ojala y nunca se volvieran a repetir estos eventos.
February 21, 2016
This is a book about the “comfort women,” women who were forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers. The subtitle is Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II. (Minor complaint here; the cover of the book at the bottom, and the color of font used for the subtitle is almost the same, making it rather difficult to read the subtitle.)
The issue is still in current news, as more and more information about what was done to obtain the women and what happened to them while they worked in the “comfort stations” comes to life. The actual number of comfort women is not known; the book says it was around 50,000 at a minimum, and 200,000 at the higher range. Korean and Chinese woman formed the bulk of the group, along with Southeast Asian women and some Japanese women. There were also at least 1000 of the comfort stations.
In Shanghai, the first comfort stations were passed off as restaurants in order to get around the Chinese prostitution laws. By the end of 1936, there were ten of the stations established. Women were examined to determine if they had contracted any sexual diseases.
The Army, never one to really get along well with the Navy, established their own comfort stations. They were established, supposedly, in order to “prevent rapes by military personnel.” In other words, the soldiers taking over an area were going to use women for sex, period. They would either rape them, or use the comfort stations.
The very first station was set up in March of 1933 in Northeast China, using 35 Korean women and three Japanese women.
“...the Brigade Headquarters relentlessly warned soldiers to check prostitutes' health certificates, to use condoms and 'Secret Star Cream' disinfecting lubricant, and to wash their genitals with disinfectant after going to the comfort stations.”
The number of comfort stations increased quickly, especially in China. This was supposed to take some political pressure off the Japanese military.
Around 1939 there were 7 naval comfort stations in Shanghai, along with an unknown number of army comfort women. There were 4 comfort stations and 36 comfort women in Hangchow; 24 stations with 250 women in Jiujiang; 6 stations and 70 women in Wuhu; 20 stations and 395 women in Wuhan, and 11 stations and 111 women in Nanchang. That's 72 comfort stations just in that small number of cities, so the total number was probably rather large.
Examining some documents from the time, the author says that “In short, military comfort stations were considered essential to raising the morale of the troops; maintaining military discipline; preventing looting, rape, arson and the massacring of prisoners, and preventing sexually transmitted diseases.”
Comfort women were obtain by the military rounding them up, by police rounding them up, and by shysters who tricked the women by saying they had a good job (or something) waiting for them and, when the woman showed up, she was taken and used as a comfort woman.
The stations were supposed to stop rapes, but the author writes “..we find that there were no occupied areas in which rapes stopped.”
Another reason comfort stations were established was the way the Japanese military used its men. They were kept in the field for long time periods with little if any vacation at all. In the barracks the soldiers were routinely hit and beaten by their superiors. They daily lives were lived in crude facilities. Thus, they were primed to be abusive towards others, including women.
Yet another reason for the comfort stations was that the military was afraid the soldiers would tell military secrets to prostitutes and that wouldn't happen if regular comfort stations, under the control of the military, were set up.
Comfort stations were set up in China, Hong Kong, French Indochina, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, British Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, Burma, Thailand, New Guinea, the Okinawan archipelago, the Bonin Islands, Hokkaido, the Kurile Islands, Sakhalin, the Truck Islands, Koror Island, Taiwan, Saipan, Guam, and the Indian Nicobar Islands.
In other words, wherever the military went, the stations were set up. (With one exception, apparently. The Japanese did take and hold, for a while, a couple of the Alaskan islands, but, as far as I have read, no stations were set up there.)
How did women get out of the comfort station system? They committed suicide, escaped, were injured or killed in battles (the comfort stations were near the front lines), and illness. Some of them had actual contracts to do that kind of work and, when they were fulfilled, they left.
Some captured Australian nurses were forced to serve as comfort women.
A chapter goes into exactly how comfort stations were designed and constructed. There were also various regulations that had to be followed.
How many men did a comfort woman “service” in a day? Apparently it depended on if the women were primarily servicing officers, or were serving common soldiers. The latter group would have to service from around 20 to 30 different men in a single day. They also did not have any scheduled days off.
Then the Japanese lost the war and the comfort stations disappeared.
Not.
The Japanese had been led to believe that the American soldiers would horribly mistreat the civilians (just as the Japanese military had mistreated the civilians of all the areas it took over). Some women were even evacuated from the cities. On August 18th, the Japanese government stated construction of comfort stations for the Allied troops, which began their occupation of Japan on August 28.
Japan set up the stations all over the country, and got about 1360 women to work in them. On March 26, 1946, U.S. 8th Army Headquarters put out an order for the soldiers to stop using any places where prostitution was conducted.
The book then goes into how the comfort women suffered even after the war had ended and they no longer had to work in the comfort stations.
The issue is still in current news, as more and more information about what was done to obtain the women and what happened to them while they worked in the “comfort stations” comes to life. The actual number of comfort women is not known; the book says it was around 50,000 at a minimum, and 200,000 at the higher range. Korean and Chinese woman formed the bulk of the group, along with Southeast Asian women and some Japanese women. There were also at least 1000 of the comfort stations.
In Shanghai, the first comfort stations were passed off as restaurants in order to get around the Chinese prostitution laws. By the end of 1936, there were ten of the stations established. Women were examined to determine if they had contracted any sexual diseases.
The Army, never one to really get along well with the Navy, established their own comfort stations. They were established, supposedly, in order to “prevent rapes by military personnel.” In other words, the soldiers taking over an area were going to use women for sex, period. They would either rape them, or use the comfort stations.
The very first station was set up in March of 1933 in Northeast China, using 35 Korean women and three Japanese women.
“...the Brigade Headquarters relentlessly warned soldiers to check prostitutes' health certificates, to use condoms and 'Secret Star Cream' disinfecting lubricant, and to wash their genitals with disinfectant after going to the comfort stations.”
The number of comfort stations increased quickly, especially in China. This was supposed to take some political pressure off the Japanese military.
Around 1939 there were 7 naval comfort stations in Shanghai, along with an unknown number of army comfort women. There were 4 comfort stations and 36 comfort women in Hangchow; 24 stations with 250 women in Jiujiang; 6 stations and 70 women in Wuhu; 20 stations and 395 women in Wuhan, and 11 stations and 111 women in Nanchang. That's 72 comfort stations just in that small number of cities, so the total number was probably rather large.
Examining some documents from the time, the author says that “In short, military comfort stations were considered essential to raising the morale of the troops; maintaining military discipline; preventing looting, rape, arson and the massacring of prisoners, and preventing sexually transmitted diseases.”
Comfort women were obtain by the military rounding them up, by police rounding them up, and by shysters who tricked the women by saying they had a good job (or something) waiting for them and, when the woman showed up, she was taken and used as a comfort woman.
The stations were supposed to stop rapes, but the author writes “..we find that there were no occupied areas in which rapes stopped.”
Another reason comfort stations were established was the way the Japanese military used its men. They were kept in the field for long time periods with little if any vacation at all. In the barracks the soldiers were routinely hit and beaten by their superiors. They daily lives were lived in crude facilities. Thus, they were primed to be abusive towards others, including women.
Yet another reason for the comfort stations was that the military was afraid the soldiers would tell military secrets to prostitutes and that wouldn't happen if regular comfort stations, under the control of the military, were set up.
Comfort stations were set up in China, Hong Kong, French Indochina, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, British Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, Burma, Thailand, New Guinea, the Okinawan archipelago, the Bonin Islands, Hokkaido, the Kurile Islands, Sakhalin, the Truck Islands, Koror Island, Taiwan, Saipan, Guam, and the Indian Nicobar Islands.
In other words, wherever the military went, the stations were set up. (With one exception, apparently. The Japanese did take and hold, for a while, a couple of the Alaskan islands, but, as far as I have read, no stations were set up there.)
How did women get out of the comfort station system? They committed suicide, escaped, were injured or killed in battles (the comfort stations were near the front lines), and illness. Some of them had actual contracts to do that kind of work and, when they were fulfilled, they left.
Some captured Australian nurses were forced to serve as comfort women.
A chapter goes into exactly how comfort stations were designed and constructed. There were also various regulations that had to be followed.
How many men did a comfort woman “service” in a day? Apparently it depended on if the women were primarily servicing officers, or were serving common soldiers. The latter group would have to service from around 20 to 30 different men in a single day. They also did not have any scheduled days off.
Then the Japanese lost the war and the comfort stations disappeared.
Not.
The Japanese had been led to believe that the American soldiers would horribly mistreat the civilians (just as the Japanese military had mistreated the civilians of all the areas it took over). Some women were even evacuated from the cities. On August 18th, the Japanese government stated construction of comfort stations for the Allied troops, which began their occupation of Japan on August 28.
Japan set up the stations all over the country, and got about 1360 women to work in them. On March 26, 1946, U.S. 8th Army Headquarters put out an order for the soldiers to stop using any places where prostitution was conducted.
The book then goes into how the comfort women suffered even after the war had ended and they no longer had to work in the comfort stations.
August 7, 2020
I read this for my BA thesis in the topic. Well researched, gives a great overview on the topic, but isn't very detailed in the various subjects broached therein. Yoshimi also reaches some conclusions that don't exactly make sense to me. It's a good introduction to the topic and is useful for determining what topic you want to know more about.
November 22, 2010
The real events documented in this book are very disturbing. It is just a mere glimpse into the atrocities forced upon women during WWII ... specifically by the Japanese. Though the details and testimonies are not nearly as graphic as other books I've read, you can just imagine the horrible suffering these women had to endure.
(This book is written like a research paper and there's a lot of repetition.)
(This book is written like a research paper and there's a lot of repetition.)
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July 28, 2011thorough coverage of this controversial subject - addresses atrocities committed by the Japanese during WWII. I found the final chapter - Conditions after the Defeat - very disturbing. In anticipation of the arrival of the Allied forces, Japanese outfitted Comfort Stations with their own women. The stations were used, and then banned only when venereal diseases started spreading amongst Allied soldiers.
March 9, 2010
This book was a bit repetitive but overall a good read. It never ceases to amaze me how women are brutalized without a second thought. It saddens me that women always end up being a casualty of war. I hope that these women do receive justice and that the government is held accountable for their brutal actions.
December 24, 2012
A very deliberate, prosecutorial puncturing of the Japanese government's denial of its role in sexual slavery throughout Asia during WWII. A good first step in the historiography, both of the comfort women and efforts hold the Japanese government accountable.
June 11, 2015
No existe motivo alguno para justificar el maltrato a la mujer y mucho menos el que se presenta en este libro. Creo que tiene datos interesantes y que nos muestra esta historia para que no se vuelva a repetir.
June 20, 2007
absolutely wonderful.
December 19, 2009
Feel the history behind this book too. A passionate work and great example that historians can change the world -- sometimes.
November 8, 2010
Hard to read because of the topic. It is truly sad and a horror what MEN do to WOMEN in the name of war.
January 5, 2012
Thorough review of the history of the Korean "comfort women" issue, accessible, and heavily researched. A nice primer for anyone interested in the issue.
August 8, 2013
This book sheds light on how the Japanese military treated women of Korea and The Philippines. It is hard to believe that was allowed by the Japanese.
April 9, 2008
Deeply distrubing
August 31, 2013
An excellent historical saga of an awful chapter in history.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews