Comfort women

Comfort women

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Comfort women were women who provided sexual services in kashizashikis (Japanese legal term: licensed brothels, public brothels) for soldiers and military civilian employees (hereafter referred to as "military personnel") set up on the front lines and in garrisons in occupied territories by the Imperial Japanese Military (hereafter referred to as "Japanese Military") during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War.

In the Empire of Japan (mainland Japan, Korea, and Taiwan), a licensed prostitution system (also called the public prostitution system) was established to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and maintain public order and morals, and was established in each local community. Under the licensed prostitution system, licensed brothels were called "kashizashiki" and licensed prostitutes were called "shōgi" (Japanese legal term: licensed prostitutes, public prostitutes). The place of work and residence of shōgi was limited to kashizashiki, and the establishment of kashizashikis was limited to places (licensed quarters, red light districts) designated by prefectural governors. In the vicinity of Japanese military garrisons (division locations for the army, and ports for the navy) within the Empire of Japan, brothels were attracted to these military personnel as their main customers to prevent the spread of STDs.

In 1932, the January 28 incident broke out. The Navy stationed in Shanghai designated and used kashizashikis run by Japanese nationals on the condition that they were regularly examined for venereal diseases in the presence of consular police officers and marines. In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. The Army revised the Field PX Regulations to include the establishment of comfort stations (hereafter referred to as "Ianjos") in PXs. The Japanese military established the Comfort Station Regulations to supervise and utilize the establishment and operation of Ianjos. After 1938, Ianjos were established in Japanese military garrisons throughout China. In December 1941, the Pacific War broke out. The Southern Army established the Comfort Station Regulations. Ianjos were established throughout Southeast Asia.

In August 1991, Kim Hak-sun came forward as a comfort woman, and in December, together with other Korean soldiers and military civilian employees, she filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court seeking compensation from the Japanese government. In January 1996, Radhika Coomaraswamy, a special rapporteur for the United Nations Human Rights Commission, reported that "approximately 200,000 Korean women were forced into sexual slavery, and the comfort stations were sexual slavery facilities". In June 1998, Gay J. McDougall, another special rapporteur, reported that "comfort stations were rape centers, and Southeast Asian comfort women were similarly sexual slaves". In June 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on the Japanese government to acknowledge that the Japanese military had made comfort women into sex slaves and apologize. As of May 2025, the number of comfort women recognized by the South Korean government is 240. The historical society argues that comfort women were either licensed prostitutes or sex slaves, and the debate continues even now, 80 years after the end of the war.

Background

The Imperial Japanese System of Licensed Prostitution

The Empire of Japan was a country governed by the rule of law. Under the law, Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, and citizens and military personnel were all equal. The licensed prostitution system, which aimed to prevent the spread of STDs and promote public order and morals, was established in mainland Japan in 1900, in Taiwan in 1906 and on the Korean peninsula in 1916 (for details, see Prostitution System in Korea under the Japanese Empire), and became established in each local community.

Prostitute application procedure

Women who worked in the sex business were classified as shōgi, geigi and shakufu. Shōgis were able to work in kashizashikis, and geisha and shakufus were also able to work in ryōri-yas by receiving a license as shōgi.

Women who wanted to work in the sex business had to first go to the police station with jurisdiction over the place of business and obtain permission by filling out an application form signed by the business operator (also known as: manager, proprietor, owner, etc.) of kashizashiki or ryōri-ya stating her registered domicile, address, name, trade name, date of birth, and place of business, and attaching the following documents:

1. Parental consent form

1. Seal certificate of the person who consented to the above

1. Family register

1. Copies of contracts regarding prostitution and advance payments

1. Resume and document stating the reason for becoming a shōgi

1. A medical certificate from a doctor designated by the Chief of Police

Permission Conditions

The terms of permission are as follows:

1. Those over 18 years old in mainland Japan, over 17 years old in Korea, and over 16 years old in Taiwan

1. Those who do not have infectious diseases

1. When there is consent from a parent, or when there is an explanation that no one will give consent

1. When a contract regarding shōgi business or an advance debt is deemed appropriate

1. Unmarried woman

Prostitute Business Contract

When a contract regarding shōgi business or an advance debt is deemed appropriate, the contract was concluded through an intermediary (also known as: recruiter, broker, pimps), and the prostitute, her parent, and the business operator signed (stamped) the contract. The intermediaries earned a living by receiving a commission from both parties. The contract was indentured, and the advance was paid to her parent when the contract was concluded.

The locations of kashizashikis and ryōri-yas with permission to operate sex businesses were limited to areas designated by the governor (called "yūkaku"). Shōgis, geisha, and shakufus were required to undergo regular venereal disease examinations, and those who failed were prohibited from working. Employers were required to prepare balance sheets with their licensed prostitutes every month and to approve and stamp them jointly. At the end of 1939, the numbers of Korean shōgis, geisha, and shakufus on the Korean peninsula were 1,866, 6,122, and 1,145, respectively; the number of intermediaries was 3,380, and the number of Kashizashiki operators was 303. At the end of 1942, compared to the end of 1939, there were 249 fewer Korean employers and 1,191 fewer licensed prostitutes, while the number of Korean intermediaries had increased by 157.

Establishment of Ianjos

Purpose

The purpose of establishing Ianjos was to prevent the spread of STDs. The military's biggest concern on the battlefield was the spread of STDs through the use of private brothels. This necessitated the establishment of public brothels that required regular STD examinations.

1932 to 1937: use private licensed brothels

In 1932, January 28 incident broke out. The Japanese Imperial Marines stationed in Shanghai used kashizashiki run by Japanese and a Korean as Ianjo for the Marines on the condition that they agreed to be present at STD examinations of prostitutes by the consular police officers and Marines.

1938 to 1945 : Military involved in establishment and operation

In July 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the front line expanded. In September, recognizing the need for Ianjos, the Ministry of the Army revised the Field PX Regulation, adding the following: "PX may also provide necessary comfort facilities". In December, the Police Department of the Consulate-General of Japan in Shanghai, after consultation with relevant organizations, decided to set up Ianjos (de facto kashizashiki) at various locations on the front lines, and established the division of roles and necessary procedures for the organizations concerned to set up Ianjos. Since then, Ianjos have been established throughout China under this division of roles. In August 1941, the Pacific War broke out, and subsequently, Ianjos were based on the fronts and in occupied districts in Southeast Asia.

Establishment of Comfort Station Regulations

The military established the comfort station regulations regarding the establishment, operation, and use of Ianjos. These regulations were based on the licensed prostitution system of the Empire of Japan. The regulations for the establishment and operation of comfort stations were enacted by the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces or the Military Administration Departments, and the regulations for their use were enacted by the units in which the Ianjos were established. The former stipulate the authority to grant permission for establishment and operation, the qualifications of comfort station operators, the employment conditions of comfort women, the implementation of regular health examinations for employees, and the matters that operators and comfort women must comply with. The latter[24] stipulate the appointment of a person in charge of overseeing the management of the comfort station (confirmation of sales revenue, monthly income and expenditure statements, monthly balance sheets between operators and comfort women, etc.), discipline (control of violations of the regulations), and hygiene (implementation of health examinations, patrols and guidance of hygiene conditions, etc.), business hours, holidays, days of the week for use by each unit, hours of use, fees, payment methods, and the matters that users, operators, and comfort women must comply with.

Control of Ianjos

When both civilians and the military used Ianjos, the consular police conducted control based on the domestic laws (Criminal Code and Prostitution Control Regulations), and when they were used exclusively by the military, the Military Police conducted control based on the Military Criminal Code, the Criminal Code, and the Comfort Women Regulations. Every month, the Chief of the Military Police prepared a Military Police Report including the Ianjos in the area under his jurisdiction and submitted it to the Military Police Headquarters. The Commander of the Military Police Headquarters compiled these into a monthly report and reported it to the highest military level via the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. The military shared this information.

In the Central China Expeditionary Army, the number of murders, injuries, and rapes in 1941 were 14, 31, and 25 (24 Chinese, 1 Japanese national). During the nine months from July 1941 to April 1942 (excluding September 1941), there were eight crimes at the comfort stations (three thefts, two assaults by superiors, one murder, one assault, and one aid in suicide). The types of misconduct included assaults on comfort women and bookkeepers, and damage to comfort women's belongings and comfort station property. The number of assaults on comfort women ranged from 0 to 3 per month, and was mainly due to intoxication.

Recruitment and employment of comfort women

The recruitment and employment of comfort women were conducted by Ianjo operators and intermediaries selected by the military. The consular police or the military in the area where the Ianjos were to be established issued these persons an identification card stating the reason and asked them to carry it, and asked the police in the area where the comfort women were to be recruited to facilitate their employment and the travel of the comfort women.

In 1927, the Empire of Japan signed the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children, which banned prostitution for those under 21 years of age (Korea and Taiwan were excluded). As a result, in February 1938, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notice in mainland Japan permitting the travel of women for prostitution only to those who were currently engaged in licensed prostitution in the mainland, were 21 years of age or older, and had no infectious diseases such as venereal disease, and were heading to North and Central China, and they were issued identification cards. Women who traveled to China for prostitution were required to:

1. Appear at a police station in person and apply for an identification card.

1. Obtain approval from the nearest ascendant in the same family register, or from the head of the household if there was no ascendant, or if there was no one to approve, to clarify that fact.

1. When issuing an identification card, the contract of employment and other details were investigated, and special care was taken to ensure that there was no trafficking or kidnapping of women.

Identification cards were issued by the chief of the police station where the woman lived. Therefore, Japanese comfort women employed in mainland Japan were limited to licensed prostitutes and were 21 years of age or older. On the other hand, Korea and Taiwan were not covered by the international treaty, so comfort women were employed according to domestic law, with the age requirement being 17 or over in Korea and 16 or over in Taiwan.

Employment Contracts

Table 1 shows examples of employment contracts between comfort women and Ianjo operators. The differences between the contracts at the Central China/Shanghai comfort stations and the Southern Army comfort stations were the method of repaying advance loans and the burden of medical expenses. The method of increasing earnings was to reduce the number of days off work due to STD infection, to attract more guests (especially officers), and to receive tips. Tipping was prohibited in China, but permitted in Southeast Asia. The idea behind the Southern Army comfort station contract was the same as that of licensed prostitutes in mainland Japan, and comfort women had a higher incentive to work. The operating regulations of the Shanghai South District comfort station stipulated that earnings were shared equally between the comfort station operator and the comfort women, the same as the Southern Army.

Table 1: Examples of comfort women employment contract conditions

Items	Recruitment of shōgis for the Central China/Shanghai comfort stations	Recruitment of comfort women for the Southern Army comfort stations	Contract for prostitution
Recruitment period	December 1937 - February 1938	1942-1944	1923
Recruitment location	Mainland Japan	Korean Peninsula	Mainland Japan
Recruitment method	Door-to-door solicitation	Door to door solicitation newspaper advertisements: "Keijo Shimbun", "Mainichi Shimbun"	Door-to-door solicitation
Contract Period	2 years	Interrogation report No.49: 0.5-1 year	6 years
Age	16 to 30 years old	Keijo Shimbun: 17 to 30 years old Mainichi Shimbun: 18 to 30 years old	18 years or older
Place of work	Central China/Shanghai Army Comfort Stations	Rear 〇〇 Unit	―
Monthly salary	10% of earnings paid monthly. However, half of the amount must be saved.	300 yen or more	―
Advance loan	500 to 1,000 yen. However, 20% of the advance loan is deducted and used for the travel expenses.	Newspaper advertisement: up to 3,000 yen. Interrogation report No. 49: 300 to 1,000 yen.	2,400 yen
Allocation of earnings	―	Debt balance Employer income Her income Over 1,500 yen  Over 60% Under 40% Under 1,500 yen  Up to 50%  Over 50% No debts   Under 40%    Over 60% Interrogation report No. 2: 50%	―
Advance loan repayment method	Extinguished with the completion of the annual term. Fully paid up even if she is absent from work due to illness during the year.	Repay from her income. Pay back at least 2/3 of her income each month, and the remaining amount is at her discretion.	Repayment from her income
Interest	None during the year. In case of cancellation, 1% interest will be charged per month on the remaining balance.	None	None
Employer's burden	Food, clothing, bedding, consumables	Room, cupboard, wardrobe, bedding, meals, lighting, disinfecting equipment, disinfectants, health check-up costs	Meals, room equipment. Costumes are at the employee’s expense.
Medical expenses	Employer's responsibility	Expenses related to pregnancy, childbirth, and illness arising from work are shared between the employer and the employee. Other expenses are paid by the employee. However, the employer must provide appropriate assistance.	The individual is responsible for all expenses except for the cost of treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.
Forced savings	Half of her income each month	Every month, 3/100 of her income is deposited in her name at a post office designated by the prefectural governor.	―
Return expenses	Employer pays at the end of the term	Paid by employer	―
Penalty fee	Within a year, it is 10% of the advance payment. For the term, it is calculated daily.	If the contract is terminated within six months against the will of the employer, a substantial penalty will be paid. The amount will be determined with the approval of the local governor.	―
Cancellation during the year	All outstanding loans, penalties, and employment fees	The employer must settle the earnings up to that day.	If the employee violates this contract, she will be liable to compensate for all damages caused by it. The same applies if she is unable to repay her debts within the contract period.
The burden of non-payment of entertainment expenses	―	All expenses are borne by the employer	―
Money and goods received from customers, etc.	―	All money and goods received from customers and others shall be considered the income of the employee.	―
Compensation	Compensation will be paid according to the employee's earnings	―	―

Total number of comfort women and ethnic majority

Total number

There is no primary source showing the total number of comfort women. Estimates of the total number of comfort women vary widely among researchers, ranging from 20,000 to 410,000. The estimate is based on the total number of soldiers and military civilian employees,  the number of soldiers and military civilian employees per comfort woman, and the replacement rate of comfort women, and varies depending on the assumed values of these parameters. The figure of 200,000 is a quote from Kim Il-myeon's book and has no basis in it.

Ethnic majority

In the above book, Kim Il-myeon writes, "The number of comfort women is said to be about 200,000, but 80 to 90 percent of them were Korean women between the ages of 16 and 19," but there is no basis for this. Haruki Wada criticizes Yoshimi Yoshiaki's assertion that "the largest number were Koreans, then Chinese, then Japanese" based on data on the number of prostitutes by ethnicity, who were a source of STDs for Japanese soldiers, as being too far-fetched. He argues that based on the number of identification documents issued to travel to China, the majority were Japanese.

Life in Ianjos

Operational structure of Ianjo

An Ianjo was composed of the director (operator, owner), the bookkeeper (receptionist (creating a customer list), receiving fees (creating a sales slip), and guidance), the accountant (general accounting work (including monthly income and expenditure statements, and statements of credit and debit between comfort women and operator)), the comfort women, and other employees who were responsible for general daily life tasks. Ianjos were set up and run by ethnic groups, as each ethnic group had its language and customs. However, the majority of the customers were Japanese, and since Japanese, the official language, was required for the operational procedures of the Ianjos, the Korean and Taiwanese operators, bookkeepers, and accountants were fluent in Japanese.

The number of people per household varied widely; in the case of Jiujiang and Nanchang, the number of people per household was 5 to 20, of which the number of comfort women was 3 to 16. The number of comfort women per household was 22 and 20 women in two Korean comfort stations in Myitkyina, 21 women in one Chinese comfort station, and 3 to 14 women in southern Celebes, with an average of 7 women.

Living Environment

Ianjos were part of the field PXs and moved with the troops they belonged to. The living environment of comfort women varied depending on the environment in which they were set up. In urban areas where security was stable, they had the freedom to go out, but in areas where security was unstable, their range of movement was restricted to security areas to ensure their safety, just like ordinary Japanese nationals. Comfort women's range of movement was the same as that of other employees, including the operators.

Daily Life

Life in an Ianjo was no different from life in a kashizashiki in the home country. Servants provided all daily care for the comfort women, and the comfort women themselves were required to bathe daily and maintain cleanliness. Those who did not use condoms and those during menstruation were prohibited from serving customers, and after each interaction with customers, it was mandatory to wash their genitals to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Number of customers

Japan mainland

In the Ianjos in Okinawa, a ticket system was adopted until the operation of the comfort stations was on track. The number of comfort tickets issued per day was set at three for soldiers and two for non-commissioned officers.

China

The number of customers per day for comfort women in the Nanning and Qinzhou comfort stations was equivalent to three soldiers (2 yen per hour), two non-commissioned officers (2.4 yen per hour), and one officer (10 yen for lodging).[41]

Southeast Asia

The number of customers served at the Korean comfort station in Myitkyina, Burma, was 80-90 soldiers and NCOs and 10-15 officers per day, for a total of 22 comfort women.

As seen above, the number of customers served in the three regions is almost the same.

Earnings

China

The average monthly earnings per comfort woman at the Ianjos in Nanning and Qinzhou in June 1940 were about 400 and 460 yen, respectively.

Southeast Asia

The monthly earnings at the Korean comfort station in Myitkyina, Burma, ranged from a minimum of 300 yen to a maximum of 1,600 yen (including tips) from January to June 1943. Tipping was prohibited in China, but tips were allowed in the Southern Army (Article 6 of the Employment Contract Regulations), and all tips were counted as the comfort women's income. Excluding tips, earnings in both regions were almost the same.

The Comfort Women Controversy

→To refer Controversy over Ianjos and comfort women

How the Comfort Women Controversy Emerged

After the end of the Pacific War, from 1946 to 1948, those involved in forced prostitution and rape by the Japanese military were punished by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which the United States, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Australia, Philippines, and China organized. In January 1999, the U.S. Congress pointed out that these trials were insufficient, and established the IWG to open classified documents and thoroughly investigate new war crime records, including comfort women. The investigation was completed in January 2007, but no new criminal evidence was found. Therefore, there is no evidence to support the testimony of those who came forward after the military trials to say they had been forced into prostitution or raped by the Japanese military.

In June 1965, Japan and South Korea signed an agreement to "confirm that the property, rights and interests, and claims of the two countries and their nationals are completely and finally settled". At that time, comfort women were not even discussed. In the 1960s, the Allied Forces investigation document “Amenities in the Japanese Armed Forces", which contained information on comfort stations, was declassified and made public, but the public prostitution system was legal in the Japanese Empire, and comfort stations were understood to be public brothels and comfort women were understood to be public prostitutes, so no one in English-speaking countries was interested in comfort women.

In August 1991, Kim Hak-sun came forward as a comfort woman, testifying that she had been “forced into prostitution by the Japanese military against her will." Similar testifiers subsequently came forward, and with growing international interest in the violation of women’s human rights during wartime, the claim that “comfort women were sex slaves” spread.

Evidence on licensed prostitutes and sex slaves for comfort women

The basis for each side's argument on each topic is summarized in Table 9 of "Ianjos."

Expert consensus is that history as an academic discipline is based on primary sources. Table 2 presents a comparison of evidence claiming Korean comfort women as licensed prostitutes and sex slaves. The evidence supporting the licensed prostitute claim consists of primary sources such as laws from that time, police records, documents issued by government agencies and the military, and materials from Allied forces. In contrast, the evidence for the sexual slavery claim comes mainly from secondary sources such as Hicks's book, Yoshida Seiji's book, the Kono Statement, and the testimony of former Korean comfort women. Both sides cite POW Interrogation Report No. 49 and Comfort Station Regulations as the evidence for their claims.

Table 2 Evidence for the claim that comfort women were licensed prostitutes and sex slaves

Organization	Documentary evidence		Comfort women
	Primary source	Secondary source	Witness (testimony content)	Others
The majority of Japanese historical societies	Official documents: Licensed prostitutes	Ikuhiko Hata book	Untrustworthy: Official documents deny	Licensed prostitutes
Japanese Government	Official document: Licensed prostitutes	Kono Statement: Based on 16 Korean witnesses	Trustworthy: Sex slaves	Licensed prostitutes
UN: Coomaraswamy Report	Comfort Station Regulations: Evidence on sexual slavery facilities	G. Hicks book: No evidence Seiji Yoshida book: Fiction	Same as above: 5 Korean testimonies cited	Sex slaves: About 200,000 Koreans
U.S. House of Representatives: Resolution 121	Interrogation report No. 49: Recruiting through deception	Yuki Tanaka book: No evidence Seiji Yoshida book: Fiction Kono Statement: Misquotation	Same as above: Based on 3 witnesses (2 Koreans and 1 Dutch)	Same as above
American Historical Association	―	Kono Statement	Same as above	Same as above
5 Japanese historical societies	Prostitution Control law: sex slaves Interrogation Report No.49: Recruiting through deception	Yoshiaki Yoshimi book	Same as above	Same as above
Cambridge University Press: American Political Science Review	ー	Coomaraswamy Report, Kono Statement, US House of Representatives Resolution 121, books by Yoshimi Yoshiaki, G.Hicks, Yuki Tanaka	Mun Ok-ju(in Manchuria)	Same as above
South Korean Government	―	―	Same as above The number of certified women: 240	Same as above

Controversy in the Historical Society

Request for correction of McGraw-Hill high school textbooks

In November 2014, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested that McGraw-Hill high school textbooks correct factual errors in their descriptions of comfort women.

In March 2015 and again in May of the same year, members of the American Historical Association expressed their solidarity with Japanese historians who are trying to reveal the truth about the comfort women issue.

In response, in March 2015, 19 Japanese historians pointed out that there were eight factual errors in the textbook's description of only 26 lines, and recommended that McGraw-Hill take the initiative to correct them. In December 2015, 50 Japanese historians countered that not a single Japanese scholar was opposed to correcting the textbooks, and pointed out that American historians had ignored the April 2007 IWG report and should make an effort to check the appropriateness of their own textbooks.

In December 2015, Naoko Kumagai pointed out that there were no official documents from that time that showed forced abductions. Alexis Dudden and others countered, stating that the documentary evidence of forced abductions was the "Kono Statement".

Petition to Withdraw Ramseyer's Paper and Rebuttal

Reasons for the Request for withdrawal

In March 2021, five Japanese historical societies including those to which Yoshimi Yoshiaki belongs requested that J. Mark Ramseyer's paper, which discusses the contractual conditions of public prostitutes during the Empire of Japan, be reexamined and then withdrawn. The reasons for the withdrawal request are:

1. Comfort women were not part of the public prostitution system, and were trafficked by the military through fraud, violence, and without a contract. Burma prisoner interrogation record No. 49 is evidence that they were trafficked through fraud. Not a single contract between the traders and the Korean "comfort women," which is essential to the argument, is shown.
2. The public prostitution system and comfort stations were sexual slavery systems, as women lacked the freedom to reside, go out, quit their jobs, or refuse sexual intercourse.
3. Despite being an academic journal on law and economics, it does not discuss women's human rights and the patriarchal system that has bound women. For the above reasons, the academic value of this paper cannot be recognized.

In May 2021, an international petition was launched calling for the withdrawal of the paper. The main reasons for the demand for withdrawal are that the paper does not provide the following evidence:

1. Evidence that former Korean comfort women signed contracts
2. Evidence that former Korean comfort women agreed to the contracts
3. Evidence that former Korean comfort women were able to quit their jobs and receive compensation.

The evidence for the demand for withdrawal is the testimony of former Korean comfort women, UN Coomaraswamy Report, Kono Statement, US House of Representatives Resolution 121, books by Yoshimi Yoshiaki, G.Hicks, Yuki Tanaka, Mun Ok-ju, and others. Tsutomu Nishioka pointed out that the petition calling for the withdrawal of the paper contained 11 factual errors and called for an academic discussion.

Rebuttal

In January 2022, J. Mark Ramseyer published a rebuttal to the criticism of his paper. He argued that the North Korean government claimed 200,000, that the majority of comfort women were Japanese, that Hicks's book was based on hearsay, that the source of the forced abduction was a fabricated book by Seiji Yoshida, and that there was no evidence that Korean women were forcibly abducted. Although there are no actual contracts, he presented 18 historical documents that are equivalent to them. As evidence that former Korean comfort women had gone out of business, he cited "Mun Ok-ju's Memoirs" and "Diary of a Japanese Military Comfort Station Manager".

In the Japanese Empire, including the Korean Peninsula, the licensed prostitution system was legal and well established in society.[60] Prostitution was permitted with the consent of the woman to work and their parents, and a contract with the employer, and the advance was paid to her parents. Only those who fulfilled these conditions were allowed to be employed as comfort women. At Ianjos, the military confirmed the payment of wages to the comfort women and the status of repayment of advances based on the accounts with the employers every month. All of the documents presented as evidence in the petition to withdraw the allegations were based on the testimony of Korean comfort women, and POW Interrogation Report No. 49 states that all comfort women were employed under advance loan contracts and were over the legal age of 17, meaning they were licensed prostitutes. Former comfort women who testified that they did not enter into contracts or receive any payment could not work at Ianjos under the comfort station system.

Basis and inappropriate citations of the Kono Statement and the Asian Women's Fund Report

Cited as documentary evidence of sex slaves

The Kono Statement has been cited by the American Historical Association and the petition to withdraw the Ramseyer paper as documentary evidence that "Korean comfort women were sex slaves." The reason is that the Kono Statement states, "it became clear that there were many cases in which the women were recruited against their will, through sweet talk or coercion, and that in some cases the authorities directly participated in this. Furthermore, life in the comfort stations was miserable under coercive conditions", and the Asian Women's Fund report states that "'comfort women' were women who were recruited in Ianjos for the Japanese military during the war and forced to provide sexual services to soldiers".

Basis of Kono Statement

The Kono Statement was prepared based on the government investigation report conducted at the request of the Korean government. The above description is based on the closed testimony of 16 former Korean comfort women selected from the Pacific War Victims and Families Association, and Haruki Wada, who was involved in the investigation, stated that he trusted these testimonies because they matched with the contents of the collection of testimonies of 19 comfort women published in January 1993. In other words, the basis of the Kono Statement is the testimony of women who came forward as former comfort women.

Tsutomu Nishioka examined the testimonies of the 19 women and pointed out that only four of them testified that they were forcibly taken, and that none of them were credible.

Reasons for the inappropriateness of citation

The evidence for the part quoted from the Kono Statement is the testimony of former Korean comfort women who claim to have been forcibly taken, and the content is the same as the comfort women's testimony. It is inappropriate to cite it as evidence supporting the comfort women's testimony.

The statement in the Asian Women's Fund report that "comfort women were women who were forced to provide sexual services to soldiers" refers to "women who came forward to say they were forced to provide sexual services", not all women who worked in Ianjos. The document that asserted that "Ianjos were sexual slavery facilities, and Korean comfort women were sexual slaves" is the UN Coomaraswamy Report.

UN Coomaraswamy Report and Criticism

Evidence

The rapporteur claims that the documentary evidence of the sexual slavery of approximately 200,000 Korean women come from the books of G. Hicks and Seiji Yoshida, and that this is supported by "the testimonies of 15 witnesses and the claims of the North Korean government", and that the comfort station regulations are evidence of sexual slavery facilities (paragraph 20).

Criticism

The book by Seiji Yoshida is a fiction. The sources of information for the book by G. Hicks include the complaint for the Korean victims compensation claim case of the Asia-Pacific War, the collection of testimonies of former comfort women, the book by Kim Il-myeon, and the book and testimony of Seiji Yoshida, and there is no evidence to support these contents. Of the testimony of witnesses interviewed, five testimonies are cited. The testimonies of Jeong Ok-sun (paragraph 54), Hwang So-gyeong (paragraph 55), and Hwang So-gyeong (paragraph 57) were made before 1938, when the Japanese military became involved in the operation of Ianjos, and are therefore unrelated to the Japanese military. Hwang Kum-ju (paragraph 56) testified that she went to a Japanese factory and was made into a comfort woman, but there were no Ianjos in Japan except in Okinawa, Chichijima, and Karafuto. Hwang Kum-ju (paragraph 58) testified that most soldiers did not use condoms, but the comfort station regulations required their use, and violators were barred from using Ianjos.

Ikuhiko Hata, who testified that "most comfort women were employed under contracts with the Japanese army (the Rapporteur changed the description of "Ianjo operator" cited in POW interrogation report No. 49 to "the Japanese army") and received substantial compensation" (paragraph 40), published 'Comfort Women and Sexual Violence in War' in 1999, which included criticism of the Coomaraswamy Report. POW Interrogation Report No.49 states that "Korean comfort women were prostitutes or professional camp followers assigned to the Japanese military". In No. 78, a Korean prisoner testified that "All Korean comfort women we met in the Pacific region were prostitutes who volunteered or were sold by their parents. It is an unforgivable act of violence for the Japanese to directly conscript Korean women, regardless of age or sex. In their anger, the men would kill Japanese people without regard for the consequences."

In December 2023, a Korean scholar also published "Japanese Military Comfort Women Inside Out",arguing based on primary sources that the claim that “comfort women were sex slaves” is a false story. The UN report is based on unsubstantiated books and unreliable testimony of former Korean comfort women.

U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 121 and Criticism

Evidence

The evidence for the claim that the Japanese military made comfort women sex slaves are the books by Seiji Yoshida and Yuki Tanaka, the Kono Statement, POW Interrogation Report No.49, and the testimony of one Dutch woman and two Korean women who were former comfort women.

Criticism

The book by Seiji Yoshida, which cites evidence of forced abductions, is a fiction. The testimony of Southeast Asian women in the book by Yuki Tanaka does not provide any evidence to support this. War crimes, including sexual violence, committed by the Japanese military were punished in postwar trials, and no new material on sexual violence was found in the subsequent IWG investigation. Interrogation Report No.49 is evidence of "public prostitution" rather than "deception", as explained in the following section. The Kono Statement, cited as evidence that "Korean comfort women were the majority" is a misquote. The case of the Dutch woman was a violation of military regulations, and when superior officers learned of this fact, they immediately closed the comfort stations. Those involved were found guilty and punished in postwar trials. The testimony of former Korean comfort women violated domestic law and the comfort station regulations, and there were no Ianjos in Taiwan.

Verification of the prisoner interrogation report No.49

Two POW Interrogation Reports of Korean comfort station personnel captured in Burma were No.49 and No.2. No. 49 is cited in the statement calling for the withdrawal of Ramseyer's paper by five Japanese historical societies and in the US House of Representatives Resolution 121 as the evidence for the claim that "Korean comfort women were employed by deception". This document is evidence that Korean comfort women were licensed prostitutes, not "deceit" as follows.

In addition to the two documents mentioned above, there are also the Southern Army's Comfort Station Regulations, the Mandalay Garrison Comfort Station Regulations, the diary of the Japanese military comfort station manager, and Mun Ok-ju's memoirs in Burma. These documents are consistent with each other.

Employment and contract details of Korean comfort women

Table 1 shows the recruitment method and contract details for the Ianjos in Burma. Korean comfort women were recruited on the Korean peninsula through newspaper advertisements and door-to-door solicitations. The terms of the contract were consistent with the comfort women employment regulations enacted by the Southern Army, and all 22 comfort women were employed by the Ianjo operator (a Korean couple with the Japanese name of Kimura, whose Ianjo name was "Kyoei" ) based on these employment regulations.

Age

Their ages at the time of employment ranged from 17 to 29, and all were over 17 years old as defined by the Prostitution Control Law.

Monthly salary and income

Their monthly salary (earnings) was a minimum of about 300 yen, and a maximum of about 1,500 yen, as advertised in the newspaper. The Southern Army regulations stipulated that all tips were the comfort women's income, and the Ianjo operator deducted 50% of their monthly salary (excluding tips) according to the distribution regulations, and gave the remainder to the comfort women. Comfort women used this income to repay loans.

Payments and tips at Ianjos were made in military currency denominated in rupees, and comfort women's income was also in military currency. Military personnel were paid in military currency, which was equivalent to yen within the military. Comfort women's savings deposited in military currency were paid out in yen in their home countries.

However, they were affected by inflation when shopping in the city. The Ianjo operators purchased food from the PX, while also selling comfort women clothing, cosmetics, shoes, and other daily necessities, as well as luxury items such as bags, for profit. As a result, comfort women had no problems with food and residence (paid by the operator), but inflation made their lives difficult financially.

Going out

Comfort women were free to go out with the permission of the Ianjo operator.

Number of customers per day

There were 80-90 soldiers and NCOs, and 10-15 officers. The number of customers served per comfort woman is equivalent to about 4 soldiers and NCOs, and less than 1 officer.

Number of STD

During the year and a half of operation in Myitkyina, six soldiers were infected with an STD. These figures show that the soldiers' hygiene rules for preventing STDs were strictly followed.

Return of women who repaid their advance debts

The military was responsible for the safe return to their home countries of the comfort women. Comfort women could return home if they repaid their advance debts, but due to the worsening war situation, none of the comfort women from Kyoei could return home. In June 1943, one comfort woman applied to return home, and the headquarters went through the procedures, but in the end, they stayed and continued their work.

Number of surviving comfort women

On 31 July, about midnight, a party of 63 comfort women (Koreans and Chinese) from the 3 brothels in Myitkyina, and the brothel owners, servants, etc., began their evacuation from Myitkyina. The women wore dark green Army clothing on top of their civilian clothes. On the way, they became involved in a skirmish, and in the confusion, the party split up. By the time all were captured, four of the 63 had died during the journey, and two had been shot dead after being mistaken for Japanese soldiers. Two of the women were "Kyoei" comfort women.

The veracity of the comfort women's claims

The comfort women's testimony that they were "deceived" was just an excuse. At that time, the average wage for a maid (with room and food) in the Korean peninsula was 11.07 yen/month (regional variation: 6-15 yen/month). The wages of comfort women in Burma were more than ten times that of maids. It was impossible to receive such a large amount of money in advance and pay for simple work such as visiting the wounded or wrapping bandages in hospitals. It was common knowledge in society that high wages came from sex work.

Contradictions and doubts in the claim that Korean comfort women were sex slaves

There are many contradictions and doubts in the claim that Korean comfort women were sex slaves, as listed below.

• No logic for excluding Japanese comfort women: Documents from that time show that the majority of comfort women were Japanese. Comfort women were employed under the same laws and worked under the same comfort station regulations, except for age. There is no logic to claim that only Korean comfort women were sex slaves.

• No reason to use violence against Korean comfort women: Korean soldiers also served in the Japanese military, and about 40% of the police officers at the police stations were Korean. There is no reason to use violence against Korean women in the military or at police stations.

• No evidence to support the testimony: The testimony of comfort women violated the law at that time, and police and military police records deny the testimony of comfort women. Allied military documents also prove that comfort women were public prostitutes.

• A gap of 50 years after the war: Prewar Korean society was patriarchal, and "children obey their parents" was a good ethic. The advances paid to comfort women were received by their parents. The claim that comfort women were sexual slaves was made after the death of the parents involved.

• Ignorance of historical facts: Approximately 80 years after the end of the war, the number of comfort women recognized by the South Korean government is 240 (the basis for this is not disclosed), compared to the claim of approximately 200,000. The claim that they were sexual slaves ignores this historical fact.

References

Related Documents

• Licensed Prostitution System in Korea under the Japanese Empire

• Ianjo
• Collection of Imperial Japanese Military Comfort Station Regulation

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