The life of a comfort woman

                                         What is a comfort woman?

The term "comfort women" (ianfu) is a euphemism for young girls rounded up by the Japanese Imperial Army to serve as prostitutes in Korea but also in China and Southeast Asia during the Asian War- Pacific (1931-1945).

The origin of this slavery:

Following the Nanjing Massacre in 1937 and the international outcry that followed, Imperial Headquarters set out to implement a way to limit the tensions caused by the overwhelming number of rapes committed by army servicemen imperial in conquered territories.

The objective was also to maintain the morale and discipline of the troops and to protect them from venereal diseases (by imposing the use of condoms in brothels). To achieve this goal, it was therefore necessary to permanently ensure the availability of a sufficient number of sexual slaves.

Under the orders of Hajime Sugiyama, Minister of the Army, and Prince Kotohito Kan'in, Chief of Staff and Hirohito's great-uncle, the Army set up so-called brothels in the occupied zone, "recreation centers" or "comfort houses".

Organization of these brothels:

The brothels, quite similar to the French BMCs, were run either by the army or the navy, or by local governments or by private individuals. Officially called "comfort stations" (ianjo), these establishments, most of which housed ten or fifteen women, were generally referred to by the troupe as "P house", the P meaning prostitute. Often simple barracks and moving according to the theaters of operations, their number remains difficult to estimate, between 1,000 and 2,000, distributed throughout occupied Asia, including the Pacific Islands.

Recruitment of Comfort Women:

The "recruited" women were generally single and often underage (the majority of them were between 14 and 18 years old). False recruitments of waitresses or workers were organized, in order to enroll new women. Deception not enough, kidnappings were organized. Japanese women were also deceived, through the creation of the Corps of Women Volunteers, officially intended to ensure the labor of the factories. The military police (Kenpeitai) provided recruitment by generally forcing village chiefs in the occupied territories to round up all young women and pursuing designated young women volunteers who escaped.

Their unfortunate daily life:

The living conditions were the most terrible on earth. The survivors describe living conditions similar to slavery, they belonged to their brothels. They were daily beaten, tortured or even mutilated by the soldiers. Some of them were even executed because the soldier was not satisfied. Others who tried to escape were beaten, often to death.

 According to the testimony of fifteen victims of a prostitution ring established in 1942 in East Timor by the Imperial Japanese Navy, the prostitutes, the majority of whom were prepubescent, were forced to work without pay, with clothing and food provided by their parents. These remarks are confirmed by various witnesses, including a former village chief who was ordered by soldiers to find young women for this type of network. 

In 2014, during her European tour to raise public awareness of this historical tragedy still denied by Japan, Korean Kim Bok-Dong testified: "It was schools or administrative buildings requisitioned by the military. It was impossible to get out. (...) It was at the end of the week that the soldiers marched. Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. It didn't stop. At the end of the day, I couldn't even sit down. (...) At first I was very angry. I didn't know what a man was. I refused to let myself be taken. I received a lot of beatings. And then I became more passive.”

Today :

In Singapore, after Japan lost the war, it tried by all means to hide the existence of these comfort homes, in particular by transforming these unfortunate women into nurses working on the grounds of military hospitals, they nevertheless closed more or less quickly and the young girls were able to return to their families.

This issue has long divided Japan and South Korea, but on December 28, 2015, a historic agreement between the two countries was signed:

Japan explicitly acknowledges its responsibility in this tragedy, which according to estimates affected around 200,000 women, mostly Koreans - it is for this reason that this issue has always been a bone of contention between the two countries – but also Chinese, Indonesian and Filipino.

Japan has donated 1 billion yen, or just over seven million euros, to help "comfort women", the surviving victims, who number 46 today. In exchange, Seoul undertakes to avoid bringing this question back on the table in future at international meetings, for example at the United Nations.

Unfortunately, this subject is likely to cause much more ink to flow, the surviving victims do not want money, but an official apology from Japan, something that it does not seem to want to accept. The Korean court even dismissed a complaint on the grounds of sovereign immunity, which the only way to be overcome is to consider these acts a "crime against humanity", because yes, this massacre is still at this time, not considered as such.

Kim Bok-Dong's interview