"Comfort Women" and Wartime Abuse of Japanese Military Personnel

The Japanese government expressed dismay over remarks attributed to Hillary Clinton in which she said that "comfort women" was an inaccurate term and the politically correct term should be "enforced sex slaves."

The issue of "comfort women" is a thorny issue. The existence of "comfort stations" in Japanese-occupied countries like Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines during World War II is one of the most disturbing issues in military history. These stations were where women were coerced into prostitution to "comfort" military personnel.

I've talked to many surviving women in the Philippines who suffered from kidnapping, coercion, rape, and abuse in these comfort stations. In fact, there is an organization of "comfort women" in Manila called Lila Filipina whose primary goal is to seek apology and reparations from the Japanese Government.

The stories of victims were harrowing. One victim narrated that she was raped daily from morning until evening until she managed to escape from the "comfort station". Another victim told that she could not count the number of Japanese military personnel who raped and abused her daily until the Americans came to liberate the country.

Up to this day, Japan has never issued an apology to the abused women. Japan has been reluctant to even acknowledge the crimes. It has not extend reparations to the victims.

In your opinion, what should the victims do to obtain justice? What should Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other countries do to make Japan acknowledge the crimes and extend reparations?​

 

Hey, sorry guys. This was meant to be posted as a new thread. Here's the link to the thread:

http://www.militarian.com/threads/c...me-abuse-of-japanese-military-personnel.9456/

Anyway, please share your thoughts. Thanks!

 

I am happy that this may finally get acknowledged. Sex slavery is a HUGE problem around the world and has always seemed more prominent in the Asian countries. While a lot of Asian countries are very hush hush about this a lot do seem to be coming to terms with this and have set up tasks forces to seek out and save some of these girls. This is a step in the right directions. I think that in order to bring an apology for something that happened so many years ago the stigma around such an act needs to grow. Women who have been, are and even those who just support and want to help these women need to step up and write letters to the proper agencies. Get the story to the media in all countries and generally just make more people aware that this even happened. Once it started to get around more people will start to pay attention and that will eventually lead to an apology. It is all about awareness.

 

There are many victims of sex abuse by Japanese military personnel during the war who prefer to keep silent about their experience because of the stigma of being sexually abused. The culture of Indonesia and the Philippines, for example, hinders them to go public and unite with other victims to demand public apology and reparations. How I wish the government of Indonesia and the Philippines (or even Korea for that matter) join together in seeking public apology of the Japanese government for the abused women.

 

This is the saddest part of sexual abuse and sexual slavery. The stigma that the government, peers and loved ones put into these women and children if and when they get their freedom. They need counselling and help getting back to a "normal" life. They do not need to be told that it is their fault or that it was their duty to their country and to get over it. I also wish that these countries would get together and help these victims. That is exactly what they are and until more people believe this..nothing will change.

 

The Japanese culture and the mentality there is very unique. They are extremely intelligent and hardworking people. But the racism they sometimes exhibit towards other ethnic groups (I am not just considering the unfortunate Ainu people) is sometimes unbelievable to comprehend.

Very few of the Japanese nationals are ready to acknowledge the crimes which their soldiers committed during the 1940s. Crimes committed by the Nazis drew widespread attention around the world.... but the victims of Japanese terrorism in South Korea, China and Philippines never saw their abusers getting any sort of punishment.

 

Japanese racism only started in late 1890s. They were in the state of isolation until American warship forced them to open trade around 1850s. It gave them a wake up call and started rapid modernization. It took them 30 years to become fairly industrialized. In 1895, they defeated Chinese Qing Dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War. That gave them enough ego to feel "superior" for the very first time. Because of that war, they started to dominate Korea and swallowed it whole eventually.

During WWII, Most comfort women were Koreans. As for the Chinese women, Japanese would just kill them after raping.
On Okinawa, which was Kingdom of Ryuku swallowed whole by Japan in late 1800s, the locals were also abused by the Japanese.

From what I remember, Japan refused to compensate the comfort women as whole, but they allow individual cases to be taken to the court... however in my opinion it is just a trick so they play the wait game... since it takes a long time for the court to come to a conclusion for each individual case, those women aren't young any more and they don't have much time left.

 

They also defeated the Russian empire in the Russo-Japanese War. We had to cede the southern part of Sakhalin island to them. It was a disaster for the indigenous people of Sakhalin (Ainu, Orok, Oroch & Gilyak). Many of them had fought for the Russian side (because the Japanese persecuted them as they were racially different from them). Most of them were rounded up in interment camps and some were executed.

The sadism exhibited by the imperial Japanese soldiers during their occupation of Nanking was sickening beyond words. More than 20,000 women were raped in Nanking alone. According to Gao Xingzu "after rape, the Chinese women were killed by stabbing a bayonet, long stick of bamboo, or other objects into the vagina. Young children were not exempt from these atrocities, and were cut open to allow Japanese soldiers to rape them"

Okinawans are a different ethnic group. They speak a different language and the Japanese believe that they are racially inferior. Even now they are not allowed to speak in the Okinawan language in schools and public offices.

 

Yes, the Japanese considered themselves "superior" to other Asian nationals. That was something newly introduced in late 1800s probably due to their own propaganda brainwashing of themselves.

Okinawa locals were tortured and killed regularly after being taken over by Japan. When American marines landed on Okinawa in 1945 near the end of the WWII, thousands locals came to surrender just to get away from their Japanese occupiers.

Just less than two months ago Japan had some territory dispute with China. The islands in dispute is located right beside Taiwan, and also close to China, while Okinawa's closest uninhabited rock is still farther away than both. Yet Japan claimed it's theirs...

As for Nanking Massacre back in the 1937 was a direct result of racism + unexpected high causality. Japan took total close to 80,000 casualty in just 3~4 months since their attack on Shanghai and Nanking. Although they had more firepower and better overall training than the Chinese, they really took on more than they could chew. Unlike the First Sino-Japanese War which objective was just to have Qing Dynasty to admit defeat, the Second Sino-Japanese War aimed at total occupation of entire China... It was a war they could never hope to win even if they had won every battle. Out of the frustration of high casualty in such short amount of time and their general belief of others' lives were worthless, they went rampage in Nanking.

 

The Americans also committed a lot of war crimes in Okinawa. The "Cave of Negroes" incident is very infamous. (Still won't rank anywhere near the atrocities committed by the Japs)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Negroes_incident

You are talking about the Shenkaku Islands. I can't side with China either, because the PLA Navy have forcibly invaded several of the islands originally belonging to Vietnam and Philippines in the South China Sea (Paracel Islands / Scarborough Shoal).

 

Well, the Vietnam's claim is based on nothing but the French's claim. When French took over IndoChina and made it a colony, they also claimed those uninhabited islands. Vietnam never had set foot on those islands before for obvious reasons... they never sailed far from their shore.

It's pretty much the same for Philippines. They just want to claim what their colonial masters claimed which never belonged to them in the first place.

Neither country ever claimed those islands until the last a few decades. If you can find a Republic of China (before the communists) map published in 1930s, it already included all those islands.

Besides, just because you don't agree with China on the islands in South China Sea, it is not logical to disagree with the islands in East China Sea either just because the other islands. It is more like taking sides rather than see who has the actual claim.

 

History of Senkaku is complex.

The archipelago has been under Japanese control ever since 1895, and China had first claimed them only during the 1940s.

Actually China had agreed to the Japanese control until the 1970s, when possibility of natural gas and petroleum deposits in the vicinity of the islands came to be known.

 

If you actually looked at the map, you would see those islands are extremely close to the island of Taiwan. Fishman from Taiwan regularly went there until the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. Japan was the aggressor who started the war in order to gain control of Korea. The war ended with China's Qing Dynasty lost, and they were forced to sign a treaty to give up Taiwan, as well as nearby islands, along with a bunch of other forced things including paid Japan two years worth of entire Qing Empire's tax income, etc.

What you mentioned is just Japanese side false "history", which is acceptable to the Japanese "ally" (occupier really) the United States. And it is why such "history" repeatedly show up in U.S. media propaganda. If you actually looked further, Japan's own old history record admit they found Chinese fishmen there the first them they found those islands in 1870s, and they actually admit those islands were under Qing Dynasty control until Qing showed weakness as it was going downhill.

 

Hmm.... in that case those islands belongs to Taiwan, not China.

I think they are not after the islands. They are after the petroleum / gas deposits which are situated in the vicinity.

 

You also missed the point. Taiwan was a part of Qing Dynasty for centuries (before that it was a part of Ming Dynasty), and Qing Dynasty was forced to give up Taiwan to Japan after being defeated in the First Sino-Japanese war. Taiwan was under Japanese occupation for 50 years before it was returned to Republic of China (Qing fell and it was replaced by Republic of China in 1911) in 1945 when the allies defeated the Axis. The same year Chinese civil war resumed between KMT and CCP, KMT lost after 4 years of fighting and Taiwan was their final stronghold.

Today, basically official Taiwan's name is still Republic of China, and their official published map includes all of China. China's claim is based on Taiwan's claim, the two claimed islands are identical both in East China Sea and in South China Sea as well. Make no mistaken, Taiwanese government still claim to be the legit government of all of China...and they were indeed in UN represent China on the Permanent Security Council until 1970s.

By the way, when Japan surrendered in 1945, according to the treaty (signed by Republic of China too), Japan was confined to only 4 of their main islands. All their colonial processions would be returned to their previous owners. Somehow, the U.S. didn't let the Okinawa to regain their independent, and Republic of China allowed the U.S. to have the administration rights of the islands (Diaoyu in Chinese, Shenkaku in Japanese) because they were busying fight a civil war against the communists. The U.S. never had the ownership of those islands, just the administration rights. But in 1972 or so, the U.S. gave these islands' administration rights to Japan instead. Both Republic of China (Taiwan) and PRC(mainland China) protested.

The control of these islands are much more than just the potential oil/gas deposit. Whoever controls the islands also controls the 200miles EEZ around them. To mainland China, the sea lanes are the most important as they see the countless U.S. military bases in the area formed an island chain around entire Chinese coast. Control of these islands means an opening.

I had no idea why Japan actually think they have the right to these islands. Consider the real Japanese territory is like 500 miles away and they never even found these islands which were located right off Taiwan(Chinese territory of Qing Dynasty) coast until 1870s... Then again, the Japanese also have a dispute with Korea as well as Russia on islands didn't belong to them in the first place.

As for the islands in South China Sea, nobody officially claimed them before Republic of China. The Chinese always thought everyone in the area agreed these islands belong to them since they discovered them first and they were the only ones sailed near them often. You have to consider the fact both IndoChina(Vietnam etc.) and Philippines were extremely primitive and couldn't have gone far enough to reach those islands. Official maps published by Republic of China in 1930s included the entire South China Sea, it was basically a response to the French claim of some of those islands in the area.

By the way, the 200 miles EEZ was also a fairly new rule established for only a few decades. Vietnam's claim as I said before was an attempt to claim whatever their French colonial masters tried to claim (themselves never claimed them before). Now with the new rule EEZ in place, both Vietnam and Philippines attempt to use EEZ as their legal bargaining.
However, I do understand their position, they see it as unfair when China included entire South China Sea right in front of their doorstep... that's the only part I have slightly sympathy for them but they indeed had no legal claim until the newly arrived EEZ rule...and EEZ concluded if the islands already belonged to someone else, EEZ rules don't apply even if they are within EEZ.

 

Have to agree with you there. The Japanese almost exterminated the native people in the Kuriles and Hokkaido (Ainu). Still has the guts to claim the Kuriles as theirs'.

Now back to the topic, the most reliable estimates say that some 200,000 women (many of them under-aged) were forced in to sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese troops during the WW2.

Some Japanese historians claim that most of the victims came from Japan and were ethnic Japanese.

However, according to the Japanese historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi, 52% of the comfort women were Korean and 36% were Chinese. Many of them were also from Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan and Netherlands.

 

There were indeed Japanese women serving in the Japanese military as prostitutes. They were willing prostitutes and they actually get paid thus making them nothing like the unwilling Korean comfort women. I have read articles how some Korean comfort women were "trained". Their first lesson was to watch some captured Chinese girls being gang raped by Japanese soldiers before getting shot.

After Japan surrendered, they recruit many young Japanese girls as volunteers to serve as prostitutes for American occupation forces. Most of which were not prostitutes but had to make a living or were tricked to think it was for the good of Japan. Perhaps it was for the good of Japan... or the rape cases would be much higher.

Either way, all the Japanese women provided sexual services were doing so willingly. Thus they were not true comfort women. The true comfort women were sex slaves of non-Japanese, and they were forced to do so by the Japanese military.

 

The International Criminal Court should have taken up these cases and asked the Japanese government to compensate the victims. It is a very bad idea to limit the ICC jurisdiction to crimes committed after 2002.

 

Japan is still under U.S. occupation. However, since the U.S. called Japan an "ally", Japan is under the protection of the U.S. both militarily and politically. The U.S. will block and shield Japan from such prosecution like how the U.S. has always done for its "allies" around the world. At least until Japan no longer want the "protection" of the U.S. and kick out those American bases, you will not see any kind of justice.

As the matter of fact, at the very beginning the U.S. prosecuted many Japanese official for war crimes after WWII, a few were hanged. However, soon the U.S. decided to use Japan as a counterweight to Soviet Union and China (communists). Many convicted war criminals were released from prison and were put back into high positions. That's how it all started. Japan's refusal to acknowledge and apologize/compensate for their crimes during WWII was totally encouraged by the U.S. Same with Japan's current territorial ambitions.

 

Although Japan is having a population of around 140 million, it is one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world. This factor will definitely affect its army in the near future . Even now the Japanese Armed Forces are not capable of taking on rogue states like North Korea on its own... and the future will be even worse. The US military support is the game-changer here.

However, on the positive note, the Japanese society is one of the most homogeneous in the world. They have either exterminated (Ainu, Oroks.etc) or assimilated (Okinawans, Koreans.etc) their minorities completely. Same can't be said about China, where a growing population of Uighur and Hui can cause trouble in the future.