>> Introduction

Who are the Comfort Women?

     At the end of Japanese Imperialism, Japan recruited women under the name of ‘labor/comfort women”. The labor women performed tedious tasks for soldiers. These people worked at ammunition factories in Japan and Korea. The comfort women were forced to tend to the sexual needs of soldiers. In some cases, the labor women were  converted  to comfort women. At first, the recruitment was limited only to volunteers and women such as Kisseng, Korean geisha girls. However, when soldiers started catching venereal diseases, the Japanese excluded working women, and started to focus on  virgins. When they were unsuccessful in recruiting such women, they started to take women coercively, taking roughly 150,000 Korean women. Most former comfort women are suffering from psychological and physical pain and aftereffects. In January, 1992, the former comfort women requested aid on a governmental level, and demanded that the Japanese government to reveal the truth.
 *The term 'Sexual Slavery by Japanese soldiers' is the most revealing term. However, the Phrase 'Comfort women' has been used as a historic term.

The Historical Background of Korea

    As Chosun dynasty, former dynasty of Korea today, failed to cope with challenges of modernization and imperial powers, Chosun dynasty became frail to threats from imperial powers around the country. Especially, Japan increasing its dominance power over the East Asia and defeating both China and Russia made Chosun as its protectorate and annexed by force against the will of the Korean people in 1910.

    The colonization of Korea by Japan caused greatly massive problems in Korea, Poverty, the economy based on agriculture turned devastated as it substituted to Japanese capital causing great amount of debt and high unemployment in countryside. In addition, as Japan ruled Korea with despotism and military power, Koreans were often violated and abused their human rights. Korea became a military supply base as Japan expanded its war to China, South East Asia and Pacific islands; according to the order for the mobilization of the entire nation by the colonial government of Korea, Approximately 6 million Korean men were compelled to be a labor, soldiers and an army civilian employee. In addition, the uncountable number of Korean revolutionists, independence activists, and innocent general people were discriminated, abused, tortured and killed off without a trial.
 Besides, Korea was still under great influence of Confucianism that generally speaking, women are devalued, often abused and discriminated. Preservation of virgin was considered as women’s highest value. As I listed factors resulted from the colonization, Korea became vulnerable and un-defendable to plunder and supply women and girls for the "comfort women".

The Historical Background of Imperial Japan

    Japan established an absolute monarchy centering all powers to the emperor through Meiji restoration. This absolute monarchy of Japan under the rule of Tennou, a Japanese term referring to an emperor, armed with fascist policies and institutions firming its political system and oppressing the people of Japan, such as The Meiji constitution and the principles of Imperial Education that designs the emperor of Japan to be a living sacred and inviolable divinity that people cannot disobey.

    Japan had unique sexual culture unlike Korea and China that authorized and legalized licensed prostitution that brought women. Therefore, in my assumption, Japan had low level of social morality on prostitution and sexual violence against women. Of course, there were sexual violence and discrimination against women in Korea and China resulted from Confucianism. But Prostitution was not officially and morally accepted in these countries. This is a significant difference of Japan from other countries at that time.

    The institution of so-called "Comfort women" directly resulted from the policy of Japan's expansionism, imperialism, aggression, and colonization that occurred military operations through Asia and Pacific islands. Uncontrolled casualties and rapes perpetrated by Japanese imperial army in battlefields provoked civilians increasing hostility in occupied territories. Moreover, these uncontrolled massive rapes of Japanese imperial army pervaded venereal disease among its soldiers.

    Especially, the government of Japan excluded women and girls of its colonies, such as Korea and Taiwan from the International convention of banning the trade of women and girls for prostitution. In accordance with the historical background I described above, Japan certainly devalued and racially discriminated human dignity of the Korean in its colonial policy.