>> Women's Ordeal

How "Comfort Women" Were Coercively Recruited

    The "Comfort Women" were usually taken away coercively, or by deception. In some cases soldiers just broke into homes and abducted any woman they saw. Some women were snatched away from factories and farms. Other women were taken away for having rebellious attitude to the Japan’s colonization process.

    A case in the Philippines illustrates the brutality of these actions. In 1942, Japanese soldiers broke into Tomasa Salinog's home. At entering, they killed her father and dragged Salinog out of her house to a troop nearby. There, at the age of thirteen, she was raped by two soldiers and then was beaten unconscious. From then on, she was forced to serve as a "Comfort Women" of that garrison.

    In Korea, force and deceptions were not the only means of coercive recruitment. The Japanese government enforced an official labor draft, which was actually part of a scheme to trick women into becoming "Comfort Women". It was called "Kunro" (meaning "labor") or "Yeoja Jungshindae". These euphemisms were created by Japan, strictly according to their point of view, which implies that women became comfort women on their free will.

    These women taken away by the Japanese were sent to Japanese troops all over Asia and the Pacific regions. The areas that the "Comfort Women" were sent to range from the countries in the southern hemisphere to the northern regions of Siberia. At these places, the Japanese government raised and ran hundreds of so-called "Comfort Stations." The countries include: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea(for the Japanese people living in Korea), Amoi, French Indochina, the Philippines, Guam, Malaysia, Singapore, British Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, Burma, Thailand, East New Guinea, New Britain, Trobriand, Okinawa, and Sakhalin. They took a portion of women to the Japanese islands, too, including Kyushu, Honshu, and Hokkaido.

How they suffered

    Each woman was put in a tiny cubicle, with soldiers waiting in line outside the small room. They had to take thirty to forty soldiers every day, with almost no time to rest or even wash themselves. The food and medical care was often poor, too. Women who would resist were brutally beaten and tortured. In some extreme cases they were mutilated or even murdered. This life in living hell lasted up to eight years.

    The Japanese Army also regulated conditions at the "Comfort Stations," with rules regarding working hours, sanitation of the facilities, contraception methods for Comfort Women, and prohibition on alcohol and weapons. Army doctors conducted health checks on the "Comfort Women," mainly to prevent venereal diseases from spreading.

    However, physical suffering was not all of it. They were mentally tortured, too. Most of the comfort women from Korea were forced to desert their own nationality. They were forbidden to speak Korean, and were to be called by Japanese names. They were also forced to learn Japanese songs to sing in front of Japanese soldiers to please them.

    At a Comfort Station in Shanghai, China, there was a notice hanging at the entrance saying:

"We welcome courageous soldiers who are on duty for the holy war; Yamato Nadeshiko (which means our flowerlike women of Japan in a metaphoric sense) obediently dedicate our minds and bodies to you"

    This shows how Korean women were forced to have modified nationalities.

Inhumane Crimes Committed

   The Japanese have committed many inhumane acts while running the “Comfort Stations”. The operating of the comfort stations itself is a big one, as well as inflicting physical violence and torture. However, here we will address some other inhumane activities committed by Japan.

    The first crime to point out is that they mainly took young girls. The reason why young girls were targeted is because young girls were less likely to have venereal diseases. For this reason, girls and women were taken at an age as young as eleven. Sometimes even girls from elementary schools were taken. Then these girls were sent to distant locations, where the language and culture are different, so as to isolate them from any sense of sympathy or help, which could help them escape. At such a young age, the girls suffered greatly.

    The second crime to point out is that the Japan thought of comfort women as objects  or playthings that "belonged" to them. This can be easily seen from the fact that "Comfort Women" were recorded on the Japanese military supply lists as "ammunition" or "amenities." Also in the "Comfort Stations," the inhumanities persisted. Just like a product in a store, the women were priced differently depending on the nationality or looks. Koreans and other Asian women were taken by lower-ranked soldiers, whereas women from Europe or Japan were taken by higher-ranked officers. To add to such "discriminations", Korean comfort women were referred to as "Chosenppi," a vulgar term referring to a body part, or other disgraceful and derogatory names.

    Also, the rank of the soldier decided for how long he can visit, how much was to be paid, and at what hours the soldier was allowed to visit the comfort station. In the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur, there is a testimony of a former comfort woman, saying that she was to take sergeants from 3 to 7 pm, and lieutenants in the evening. This is very similar to the distributing process of rations. People take turns depending on the ranks among a group. Very inhumane thing to do to a human being, indeed. This means that the comfort women were treated as something no more than tools for satisfying sexual desires.

After the end of war

    The tragedies continued even after the wars have ended. At the end of the war, the troops started retreating, and on the way they didn't have any time to spare for the comfort women. So they just killed the comfort women or abandoned them. The comfort women were forced to do things that they never wanted to do, and all they got in return was death. There is one case in Micronesia, where the Japanese troops killed 70 comfort women in just one night.

    Most of others were just abandoned in jungles of South-Eastern Asia, where many died  because of diseases or starvation. And those who have survived didn't even know where they were, as they were taken to a remote place from their home country. Taken hundreds of miles away from their homes, where the language and culture is completely different, they had no way to return.

    There were very few survivors who came back, but there was no way for those poor people to live a happy life. Isolated from the society, they had live on their own. Worse, some were rejected from their communities, or beaten by other people. Some were even killed. However, they did not, or could not reach for help, because of the instilled guilt or shame brought on by the past.

    Most of victims who are still alive live in poverty. Besides monetary difficulties, they suffer from physical and emotional problems. Many could not marry and have children, as their reproductive organs were permanently damaged because of the intense sexual abuse during war. Also, many suffer from arthritis, as they were mistreated so violently at the comfort stations. Even though more than 50 years have passed, some former comfort women say they still have dreadful nightmares of the war time experiences. Many of them have hypochondria and insomnia, too. They are living a miserable life to this day.