Patporn Phoothong

The right-wingers in Japan deny any direct involvement of the Japanese government, citing that the documents proving that the Japanese Army or Japanese government had directly ordered the establishment of the “comfort stations” have never been found. They also claim that neither the Japanese army nor the Japanese government were involved in mobilizing “comfort women”, and that private businesses simply recruited “comfort women” by illegal means. Having accepted these claims, the Abe administration is contradicting what the previous Japanese government had admitted.

Notably, the Batavia Court Martial adjudicated a case involving the Japanese military’s exploitation of Dutch women as “Comfort Women.” This stood as the only trial that addressed perpetrators who abducted women for the purpose of forced prostitution among post-World War II war crime tribunals under international law.

The data that exists on the Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’ is classified into several categories. First of all, we have the data produced by the Japanese military, which acted as the principal for the organization and operation of the comfort stations. It is the most accurate data as it was created by the directly involved parties. A considerable amount of data has been unearthed that describes the installation and operation of the comfort stations, allowing us to fully grasp the harsh reality and identify the complete responsibility of the Japanese military. However, a large amount of the data created by the Japanese military have since vanished due to the organized destruction of the pertinent materials, which has made it intrinsically difficult to bring the remaining data to light owing to various circumstances.

Issues raised by the victims of the Japanese military in China - Many people recall the image of an innocent girl who was forcibly taken away by the Japanese military and brutally assaulted. China, at that time a battlefield, was one of the places where such damaging incidents frequently occurred. The Japanese military continuously used brutal violence against Chinese women during the war. They openly took away women to commit sexual abuse across the battlegrounds, occupied areas, as well as urban and rural areas.

Aya Furuhashi sheds light on the unspoken truths that emerge from the gaps between the lines of the the memoir, Wuhan Military Logistics Base, written by Seikichi Yamada.

Issues raised by the victims of the Japanese military in China - Many people recall the image of an innocent girl who was forcibly taken away by the Japanese military and brutally assaulted. China, at that time a battlefield, was one of the places where such damaging incidents frequently occurred. The Japanese military continuously used brutal violence against Chinese women during the war. They openly took away women to commit sexual abuse across the battlegrounds, occupied areas, as well as urban and rural areas.

In her book which was translated into Korean in 2014, Kawata Fumiko vividly yet calmly unraveled the testimony of Bae Bong-gi, one of the Korean "Comfort Women" who was taken to Okinawa. Based on the testimonies and data collected from Okinawa residents, Japanese soldiers, as well as Bae Bong-gi, this article describes the detailed circumstances experienced by Bae Bong-gi and the “Comfort Women” surrounding the U.S. military’s air raids that took place on the Kerama Islands, Okinawa.

she said, with tears streaming down her cheeks, when a Japanese journalist suggested they go back and visit her old home together. Away for so long from her hometown in South Chungcheong Province – a place which she could now only dream about.

Testimony and publishing activities concerning wartime sexual violence and “Comfort Women” carried out by the Association of Returnees from China (Chukiren), which atoned for their perpetrators’ actions in postwar Japanese society.