Comfort Women in World War II
Society in general is aware of the impact that war has on participants and takes the steps needed to help them. “Comfort women” who were subjected to military sexual slavery weren’t given the same treatment. Comfort women suffered while they were kept in comfort stations and after the war.
There were a few reasons the Japanese Military established comfort stations. Comfort stations have existed since 1932 to 1945; it was planned and designed by the Supreme Commander of the Japanese Army. The comfort stations were located wherever the Japanese army was based. It was established after Japanese soldiers raped very young girls, elderly women, pregnant women and even corpses in Nanjing, China which became known as the Rape of Nanjing. Japanese didn’t want reports of Japanese soldiers committing rape because that would bring shame to Japan. Another reason was provide “comfort” to the soldiers to keep them on the battlefield for a long time. Also, they worried about the diseases the soldiers might get infected with by raping unknowns or used common prostitutes. For that reason the women were forced to submit to medical exams to make sure they didn’t have any disease of infection. The last reason was that since comfort women were isolated then weren’t able to communicate any military secrets and prevent dangerous spies.
The Japanese Military tricked comfort women and their families because they needed enough women to provide sexual services to millions of Japanese soldiers. Japanese soldiers forced around 200,000 women into protected facilities known as comfort stations. Most of the women were from Korea and other Eastern Asian countries like China, Burma, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, Thailand islands in the Pacific. For the most part the women were between the ages of 12 and 30. Women were promised better jobs as nurses, waitresses or maids. When recruiters did mention the comfort stations, they changed the nature of it. For that reason women assumed that comfort service consisted of visiting sick or injured soldiers and making them happy. There were also advertisements in the Chinese newspaper that called for women between seventeen and twenty eight. The women were promised payment of more than $150. Women were sometimes even purchased from their families if they family owned some kind of debt. Others on their way to school were abducted. Some were taken from their own homes and family members were killed if they tried to stop Japanese soldiers from taking the women. Local leaders were ordered to get girls from ages 12 to 22 and deliver them to the Japanese forces for “work”. If the women refused, the Japanese threatened to destroy their village and everyone living in it. Police forces also contributed by arresting women and girls in the streets and forcing them into comfort stations. A few licensed prostitutes were brought to the comfort stations but the living conditions in the facilities and the mistreatment were so harsh that they too became sexual slaves.
The Japanese military mistreated comfort women and their living conditions were horrible. Women held in comfort stations were required to provide sex to twelve to thirty men a day and were subjected to different forms and means of sexual violence like oral, vaginal, and anal rape, sexual humiliation, and nudity. If they refused to provide sexual services they were beaten, tortured or killed. Victims often became pregnant and they usually miscarriage because of beatings or were forced to abort. The conditions of where they were being held were horrible. They were placed in a small space where there was only a bed, mattress or mat on the floor. There was little food, water, sanitary conditions and medical care. Many died from diseases, infections, abortions, starvation or because of the violence. They were treated badly treated for numerous reasons like if they didn’t satisfy the soldier, caught diseases or got pregnant, tried to escape or to make an example of them when new women arrived. When the women caught a disease or suffered from malnutrition, the soldiers threw them into the sea or soaked them with gasoline and burned them alive. They were murdered sexualized for instance by being rape with a broken glass, bottles or fire crackers inserted in their vaginas. When the soldier considered a woman useless he would insert a gun into her vagina and blow her apart. Also since comfort women followed the armed forces into all areas of the battle, a lot of comfort women were killed in the fighting. At the end of the war, a lot of comfort women were abandoned and left to on their own even if they nowhere near their home country. Around twenty-five percent of the comfort women survived at the end of war but war was not over for them.
When survivors returned to their village they were rejected by their own people. Some comfort women that escaped or were saved and sent back home by the Allied forces returned to their villages and the villagers spat on their faces for being comfort women to the Japanese and were despised as a disgrace to the family. Their culture and their families saw them responsible for their tragedies and forced them to suffer in shame and silence. Even criminal justice system treats victims of sex crimes different from victims of other crimes. They treat the victim as if her clothing, behavior or body language provoked the attack. In other words, society attaches shame on the victims instead of placing shame on the ones responsible for the crime. Comfort women didn’t have no one’s support when they returned home and found themselves without an education or job experience and many had no choice but to enter prostitution to survive.
Even though the war was over the pain didn’t leave the survivors that made it out of the comfort stations alive. Many suffered pain from psychological and physical pain by the rapes. Some suffered from debilitating diseases because of repeated sexual and physical abuse. Others suffered from trauma or were sterile because of the drugs they were forced to take by the Japanese Military. Many survivors couldn’t make love and didn’t want to be touch by any man or even their husbands and most of them were not able to have babies as a result of the violence caused upon their bodies and some could never get marry. The memories stayed with them and a lot of comfort women couldn’t move on with their lives. They had feelings of having sinned which was the reason why they kept silence. For these reasons some committed suicide and others became insane.
The problem has remained unsolved because of Japan’s ignorance. After Japan surrender, the Japanese Government and the army destroy all documents relating to the comfort system. Documents that were not destroyed were stored away were they were not unreachable. Women were instructed to be disguised as nurses, or were hidden in mental institutions. When some documents were found, Japan argued that during war there was neither slavery nor wartime rape. Also, Japan argued that the “comfort system” does not fall within the definition of slavery. The Japanese Government believes that accepting responsibility would bring shame to the government. On top of that, people that were aware of this problem and the victims have kept silence until recently.
Through these nearly fifty years one only heard whispers of the issue “comfort women” but now they are speaking up and telling their stories to the world to try to prevent these crimes again. A lot of women were raped repeatedly for a lot of years by the Japanese military until the Japanese surrendered. Many died because they were physically abused and for other reasons. When they returned home they were the ones that sinned and were the disgrace of their families according to their culture and religion. The Japanese Government in 1993 admitted to having forced women into prostitution and agreed to hear testimony from earlier “comfort women”. To this day Japan continues to deny any legal responsibility to the comfort women.
Outline
Intro
Paragraph #1: Reasons why comfort stations were established
Paragraph #2: Different ways comfort women were captured
Paragraph #3: How comfort women were mistreated in comfort stations
Paragraph #4: How survivors were rejected when they returned home
Paragraph #5: How comfort women were affected
Paragraph #6: Japan’s ignorance
Conclusion
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