Japan's Comfort Women (40 page)

The criminal nature of the comfort women system cannot be mitigated by the historical fact that the US and other Allied forces also used military-controlled prostitution. Nor can the crimes be argued away by the theory that all types of prostitution share the fundamental characteristics of oppression and enslavement.

The Japanese cannot escape responsibility for these unprecedented violations of human rights by pointing to the common characteristics that the comfort women system and other types of prostitution share. Rather, it is essential to recognize the extreme levels to which rape and sexual slavery were carried out in the comfort women system.

For Japanese historians, including myself, one way to contribute towards accept-ing responsibility for this national crime committed by our fathers is to record honestly and to analyze systematically the extraordinary ordeals experienced by 182

Epilogue

comfort women and to critically examine the historical processes of Japan’s development as a nation-state that led to the formation of the comfort women system. We need to assess the socio-political and value structures that made it possible to perpetrate such a vast scheme of military-organized sexual exploitation. A comprehensive treatment of this issue would be a massive undertaking, and it would require a long-term, co-operative work between a number of Japanese historians (in particular feminist historians) specializing in various aspects of modern and contemporary Japanese history.

However, the key to finding the answer to this question may lie in an examination of the historical course of Japan’s modernization. This has been charac-terized by an extraordinarily speedy transition from feudalism to capitalism, without a bourgeois revolution. This shift took place while maintaining some feudal elements, particularly the patrimonial socio-economic systems and the patriarchal ideologies. The transition also required the exploitation of women’s labor in order to accumulate sufficient capital to develop modern industries.

In recent times, Japanese historians, especially economic historians, have paid attention only to the contribution made by the female workforce in basic industries, such as agriculture, the textile industry, and coal mining. Although, as early as the late 1950s, a small number of Japanese feminist historians, such as Takamure Itsue, had pointed out the economic role of “the export of the sex industry” (in this case the karayuki-san system) in the formation of Japanese capitalism,46 this aspect of Japan’s modernization process has been long neglected. Modern Japan’s domestic licensed prostitution industry, on which high tax rates were levied, also played an important role in raising public money when the government needed large sums to build the basic economic infrastructure.47 As we have seen in the previous chapter, Japanese sex workers serving the GIs also contributed by earning vital foreign currency in the immediate postwar period, when Japan faced acute shortages of food and capital. In this way, Japan’s sex industry has been closely intertwined with its accumulation of national capital from the very early stages of Japanese capitalism in the Meiji era. While it is not peculiar to Japan that the female workforce was, and still is, exploited for the development of a modern economy, it may be unusual to find another nation that exploited women for sex to that extent.

The socio-economic and cultural climate of Japan provided the environment for Japanese men – our fathers and grandfathers – to create an extraordinary military machine whose organization was deeply intertwined with sexual enslavement. This book is an initial step in the journey of research, which, I hope, will eventually lead Japanese men (and here I include myself ) – the sons and grandsons of Japanese Imperial soldiers – to critically and productively re-examine our own history and culture.

Notes

183

Notes

Introduction

1 Maria Rosa Henson,
Comfort Women: A Filipina’s Story of Prostitution and Slavery Under the
Japanese Military
(Rowaman & Littlefield, Maryland, 1999) pp. 36–37.

2 Pak Kyeong sik,
ChDsenjn KyDsei RenkD no Kiroku
( Mirai-sha, Tokyo, 1965).

3 Jonathan Glover,
Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
( Jonathan Cape, London, 1999) p. 404.

4 Primo Levi,
The Drowned and the Saved
( Michael Joseph, London, 1988) pp. 169 –170, cited by Jonathan Glover, op. cit., p. 402.

Chapter 1: The origins of the comfort women system
1 Yoshimi Yoshiaki ed.,
JEgun Ianfu ShiryD-shE
(
i
tsuki Shoten, Tokyo, 1992) Document No. 34, pp. 183–185.
JEgun Ianfu ShiryD-shE
(hereafter
JIS
) is a collection of extracts of relevant parts from 106 items of official documents related to the comfort women issue. They were found mainly at the Archives of the Defense Research Institute (hereafter ADRI ) in Tokyo between the late 1980s and early 1990s.

2 Ibid., Document No. 34, p. 184.

3 Ibid., Document No. 34, p. 185.

4 Ibid., Document No. 4, pp. 100 –101.

5 Inaba Masao ed.,
Okamura Yasuji TaishD ShiryD
Vol. 1
( Hara Shob
d
, Tokyo, 1970) p.

302.

6 I will analyze the history of karayuki-san in more detail in the conclusion of this book in relation to the development of the comfort women system. For details of the history of karayuki-san, see, for example: Morisaki Kazue,
Karayuki-san
(Asahi Shinbun-sha, Tokyo, 1980); Yamazaki Tomoko,
Sandakan Brothel No. 8: An Episode in the History of
Lower-class Japanese Women
( M. E. Sharpe, New York, 1999); James Warren,
Ah Ku and
Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore 1870–1940
(Oxford University Press, 1993); and Bill Mihalopoulos, “The Making of Prostitutes: the
Karayuki-san
” in
Bulletin of Concerned
Asian Scholars
, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1993.

7 Okabe Naozabur
d
,
Okabe NaozaburD TaishD no Nikki
(Fuy
d
Shob
d
, Tokyo, 1982) p. 23.

8 Senda Kak
d
,
JEgun Ianfu, Seihen
(Sanichi Shob
d
, Tokyo, 1978) pp. 26–29; Yoshimi Yoshiaki,
JEgun Ianfu
( Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, 1995) pp. 17–18.

9 Yoshimi Yoshiaki,
JEgun Ianfu
, pp. 18–19.

10 Japanese National Public Record Office (hereafter JNPRO) Collection,
Konsei Dai 14

Ryodan ShirBbu,
Eisei GyDmu JunpD
, March 21–March 31, April 11–April 20, April 21–April 30, May 1–May 10, 1933; Rikugun Sh
d
,
ManshE Jihen Rikugun Eisei-shi, Vol. 4

( Rikugun Sh
d
, Tokyo, 1935) June 1933 Section.

11 JNPRO Collection,
Konsei Dai 14 Ryodan ShirBibu,
Eisei GyDmu JunpD
, July 21–July 31, 1933.

184

Notes

12 Nakayama Tadanao, “Mansh
e
no Tabi” in
TDyD
( T
d
y
d
Ky
d
kai, Tokyo, 1933), November 1933 issue.

13 For details of various war crimes committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing, see, for example: Hora Tomio ed.,
NitchE SensD ShiryD
,
Vols. 8 and 9
(Kawade Shob
d
, Tokyo, 1973); Nankin Jiken Ch
d
sa Kenky
e
Kai ed.,
Nankin Jiken ShiryD-shE
(Aoki Shoten, Tokyo, 1992); and Honda Katsuichi,
The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts
Japan’s National Shame
( M. E. Sharpe, New York, 1999).

14 Nankin Jiken Ch
d
sa Kenky
e
Kai ed., op. cit., pp. 211, 220, and 280.

15 Ibid., p. 411.

16 Yoshimi Yoshiaki,
Jugun Ianfu
, p. 25; Hata Ikuhiko,
ShDwa-shi no Nazo o Ou,
Vol. 2
(Bungei Shunj
e
-sha, Tokyo, 1993) p. 327.

17 26 Kai Seny
e
-kai ed.,
HohB Dai 26 Shidan Shireibu Sen-shi
( private publication, 1988) p. 99.

18 Ho 104 Monogatari Kank
d
-kai ed.,
Ho 104 Monogatari
(private publication, 1969) p. 425.

19 As
d
Testuo, “Hanayagi-by
d
no Sekkyokuteki Yob
d
-h
d
” ( June 26, 1939). This report written by Dr. As
d
was reproduced in his autobiography,
Shanhai yori Shanhai e: Heitan
ByDin no Sanfujinkai
(Sekif
e
-sha, Fukuoka, 1993) pp. 214–230.

20 Senda Kak
d
, op. cit., pp. 31–36.

21
i
bayashi Kiyoshi,
Tamanoi Banka
(S
b
ch
e
b
d
, Tokyo, 1983) pp. 194–239.

22
JIS
, Document Nos. 34, 36, 37, 53, 54, 55, 57, and 58, pp. 186–192, 258–263, and 266; Yoshimi,
JEgun Ianfu
, p. 28.

23
JIS
, Document No. 42, pp. 209–210.

24 Yoshimi Yoshiaki,
JEgun Ianfu
, pp. 30–31.

25
JIS
, Document No. 44, pp. 214–216.

26 ADRI Collection, Kimbara Setsuz
d
,
Rikugun GyDmu Nisshi Tekiroku
, Part.1, 1-I. For a detailed analysis of these documents, see Yoshimi Yoshiaki, “Rikugun Chu
d
to J
e
gun Ianfu Seisaku: Kimbara Setsuz
d
Gy
d
mu Nisshi o Ch
e
shin ni” in
Kikan SensD Sekinin
KenkyE
, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1993, pp. 4–11.

27 Shimada Toshihiko,
KantDgun: Zaiman Rikugun no DokusD
(Ch
e
k
d
Shinsho, Tokyo, 1965) p. 176.

28 J
e
gun Ianfu 110 Ban Hensh
e
Iinkai ed.,
JEgun Ianfu 110 Ban
(Akashi Shoten, Tokyo, 1992) pp. 43–45.

29 Fujii Tadatoshi, “Ch
e
goku Senry
d
chi ni okeru Ch
d
shu to Ianjo” in Yoshimi Yoshiaki and Hayashi Hirofumi eds.,
KyDdD KenkyE: Nippongun Ianfu
(
i
tsuki Shoten, Tokyo, 1995) Chapter 4, pp. 71–97.

30 Okabe Naozabur
d
, op. cit., p. 23; Inaba Masao, op. cit., p. 302.

31 Nankin Jiken Ch
d
sa Kenky
e
Kai ed., op. cit., pp. 211, 220, and 280.

32
JIS
, Document No. 42, pp. 209–210.

33 Senda Kak
d
, op. cit., pp. 103–105.

34 For details of the organizational structure of the Japanese Imperial forces, see US

War Department,
Handbook on Japanese Military Forces
(Presidio Press, California, 1991) Chapter III.

35 Yoshimi Yoshiaki, “Gun Ianfu Seido no Shiki M
b
rei K
b
t
d
” in Yoshimi and Hayashi eds., op. cit, Chapter 2, pp. 15–28.

36 Mizobe Kazuto ed.,
Doku San Ni: MDhitotsu no SensD
( private publication, 1983) p. 58.

37
JIS
, Document No. 6, pp. 105–107.

38 Ibid., Document No. 28, pp. 164–172.

39 Sakurada Takeshi and Shikauchi Nobutaka,
Ima Akasu Sengo Hiwa, Vol. 1
(Sankei Shuppan, Tokyo, 1983) pp. 40–41.

40 For details of statistical data on condoms used by the Japanese Imperial forces during the Asia-Pacific War, see Hayashi Hirofumi, “Rikugun Ianjo Kanri no Ichi Sokumen: Eisei Sakku no K
d
fu Shiry
d
o Tegakari ni” in
Kikan SensD Sekinin KenkyE
, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 12–19.

41 Yoshimi Yoshiaki, “Gun Ianfu S
b
do no Shiki Meirei Keit
d
” in Yoshimi and Hayashi eds., op. cit, pp. 24–25.

Notes

185

42
JIS
, Document No. 5, pp. 102–104.

43 Mun P’ilgi, “I so much wanted to study” in Keith Howard ed.,
True Story of the Korean
Comfort Women
(Cassell, London, 1995) p. 81.

44 Mun Okuchu,
Biruma Sen-sen Tate Shidan no Ianfu datta Watashi
(Nashinoki-sha, Tokyo, 1996) p. 28.

45
JIS
, Document No. 16, pp. 130–138.

46 ADRI Collection, Kimbara Setsuz
d
,
Rikugun GyDmu Nisshi Tekiroku
, Part 1, July 26, 1941.

47
JIS
, Document No. 18, pp. 142–143.

48 Ibid., Document Nos. 19 and 20, pp. 144–146.

49 Ibid., Document No. 29, pp. 171–172.

50 ADRI Collection, Kimbara Setsuz
d
,
Rikugun GyDmu Nisshi Tekiroku
, Part 2, September 3, 1942.

51 Shigemura Minoru, “Tokuy
d
in to iu Na no Butai” in
TokushE Bungei ShunjE
, No. 1

(Bungei Shunj
e
-sha, Tokyo, 1955), pp. 224–225.

52
JIS
, Document No. 83, pp. 365–375.

53 Cited by Yoshimi Yoshiaki in his book,
JEgun Ianfu
, p. 44.

54 This statistical data appears in the report entitled
The Roll of Court-Martialled Personnel,
Compiled in 1942
, which was submitted by
i
yama Fumio, head of the Legal Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Imperial Army, to the prosecutors at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal after the war. See Utsumi Aiko, “How the Violence against Women were Dealt with in War Crime Trials” in Indai L. Sajor ed.,
Common Grounds: Violence Against
Women in War and Armed Conflict Situations
(Asian Centre for Women’s Human Rights, Quezon, 1998) p. 191.