Japan's Comfort Women (7 page)

Kwantung Army (Changchun)

Chief of Army General Staff

China Expeditionary Army * (Nanjing)

Southern Army (Saigon, later Singapore)

Figure 1.1
Japanese Imperial Army chain of command
* Note
: The China Expeditionary Army was established in September 1939, with the Central China Area Army as the core force, to which the North China Area Army (headquarters in Beijing) and the 23rd Army (headquarters in Guangzhou) were subordinated.

In the Ministry of War, there was no particular section designated to administer the comfort women system. The relevant Bureau would give instructions to each army as the occasion demanded. For example, the Military Administration Bureau gave instructions on military discipline and troop morale in relation to comfort women and comfort stations, while the Medical Bureau was responsible for advice on matters related to VD prevention and sanitary affairs.

As already briefly mentioned, there were basically two different “recruiting”

methods. The first method involved local civilians in the occupied territories. In these cases, staff officers attached to army divisions, brigades or regiments, together with members of the kempeitai, requested local leaders to supply certain numbers of young women. (The kempeitai in the occupied territories were under the control of the commander of each army.) As a result, a large number of women who were not prostitutes appear to have been forced to render sexual service to the Japanese troops. This point is proven by the following extract from the diary of a medical officer, Yamaguchi Tokio, who was assigned to conduct VD examinations of some selected local Chinese girls in a village near Dongshi (Hubei province):

At the first VD check-up, one girl was too shy to take off her trousers for the examination of her sexual organ. My interpreter and the head of the local security council yelled at her, to force her to take them off. When I made her lie on the bed and started examining, she frantically scratched at my hands. When I saw her face, I realized that she was crying. Later I was told that she kept crying for a while, even after she left the examination room.

The next girl also behaved the same way. I felt I would like to cry, too . . . I wonder whether these girls unwillingly came to see me because local leaders talked them into complying for the sake of the village’s peace . . . This kind of work does not suit me, and I cannot get rid of the thought that this is a violation of humanity.

(11 August 1940)36

The origins of the comfort women system
23

Another method was that each army headquarters selected its own recruiting agents (i.e. brothel owners or labor brokers). They were then sent to Korea, Taiwan, and Japan to secure comfort women. These Japanese and Korean brothel owners/labor brokers, with support from the Kempeitai and the police forces in those countries, searched for and “recruited” suitable women. From various testimonies, including those of former Korean comfort women, there is no doubt that many of these labor brokers used dubious methods, including deception, intimidation, violence, and, in extreme cases, even kidnapping. It seems clear from diaries and individual testimonies that the Governments-General of Korea and of Taiwan made their kempeitai and police force available for this purpose.

Although no official documentation has so far been discovered in relation to the activities of the kempeitai and police in this field in Korea and Taiwan, it seems that government officials well understood the nature of the work that these women would be engaged in. It seems likely that they also knew the methods used for such “recruitment.”

We do, however, possess important official documentation concerning key aspects of the comfort women program. One document prepared by the Ministry of War is an instruction entitled “Matters related to the recruitment of female and other employees for military comfort stations,” which was issued on March 4, 1938 to the Chiefs of Staff of the North China Area Army and Central China Area Army. It states:

In recruiting female and other employees from Japan for the establishment of comfort stations in the place where the China Incident occurred, some deliberately make an illicit claim that they have permissions from the military authorities, thus damaging the Army’s reputation and causing misunder-standing among the general population. Some others are causing social problems by trying to recruit [women] illegally through the mediation of war correspondents, visiting entertainers and the like.
Due to the selection of
unsuitable recruiting agents, some have been arrested and investigated by the police because
of their
[dubious]
methods of recruitment and kidnapping.
Thus, great care is necessary in selecting suitable agents. In future, when recruiting those [women], each Army must tighten control [of the selection procedure] by carefully selecting appropriate agents. In actual recruitment, each Army must work in closer cooperation with local Kempeitai or police authorities, thus maintain-ing the Army’s dignity and avoiding social problems. The above is issued as a letter of proxy.37

[Emphasis added]

This letter was drafted by the staff of the Military Administration Bureau and issued under the name of Colonel Fushibuchi Senichi. It was approved by the then Vice-Minister of War, Umezu Yoshijir
d
. It is important to note that this instruction was issued as “a letter of proxy,” which means that it was also approved by the Minister of War, Sugiyama Hajime. In other words, top army leaders in the Ministry of War closely monitored the procurement of women in 24

The origins of the comfort women system
Japan by the North China Area Army and the Central China Area Army. This was intended to control the use of “agents” of questionable character in order to prevent potentially explosive abuses, while sanctioning the basic comfort women system. While apprehensive about the methods of procurement, they made no attempt to stop their armies from operating comfort stations.

On the contrary, the following document endorses the fact that the Ministry of War promoted the comfort women scheme as an effective method to maintain military discipline and prevent VD. The document called “Measures for enhancing military discipline based upon experiences in the China Incident” was distributed as “educational material” to all army units from the Ministry of War on September 19, 1940. It states in part:

[Since the Sino-Japanese War started], despite brilliant achievements in war, our soldiers have committed various crimes such as looting, rape, arson, murder of prisoners, and the like which are contrary to the essence of the principles of the Imperial Army. It is therefore regrettable that such conduct has created a sense of aversion both within and outside Japan, thus making it difficult to attain the object of our holy war . . . Having observed the circumstances in which crimes and misconduct were committed, it is recognized that many of them occurred immediately after combat activities . . . In the battle zone, it is necessary to make efforts to create a good environment, to pay considerable attention to the facilities for amenities, and to ease and control rough and low feelings from the troops . . .
In particular, the psycho-logical effects that the soldiers receive at comfort stations are most immediate and profound,
and therefore it is believed that the enhancement of troop morale, maintenance of discipline,
and prevention of crimes and VD are dependent on successful supervision of these
[comfort stations].38

[Emphasis added]

According to Mr. Shikauchi Nobutaka, who was trained to become a paymaster at the Military Paymasters’ School in 1939, cadets were taught how to establish and manage military brothels. Incidentally, during the Pacific War Shikauchi was seconded from the Material Section in the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War to the Kokusai Gomu K
d
gy
d
( International Rubber Industry) Corporation, in order to supervise the production of condoms for military use.39 The Army Accounts Department and the Supply Headquarters were responsible for sending condoms to forces stationed overseas, and officials ensured a ready supply. In 1942, for example, 32.1 million condoms were sent to units stationed outside Japan.40

There is no doubt that the Ministry of War was directly involved in transporting comfort women to war zones, since it was impossible to use any Japanese military ships without its permission. The operation of army ships was controlled by the Army Section of the Imperial Headquarters under the authority of the Commissary General. (This position was usually held concurrently by the Vice-Chief of the General Staff.) The Army Section of the Imperial Headquarters was

The origins of the comfort women system
25

Plate 1.4
Comfort women together with Japanese soldiers being transported on a military ship. This photo was taken in 1942.

Source
:
Mainichi Shimbun
staffed by the senior bureaucrats of the Ministry of War. From various available documents and testimony it is clear that comfort women were transported by army cargo ships from Japan and Korea to many places in the Asia-Pacific region. In cases where Korean women were sent to China from Korea, the Kyogi Railway in Korea and Southern Manchurian Railway in Manchuria were used. Both railway lines were owned by Japanese companies. In China, local railways controlled by the Japanese Army were used for this purpose. In places where railway service was not available, army trucks were provided. In some special cases, women were even flown by army planes to the front lines.41

However, the Ministry of War needed the cooperation of other governmental organizations, such as the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Governments-General of Korea and Taiwan, in order to facilitate the procurement and transportation of comfort women.

For example, on February 23, 1938, Tomita Kenji (Chief of the Police Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs) issued an instruction to the governor of each Prefecture in Japan, entitled “Regarding the treatment of female travellers to China.”

In this document, he ordered that only prostitutes over the age of 21 should be permitted to travel to northern and central China.42 It could be interpreted that such instructions, allowing only the travel of professional Japanese prostitutes to China, was issued as a countermeasure to prevent illegal trafficking of women.

26

The origins of the comfort women system
(Such illegal trafficking was against the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children of 1921, to which Japan became a signatory.) However, the fact that no such instructions were issued in Korea or Taiwan indicates that the Japanese government had no intention of suppressing illegal trafficking of Korean and Taiwanese women for military prostitution. It seems that officials believed this international law was not applicable to Japan’s colonies.

Testimonies by former comfort women also indicate that police in Korea and Taiwan were involved in various ways in the procurement of comfort women.

For example, Mun P’ilgi, a Korean woman from Chisu District, South Kyongsang, testified that a local policeman called Tanaka was with a Korean labor broker when she and other women were “recruited.”43 Another Korean woman, Mun Okuchu from Taegu city, said that when she was arrested by two members of the kempeitai for no particular reason, a Korean policeman accompanied them.

She was then sent to northeast China to become a comfort woman.44

In both Korea and Taiwan, police forces were under the control of the Bureau of Police Affairs of the Government-General (i.e. the colonial government).

No official documents regarding the involvement of the police of these colonies in procuring comfort women have been discovered so far. However, each police station under the control of the Bureau of Police Affairs was responsible for issuing passports. It was illegal for the police to issue a passport to a local woman knowing that she was being forcibly recruited as a comfort woman. If they did so unwittingly, then this should be condemned as “neglect of duty.” It is most unlikely that the police in both colonies were unaware of forcible recruitment of comfort women, for it was standard practise for them to thoroughly investigate each traveler’s age, occupation, family background, career, native language, and the purpose and intended period of travel before issuing a passport. Police should not have issued a passport unless the travel had a legitimate purpose.

One example of such misconduct by police in the colonies occurred in August 1940. Six Taiwanese minors (one 18-year-old, two 16-year-old, one 15-year-old and two 14-year-old girls) from Gaoxiung City were allowed to travel to Qinxian in Guangdong province with the wife of the owner of a comfort station that was attached to a Japanese Army unit stationed in Qinxian.45 In this case, the Governor-General of Taiwan bore the final responsibility for this criminal conduct by police in Gaoxiung.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, the Ministry of War, on its own initiative, started implementing various policies to promote the establishment of comfort stations and to control the transportation of comfort women in the Asia-Pacific region. Until then, as we have seen, the Ministry of War played a somewhat secondary role in establishing the comfort women system, and the primary responsible body was each army headquarters.