“Comfort Women” Merit Remembrance
Su and his fellow investigators collected the above stories when they visited the surviving “comfort women.” These stories and more are recorded in two books — Research on “Comfort Women” and The Truth about the “Comfort Women” – The Imperial Japanese Army’s Sex Slaves.
Through the interviews, Su came to know that the victims had no freedom at all and were often raped by Japanese soldiers many times a day. Some women committed suicide because they couldn’t bear the insult. Soldiers killed those who resisted them, tried to escape, contracted serious venereal diseases or got pregnant.
In one case, over 50 women of the Dai ethnic minority were abducted from the streets of Mangshi City, Yunnan Province. Their assailants were the soldiers of the No. 56 Division of the Japanese army. None of the women survived.
When the war was over, only a quarter of all “comfort women” had survived. But most led miserable lives. Some were discriminated against, some became infertile and some developed a lifelong hatred of men.
Sexual Slavery
The term “comfort women” is debatable. Coined by the Japanese army, according to Su, the name implies that those women were recruited to “comfort” Japanese soldiers. This intentional, euphemistic ambiguity conceals Japan’s culpability in establishing a wartime sexual slavery system. Some people, whether intentionally or unintentionally, confuse “comfort women” with military prostitutes. The mix-up and resulting discrimination that surviving “comfort women” faced after the war adds insult to injury.
“‘Comfort women’ are in fact women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army. A large number of women from China, Korea, countries of Southeast Asia and even some European countries were ruthlessly crushed by the Japanese soldiers’ actions,” Su told China Today. “The ‘comfort women’ system set up by the Japanese army was an unprecedented case in human history of man abusing woman, specifically the women of enemy countries and regions, and an institutional state crime against women’s rights that goes against the grain of humanitarianism, ethics and common rules of war. It is the most painful memory in women’s history.”
In July 2012, then U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, denounced the use of the euphemism “comfort women” for what should be referred to as “enforced sex slaves,” urging Japan to face up to its sexual atrocities during WWII. The South Korean government followed suit, changing the official English translation of “comfort women” to “sex slaves.”
The surviving “comfort women” are passing away one by one. Although some of those who are still living today have sought justice by going to Japan to appeal for compensation, they have come away empty-handed, not even receiving an apology from the Japanese government. The Japanese government rejected their appeals citing expired statute of limitations and denying it as a state action.
A State Action
On the issue of denial, Su pointed out that scholars around the world, himself included, can provide a large amount of evidence to show that such behavior occurred under the direction of the Japanese government and its army.
Through over 20 years of investigation and research, especially from Japanese historical sources, including those that the Japanese invaders were unable to destroy, Su has gained an insight into Japan’s implementation of the sex slavery system in China. The Japanese army’s first “comfort station” in Asia was set up in Shanghai at the beginning of 1932. After an all-out war of Japanese aggression against China broke out in 1937, the Japanese army set up and operated “comfort stations” in every occupied region around the country. According to Su’s investigation, the “comfort stations” were everywhere in over 20 provinces and cities occupied by Japan in Northeast, North, Central, and South China. There were more than 160 such locales in Shanghai alone. Su estimated that at least 200,000 Chinese women were forced into sexual slavery under the Japanese army.
“When I first started my research, I never imagined the ‘comfort women’ system would be that widespread or as highly organized as it was. High-ranking government departments, such as the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice, as well as its colonial authorities in Korea and Taiwan were all involved. There were ‘comfort stations’ at every military level, from division to squad. The Japanese invaders operated a complete system covering transportation and finance,” Su said.
Recently, China’s Jilin Provincial Archives published over 100,000 documents and files about Japanese aggression against China. It took only a week for Su to find over 40 files about “comfort women,” among which was a startling finding that suggested that the Japanese army set up “comfort stations” with public funds.
