COMFORT WOMEN

Ianfu慰安婦

Tessa Castellani

DEFINING COMFORT WOMEN:JAPAN FOCUS

INTRODUCTION: HISTORY OF COMFORT WOMEN

Comfort Women (Jugun Ianfu) were the victims of sex slavery by the Japanese military troops before and during World War II (1942-1945)

Women were kidnapped, forced, and/or tricked into becoming prostitutes for Japanese troops

Earlier comfort women were Japanese prostitutes who volunteered for such a service

The military found itself short of these women as Japan continued military expansion

Turned to the local population to coerce women to serve the troops

Soon the search was expanded to controlled territories:

China, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Korea.

COMFORT STATION: SHANGHAI, CHINA

•The first "comfort station" was established in the Japanese concession in Shanghai in 1932.

•Many women responded to calls for work as factory workers or nurses – unaware of the military’s true intentions.

•Women were shipped all over the territories and many lost track of where they were and where their home was in relation.

WHO ARE COMFORT WOMEN?

Comfort Women, Military Sex Slaves, MSS, Jugun Ianfu There was no one specific type of “comfort woman”

They ranged from all walks of life – from the very young and prepubescent (11) to the middle-aged (35) – and were from all over Southeast Asia – Japan, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Korea.

It’s difficult to determine just how many women were involved in this mass military sex slavery. Most have sworn themselves to secrecy, too ashamed to ever speak of the atrocities they faced

Remaining survivors are well into their eighties and do not have very long to tell their tale.

WHAT WAS INVOLVED? According to the House of

Sharing, a human rights museum and a safe house for former comfort women, when a woman was captured or lured into comfort stations, she was given a medical examination to determine if she was a virgin or diseased

She was then raped by the medical examiner and sent to her station

Her identity was quickly stripped of her as she was given a Japanese flower name by the first person to rape her.

The women's names were written on wooden blocks and hung up much like menus are at restaurants in Japan.

On average, comfort women served 30 men daily on weekdays

Served up to 50 men daily on weekends

The days leading up to the soldiers shipping out to the front lines were the worst times Having sex before going

into battle was a sign of good luck and vitality

Some men would even take pubic hair for good luck

Women were beaten if they failed to act as if they enjoyed it or showed resistance

Extremely sore after just a few men with dozens still left until the day’s end Some were given a few

minutes to a half hour in-between to rest, but most were given only a jar of cotton swabs soaked in disinfectant and told to quickly clean before the next man

Sometimes they were given a single condom which had to be washed in between uses

MEDICAL MALADIES

Women were checked biweekly for STIs/STDs Contracting one or becoming pregnant would

lead to punishment If given a “clean” bill of health, the woman

would be raped by her physician(s) after check-up

To combat STIs Injections of Mercury 606

Their internal organs including their uterus were mostly destroyed through this method

Forced hysterectomies

PREGNANCY: THE WORST OFFENSE

The most brutal punishment was reserved for women who had “let” themselves become pregnant

Babies were forcibly aborted: Kicking or knifing by a group of soldiers Raped with hot irons until the baby died

Babies were subsequently chopped up and fed to dogs in front of the women to serve as an everlasting reminder

THE AFTERMATH

After the Japanese were defeated, most comfort women were abandoned on siteComfort women who survived and were discovered by the Allied forces were not returned to their homelands; there was just too many of themThere is evidence supporting that American and European military personnel "recycled" many of the women for their own sexual useMany were considered prostitutes rather than victims

KIM HAK SUN

In 1991, former Korean comfort women Kim Hak Sun filed the first-ever lawsuit against the Japanese Government for its war crimes against women. Many others began to end their own silence and demands justice be brought before them.

KIM HAK SUN

MOTIVATIONS & REASONING

STATISTICS: WAR CRIMES IN NUMBERS

Adam

THE RAPE OF NANKING: A COMPARISON

Kaitlyn Coons

COMFORT WOMEN OUTSIDE JAPAN:A GLOBAL MENACE

Alex

COMFORT WOMEN OF TODAY: