This site was written in order to rebut the false accusation that Japan had a system of sex slaves during the World War Two.
Comfort women were camp followers, not sex slaves. There is a document called “Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49.” It is the best primary source available on the topic because it was written by The U.S. Army intelligence officers in Burma (today’s Myanmar), 1944. It was written based on the interrogation of twenty Korean comfort women, and according to the report, those women were “nothing more than a prostitute or ‘professional camp follower’ attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers.”
The most important point about the report for us today is the fact that none of the women asked American officers for help during the interrogation. “Help us! We were kidnapped and raped by Japanese army!” None of the women said that to American officers. On the contrary, according to the report, "they lived in near-luxury in Burma ... They lived well because their food and material was not heavily rationed and they had plenty of money with which to purchase desired articles. They were able to buy cloth, shoes, cigarettes, and cosmetics … they amused themselves by participating in sports events with both officers and men, and attended picnics, entertainments, and social dinners. They had a phonograph and in the towns they were allowed to go shopping.” Were they really sex slaves of The Japanese Imperial Army? Of course not. They were camp followers making good money by conducting "the oldest profession on earth."
Please note the fact that those women were interrogated by the intelligence officers who belong to the United States Office of War Information, Psychological Warfare Team. If those women had really been sex slaves of The Japanese Imperial Army, they must have used that information to the maximum effect. Remember in 1944, the war was still going on. They could have used it for the propaganda operations against Japan by publicizing it in every way possible. “Look! The Japanese were enslaving Korean girls for sex!” But they did not do it. Why? Because by thorough interrogation, they found out that those women were just camp followers. So the women were treated as prisoners of war, not as victims of Japanese army.
The focal point of comfort women issue is whether those women were kidnapped and raped by the Japanese military or not. If it had been the case, Japanese government would owe an apology and compensation to them. However, if they had been recruited by economic reasons; poor families had to sell their daughters to brothels or prostitutes wanted make good money, Japanese government would owe nothing. So what was the truth? Just Google and read “Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49” and find out yourself. Answer is very clear. They were camp followers, not sex slaves.
Some Koreans even claim that as many as twenty thousands Korean girls were kidnapped and raped. However, if the Japanese Imperial Army really had had sex slaves, it must have been revealed to the world during or right after the war. It is impossible to hide that kind of vicious secret for a long time. First, thousands of fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers of those sex slaves must have witnessed something when their loved ones were kidnapped. But we have no single testimony to date made by the family members of comfort women claiming the crimes committed by the Japanese military. Second, there must have been thousands of Japanese soldiers who were mobilized to kidnap those girls but we had only one testimony by a soldier who confessed his crime, and his confession was later proved to be false. Third, there must be thousands of orders and documents which shows the act of crimes but we have no written evidence whatsoever that proves the existence of sex slaves. Was everything burned at the end of war like some Koreans say? No way, that’s impossible. There must be some paper left, if it really had happened.
The false image that the Japanese military systematically kidnapped girls to serve as sex slaves was created by the misleading campaign of Japanese “liberal” newspaper The Asahi Shinbun. The center of that false campaign was a confession of just one man, Seiji Yoshida. Yoshida confessed that he had kidnapped hundreds of Korean women in Jeju Island but it was a lie. Many journalists and scholars visited the island to check the validity of his story, however all of the residents in the island denied such an incident ever took place. The Asahi Shinbun, even after his credibility was completely turned down, continued to feature his lie and spread the false image of sex slaves to the world. In August of 2014, however, The Asahi Shinbun finally admitted the falsehood of Yoshida’s story and retracted 16 articles (later two more) related to his story. Now the only evidences of sex slavery are testimonies of those self-claimed former comfort women who started to talk about their stories only after the Asahi campaign, not before. Isn't it strange?
Which do you believe, the testimonies of the self-claimed former comfort women or the report written by the U.S. intelligence officers who interrogated them? The point is very clear. Those women did not ask for help to American officers during or right after the war. They did not speak up at the time. Were they in shock and couldn’t speak the truth at the time? Well, maybe some of them were, but at least a few of them should have been emotionally strong enough to speak up. The fact that all of them did not speak up is very strange. However mysteriously 45 years after the war, in 1990s, they suddenly decided to speak up. Why? Because The Asahi Shinbun had started the false campaign of sex slavery. Around the same time several “liberal” Japanese lawyers visited Korea and encouraged them to sue Japanese government for compensation. Those liberal lawyers even place advertisements on Korean newspapers to assemble as many former comfort women as possible. The huge expense that one usually needs to pay for a law suit was paid by the liberal lawyers, too. Also the former comfort women were promised huge sum of money through compensation. No wonder so many of them suddenly came out from nowhere and spoke up. So which do you believe now, the testimonies of the self-claimed former sex slaves or the report written by the U.S. intelligence officers who interrogated them?
Please imagine, if you really had been kidnapped and raped repeatedly, would you keep quiet for more than 45 years? Why wouldn't they have complained right after the war when they were released? The U.S military does not have any record that Korean comfort women asked for help or claimed they had been kidnapped and raped by Japanese army during or right after the war. OK, maybe they were afraid of Americans. But then, why wouldn't they have talked to the local police or at least to their parents? Even though we hear many testimonies by those self claimed former sex slaves, we have never heard anything from their families members or seen police records of any kind? Why?
I really would like to ask all fathers and mothers in the world. Please imagine, if your daughters were kidnapped and raped by someone you know, would you keep quiet? Well, I wouldn’t. But, would you? We do have many testimonies made by self-claimed comfort women but we have no single testimony made by family members of those former comfort women to date. Was it because they were very patient and forgivable? No, of course not. There is no single testimony by family members because no one was ever kidnapped by Japanese army in Korea. On the contrary, we do have many record of those girls sold to brothels by their own parents.
During the WWII, there were many Korean soldiers, officers and even generals in The Imperial Japanese Army. Please imagine what kind of reaction would they have taken if Japanese army really had kidnapped and raped thousands of Korean girls. As soon as they found out abut the sex slavery, I believe, they stopped obeying The Empire. Otherwise they are not men anymore. Men are supposed to protect women, right? Fortunately, we have no records of Korean soldier rebellion against The Imperial Army. Or were they too coward to do that? Oh, right! All the evidences were burned at the end of the war. Yes! All the Korean soldiers and officers who rebelled against Japan must have been killed too. And that's why we have no evidence.
It’s mathematically impossible. The population of Korea before WWII was about 23 million. Let’s assume about two million of them were young female, age between 15 and 25. If Japan had really kidnapped 200,000 Korean girls, that would have been one in every ten Korean girls. Please imagine what would happen to the society if that many girls had really been kidnapped and disappeared. Angry fathers and brothers of those girls would take arms and storm Japanese bases. Right? But of course, we have no such records in Korea. Or were they too coward to do that? Oh, right! All the evidences were burned at the end of the war. Yes! All the Korean fathers and brothers who rebelled against Japan must have been killed too. And that's why we have no evidence.
During the WWII Japan mobilized many women for the war effort. Those women worked mainly in munition factories. They were called female volunteer corps. The women were between 14 and 40 years old, however as the war intensified, even girls who were 12 and up were mobilized too. The important point is that they were female volunteer corps and not comfort women. But some Koreans are mixing up those two completely different things intentionally. Thus nowadays some western media even report that many targets of this brutal system of sexual slavery were not ‘women,' but girls of 13 or 14. Their accusations are not only false and ridiculous but also ill intentioned and academically wrong. They should start listening to Koreans more critically and start reading primary sources like “Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49” seriously.
In August 2014, The Asahi Shinbun retracted 16 articles (later two more) regarding comfort women issues written based on the testimonies of Seiji Yoshida. Yoshida is the sole Imperial Japanese soldier who confessed his crime of kidnapping Korean girls but it was proved to be a lie later. There are, however, other misleading articles which they did not retract. One of them was written by Takashi Uemura. Uemura married Korean woman. His mother-in-law is a Korean political activist who started a lawsuit against Japanese government on comfort women issue in 1991. Uemura’s article was written in 1991 too. There is a possibility that Uemura wrote his article to help out his mother-in-law’s lawsuit because Kim Hak-sun, the first comfort woman who came out public, was found by Uemura's mother-in-law and the plaintiff of the lawsuit. Uemura’s article was of course about Kim Hak-sun. But Kim was not a sex slave because she was sold to a brothel by her mother. This is a fact because Kim herself mentioned about it many times. She said so on her letter of complaint, too. Also she attended a school for kisaeng. Kisaeng is a Korean female entertainer who performs traditional arts at banquets and conducts the "oldest profession on earth.” However Uemura did not write about these most important facts about her on his article. Instead Uemura implied that she was coerced by Japanese military to become a comfort woman thus mislead the public opinion of comfort women issue.
Another misleading article The Asahi Shinbun did not retract is about University of Chuou professor Yoshiaki Yoshimi’s finding. Yoshimi asserted that the Imperial Army was directly involved in the recruiting of comfort women with force. He claimed that he found the concrete evidence for that. However if one reads the document he found carefully, one will understand that it is not the evidence which shows military direct involvement because the document was a warning that was issued to brothels not to recruit comfort women forcefully or deceive them. In reality, the Japanese military was overseeing the activities of brothels to make sure that the comfort women were not treated brutally. Also we should never forget the fact that prostitution was legal at the time. Brothels were under the control of police in home front. Likewise, brothers were under the control of military in the front. So the existence of paper work from military to brothels itself is no surprise at all.
Some people maintain that Japanese government admitted that their military forcefully kidnapped women and made them sex slaves. The proof is Kono Statement published in 1993, they might say. This is not only false, but also horrendous lie. The Kono Statement is a diplomatic compromise between Japan and Korea. Korea asserted Japan to admit that the Japanese military forcefully abducted women for sex when the issue arose. However Japan could not find any documents or testimonies that prove military coercion. So the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to interview those self-claimed former comfort women in Korea for the evidence. But their statements were just terrible. Out of 16 women interviewed, only three of them could state their place of birth accurately, half of them could not even give their own date of birth. Also some of them stated that they worked in Osaka, Shimonoseki or Kumamoto, but all those places did not have any comfort women stations for military, only normal prostitution houses. Simply their statements were awful, something that can never be used as evidence in the court of law. Seriously Japan should have made the result of interviews public and refused to apologize at that time. However the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invented two kinds of coercion in their bureaucratic document; coercion in a broad sense and a narrow sense. The broad sense here means physical coercion and the narrow sense psychological coercion. The Kono statement stated that those women were deprived of freedom at comfort station (coercion in the narrow sense), but they were not forcibly kidnapped by military (coercion in the broad sense). Thus by using the word "coercion" the statement somehow satisfied Korean government at the time, but ever since every time the new administration came to power in Korea, they demand a new apology.
Some people use a 1996 U.N. Human Rights Commission report compiled by Radhika Coomaraswamy as the evidence of sex slavery by the Japanese military. She defined comfort women as sex slaves in her report. However, this report was written based on wrong or false documents and testimonies. Coomaraswamy cannot read either Japanese or Korean thus she entirely depended on a book written by Australian economist, George Hicks, but he cannot read Japanese or Korean either. His book was written based on the sources provided by a Japanese Korean woman. Most of the sources were mere Korean rumors and hearsay. This means both the report and the book were written without primary sources written in Japanese or Korean, so the academic value of both documents are very low. In fact she did not quote anything from “Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49,” the best primary source available on the topic in English language. Instead she quoted many pages from Yoshida’s false statement as truth. So don’t be deceived by the word “U.N.” The report has no real authentic value at all because she did not even listen to the American intelligence officers who interrogated those Korean camp followers in 1944.
Some people might say that what happened in Indonesia was the true example of sex slavery. Well unfortunately it is true. 35 Dutch women were recruited as comfort women in February 1944. Soon it was found out that a few girls among them were mistakenly hired. (Please note that majority of them were not.) However, what happened in Indonesia was an anomaly. It existed for only two months because as soon as the illegal activities were found out by a higher authority in the Japanese military, it was closed down. So it should be rather used as the example against sex slavery since it was barred right after the wrong doing was identified. Either kidnapping or rape of innocent girls could not prevail in the Japanese military. Thus they were forced out in only two months. Also those who were responsible in the case were prosecuted and hanged for their crimes right after the war by the allied forces. In other word, the sole example of sex slavery was found out during the war and prosecuted right after the war. There were no other examples. So the sex slavery accusation against Japan is completely wrong.
The word “sex slaves” is inappropriate for describing comfort women because no one used the word during or right after the WWII. It’s academically wrong. It cannot be found in “Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49” either. The report is the best primary source available on the topic because it was written by The U.S. Army intelligence officers in 1944, Burma (today’s Myanmar). It was written based on the interrogation of twenty Korean comfort women, and according to the report, those women were “nothing more than a prostitute or ‘professional camp follower’ attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers.” So the best word for describing comfort women is camp followers. Comfort women were camp followers, not sex slaves. “Sex slave” is a politically intended word to discredit Japan. Thus it should not be used in mass media unless you meant to slander Japan.
The false image of sex slaves was started by The Asahi Shinbun, however, the people who exploited the lie to the maximum effect were Koreans and Chinese. Korean desire to discredit Japan is relatively simple. They were colonized by Japan between 1910 to 1945. Thus many of them do not like Japan. Chinese desire is a bit different from Koreans. Their objective is to create the discord between the U.S and Japan by discrediting Japan. The Communist China’s final goal is to control east Asia and at least the half of the Pacific Ocean. To do that China needs to disunite the U.S and Japan. In July 2013, a statue of comfort woman was erected in Glendale, California. Text like “In memory of the more than 200,000 … women who were removed from homes … to be coerced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Armed Forces of Japan” were inscribed without any academic evidence. Koreans and Chinese are now planning to erect another statue in San Francisco China Town and many other major cities in the U.S and other countries. We should not allow them to do that because comfort women were camp followers, not sex slaves. Simply the whole thing is fabricated for political reasons.