Japan's Comfort Women Read Online Free PDF

short period. In January the following year, Japanese forces entered into an armed conflict with Chinese forces in Shanghai. The Japanese later named this military clash “the first Shanghai Incident.” This “incident” was also plotted by the Kwantung Army, in order to divert the attention of Western nations from Japan’s plan to establish the Manchuguo puppet state.
    The Japanese Navy dispatched to Shanghai first set up military brothels in that city. According to a report prepared in late 1938 by the Japanese Consulate-General’s office in Shanghai, “as soon as the Shanghai Incident occurred, some staff from our military forces stationed here established the navy ianjo (in reality, licensed houses) to serve as leisure facilities for its members, which continue to be operated since then.”1
    Before this time, the Chinese government had made efforts to abolish prostitution in Shanghai. In 1929, the operation of the Japanese brothels in this city was officially banned, as the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was placed in the difficult situation of cooperating with the Chinese authorities. However, Japanese
    The origins of the comfort women system 9
    Plate 1.1 Japanese comfort women walking in the street where Japanese soldiers are strolling. The exact location is unknown, although it is somewhere in north China. The photo was taken in March 1939.
    Source : Mainichi Shimbun prostitutes were employed as “waitresses” at Japanese restaurants in the city, and continued their business. Thus, although Japanese brothels existed in Shanghai well before the Shanghai Incident, they were privately operated brothels for Japanese residents and visitors, not exclusive military brothels.2
    Probably only a few Japanese Navy brothels were set up at the time of the Shanghai Incident. The report prepared by the Japanese Consulate-General’s office in Shanghai (mentioned above) recorded the existence of ten brothels in late 1936, with 102 Japanese and 29 Korean women employed as “prostitutes.”
    Seven of these houses were navy brothels, and three others were so-called “Japanese restaurants.” According to the same report, these seven brothels were for the exclusive use of members of the Japanese Navy, and civilians were not allowed to enter the premises. Twice a week, “prostitutes” at these houses received medical examinations conducted by a venereal disease (VD) specialist, accompanied by a member of the naval force and a Japanese police officer attached to the Consulate-General’s office.3 In other words, these navy brothels seemed to be established primarily as a VD-prevention method, and operated under the close supervision of navy authorities as well as the Consulate-General’s office (i.e.
    Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
    Having had this experience in military-controlled prostitution in the early 1930s, the Japanese Navy started sending comfort women to China soon after 10
    The origins of the comfort women system the Sino-Japanese War began in 1937. For example, on November 30, 1937, the Yawata police station in Fukuoka prefecture (Kyushu) granted permission to two Korean women to travel to Shanghai. The women, residents of the same prefecture, were to work at one of the navy brothels in Shanghai.4 This evidence and other available information indicates that Korean comfort women sent to China early in the Asia-Pacific War were residents of Japan, mostly indentured workers, rather than coming directly from Korea.
    The Japanese Army followed the navy’s precedent and set up their own “brothels”
    in Shanghai in March 1932. This was initiated by General Okamura Yasuji, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army. According to his memoirs, the General decided to set up similar facilities to the navy, in order to prevent further rape of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers – a serious problem during the Shanghai Incident. General Okamura requested the Governor of Nagasaki