Comfort women (2007)

The term jugun ianfu or 'comfort woman' was coined in Japan by the Imperial Army under Emperor Hirohito.  It is a euphemism for women that were forced into sexual slavery to be raped by the soldiers.

The last comfort women were raped during the second World War.  Between 1932 and 1945 the Japanese military rounded up civilian women in the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia and trafficked them to military bases and 'comfort stations'.  Many women were teenage girls when they were taken - some only 12 or 13 years old.  Some 'volunteered' to be taken in order to save the lives of other male family members.  Some were the wives of prisoners who were arrested alongside their husbands.

Conditions for these women were harsh.  It was not unusual to for them to be raped by 40 or 50 men every day or night.  A lot of women passed out from the abuse; many more died.  Pregnancies almost always resulted in execution for the woman if she wasn't driven to suicide first.  When they were not being raped, the women did laundry, cooking and other domestic tasks.

After the war, many women were shunned by their families for the stigma of having been a comfort woman.  Many more suffered from ill health, especially mental health problems and reproductive health issues.

The following videos contain testimonies from comfort women.

 

 

 

Many groups all over Asian, including Lila Filippina based in the Philiipines, are campaigning for the Japanese government to apologise for the atrocities they suffered as a result of being forced into sexual slavery.  In March 2007, Sinzo Abe, Japan's Prime Minister, apologised for Japan's use of sexual slaves but did not acknowledge the role they played in forcing women into sexual slavery.  There have been weekly protests outside the Japanese embassy in South Korea whilst the mention of comfort women is being erased or glossed over in textbooks in Japan's schools.

Private funds were set up to offer comfort women compensation, but most refused unless it came directly from the government.  In April 1998, a court in the Yamaguchi district decided to award three Korean comfort women financial compensation, citing their experiences as a 'fundamental violation of human rights'.  They were awarded $2,300 each.

In 1992 Maria Rosa Henson became the first Philippino woman to come out as a survivor and talk about her experiences.  She passed away in 1997.  As comfort women all overAsia are now elderly women, it is important that the Japanese government takes action now so that these women receive an apology before they pass away for the crimes they endured.

Even today, the experiences of the comfort women are being replicated.  Women are still being systematically raped and tortured as tactics of war.  Amnesty International have recognised that the 'patterns, methods, causes and consequences of the torture of women are decisively influenced by the victims' gender' (Broken Bodies, Shattered Minds - Amnesty International, 2001).  The torture of women is not only a fundamental violation of human rights but is not permitted under any circumstances under all international laws.

The following videos are Lila Filippina's message to Congress and Congress' response.

 

 

ORGANISATIONS & WEBSITES

 

V-Day Spotlight 2006: Justice to 'Comfort Women'

http://www.vday.org/contents/vcampaigns/spotlight/comfortwomen

Friends of Lolas

http://labanforthelolas.blogspot.com/

The Comfort Women Issues and the Asian Women's Fund

http://www.awf.or.jp/

 

 

REPORTS & POLICY

 

Japanese Military's Comfort Women System (2007) (PDF, 832kb) 
US Congressional Research Service Memorandum, April 2007

Modern-Day Comfort Women: the US Military, Transnational Crime, and the Trafficking of Women (2007) (PDF, 72kb)
University of Rhode Island & Polaris Project 2007

Protecting the human rights of comfort women
Mindy Kotler, Policy Forum Online, 2007

Militarism, Colonialism, and the Trafficking of Women: "Comfort Women" Forced into Sexual Labor for Japanese Soldiers
Journal article by Watanabe Kazuko; Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 26, 1994

 

NEWS ARTICLES

US urges 'comfort women' apology
BBC, 31 July 2007

Japan to study wartime 'comfort women'
The Guardian, 8 March 2007

Japanese refuses sex slave apology
BBC, 5 March 2007

Comfort women lose reparation
The Guardian, 30 March 2001