Contact /Last modified: July 15, 1997
In response to an escalation of the war against China into a full-blown war, the Konoe Cabinet drew up A Guideline for the Enforcement of Spiritual Mobilization of the Nation on August 24,1937. The Movement of National Spiritual Mobilization encouraged patriotic activities among women, and was reinforced by the National Mobilization Law in April 1938, which facilitated the war-time mobilization of women.
The Ordinance for the National Labor Service Corps, issued in November 1941, opened the way for the National Labor Service Corps to use women between 14 and 24 years of age for up to 30 days a year (the period was later expanded from 30 to 60 days in June 1943, and the age cap was raised from 25 to 40 in November 1944).
Although the legal basis for drafting women was provided by the second revision of the National Requisition Ordinance in August 1941, the government avoided mandatory draft and instead mobilized them principally on voluntary basis.
In September 1943, the government banned 17 industries from hiring men for their work force and so these positions were instead filled with women. At the same time, the government decided upon a measure facilitating the mobilization of women which would compel them to form the Women's Labor Service Corps (joshi kinro teishintai) with the aim of a grass roots mobilization of women. These teishintai were required to work for long periods of service that lasted one or two years.
In August 1944, the Ordinance of Women's Voluntary Labor Service was instituted to legally mandate a one-year period of labor service for women. However, Korean women had not been registered as citizens, which prevented the government from drafting them by legal means. The government then resorted to "official arbitration" in order to mobilize them by force.
Today in South Korea, teishintai generally means ianfu, or military comfort women, an expression for those women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military. Although teishintai working for military factories did exist in Korea too, the term was exploited to recruit military comfort women which resulted in the notion that teishintai is synonymous with ianfu. Seen from a different perspective, this is evidence that the Japanese government systematically proceeded with its ianfu policies, a brutal denial of the human dignity of Korean women, using innocuous misnomers such as national mobilization, patriotic labor, and labor services.
Since the 1910s, Korean women had been constantly preyed upon, to be sold to Japanese brothels. The ianfu system arose out of this background, and the state and the military jointly involved themselves in the systematic pursuit and control of these women. The total number of ianfu was estimated at 100,000 to 200,000, and 80% of them were believed to be Korean.
Initially, the military invited private agents to run brothels on the front lines. However, as the front lines expanded and the war dragged on, the number of prostitutes grew inadequate. To use non-professional Japanese women to fill the gap, they thought, was unwise because forcing them -- as family members and lovers of fighting soldiers -- into prostitution would badly affect morale. Thus, Korean women became the primary targets of the military's search for ianfu, which was vigorously conducted. Mirroring the uprooting and mobilization of Korean males as labor, Korean females were extensively and systematically drawn into brothels as ianfu under such misleading organization names as the Korean Women's Labor Service Corps, and the Women's Patriotic Service Corps.
The ianfu system, which has had no equal in the world, was believed to have been set up after the Shanghai Incident of January 1932, a small military clash between Japan and China in the hostile atmosphere present after Japan's invasion of Manchuria. During the clash, many cases of rape of local women by Japanese soldiers were reported. This led Lieutenant General Yasuji Okamura to request the Governor of Nagasaki to send some women for the comfort of soldiers: "In the past, there was no such thing as ianfu in the Japanese military. In saying this, I am ashamedly the originator of the system of comfort women. During the Shanghai Incident of 1932, there were a few cases of rape reported and I, as a Deputy-Chief of Staff of the dispatched force, followed the Navy's approach stationed there by requesting the Governor of Nagasaki for a group of ianfu. I was pleased by the fact that after their arrival, no further rape cases were reported. As a result, troops nowadays almost always bring a group of ianfu with them as if it were a part of their requisition. Nevertheless, for the Sixth Unit, having an ianfu group with them has not been enough to prevent frequent rape cases" (Document from General Tasuji Okamura, ed. by Masao Inaba).
The military calculated the necessary number of ianfu and accordingly sought out Korean women in their late-teens and twenties, using myon offices and other facilities, and, by force or by lying, convinced them that they would be taking care of soldiers. Minoru Shigemura, former Navy Commander, remembered that the Chiefs of the Military Affairs Bureau and Requisition Bureau of the Ministry of Navy in May 1942 sent a document entitled "With Reference to the Advancement of the Second Special Personnel" to the Chief of Staff for the fleet deployed in the south-west area. The second special personnel referred to ianfu in the Navy. The document contained the following:
1) Names of transporting ships, and their schedules....2) Allocation of the special personnel......
3) Facilities and equipment required: (a) barracks.... (b) mattresses.... (c) food and drinks, etc..... (d) hygiene....
4) Management
We have made the following basic trade agreement with agents. Further details should be negotiated on a case-by-case basis according to local needs.
a) Correspondent to the Fleet--Although in principle, each fleet has specialists in charge, as far as the special personnel are involved, the head of the fleet should take main responsibility.
b) Service charge--The standard charge is one which would allow the ianfu to pay back her debts through about one year of sound work. Based on this, the actual rate should be determined after additional considerations of current situations.
c) The operation should be separated for officers (this may include special treatment for division chiefs and above) and for lower ranks. Special consideration should be given to the selection of those ianfu serving officers to avoid problems. d) Management should be left to private agents, though controlled by the fleet...
(Bungeishunju, December 1955)
As is obvious from this excerpt, the state and military were clearly involved in the whole scheme, deliberately and organizationally, from the first stages of allocation and transportation of ianfu. Additionally, the authorities are said to have planned to distribute one ianfu for every 29 to 35 soldiers.
Operation and management of military brothels was handled by the military: allocation of ianfu was decided by the military and so was the preparation of their lodgings; non-military people were not allowed to use these brothels. Military surgeons conducted, as ordered by the military, periodic medical examination of ianfu for venereal diseases, and condoms were distributed to soldiers by the military to prevent the spread of venereal diseases. At these brothels, rules established by the military were posted. The military procured food and medical necessities for the ianfu and even issued letters of gratitude to them.
A former military doctor, Tetsuo Aso, recalled that he was ordered to "conduct physical examinations on about 100 women for a new Army recreation facility planned to open soon" and conducted venereal disease checks for ianfu when he was working for the Surgical Department of the 14th Logistic Hospital for the Shanghai Dispatch. Thus, military doctors conducted VD tests for ianfu as part of their duties under the military's order.
"Therefore, those prostitutes sent to the front lines should be young," wrote Tetsuo Aso in his "A Thought for Women on the Front Lines." "According to my own experience, however, those examined here often have surgical scars in their groin areas, clear evidence of a previous record of venereal disease and prostitution. I recommend reconsideration before employing these promiscuous women because such a thing would make quite an indecent gift for Imperial military men." His statement clearly illustrates that ianfu were considered as mere tools -- "things" and "a gift" -- for satisfying the sexual needs of soldiers, and were totally denied their humanity.
- This brothel does not admit anyone other than army soldiers and gunzoku (except laborers) and visitors are required to show their brothel permit.
- Visitors must pay service charges at the reception counter and in return receive an entrance ticket and a condom.
- Service charges are as follows: 2.00 yen for non-commissioned officers, soldiers and civilian employees.....
- Those having bought a ticket may enter the designated room, with a time limit of 30 minutes.
- The ticket should be handed to the ianfu upon entering the room.
- When finished, leave the room quickly.
- Those violating rules or disturbing military morals will be forced to leave.
- Do not touch ianfu without a condom. ...The Headquarters of the East Commisariat
Thus, detailed rules for brothels including rates and time of service were incorporated into military codes. This is yet another example indicating that the military managed these brothels and let soldiers use them.
A similar document demonstrating military management of these brothels is found in the "Regulations Concerning Servicemen's Clubs" in the internal regulations of the 3475th Unit of the Army issued in December 1944:
1) The following rules provide the necessary details concerning servicemen's clubs.
2) Those things which are not indicated here should all fall under the general regulations of the Unit.
3) Servicemen's clubs operating in our defense area should never entertain local officials or citizens. Also, our servicemen and gunzoku are strictly prohibited from visiting local brothels.
4) Items concerning servicemen's clubs in our defense area are put under the jurisdiction of the head of the defense troops who helps control the clubs.....
9) Medical tests of servicing women are conducted once a month by appointed military surgeons, and results will be publicly announced (medical tests are usually conducted on the 8th, 18th, and 28th of each month, and the precise time will be announced each time.) These tests should be attended by the military police....
15) Fees for the servicemen's club are as follows: 3.00 yen for officers, 2.50 yen for non-commissioned and civilian employees and 2.00 yen for soldiers.
16) Operating hours are from 12:00 to 24:00 daily. Overnight stays are basically prohibited.
17) Lower ranking visitors to these clubs should bring a certificate provided by regulations with them.
18) Service hours by rank are as follows: 12:00 to 17:00 for soldiers, 17:00 to 20:00 for non-commissioned officers, and 20:00 to 24:00 for officers...
Also, the appendix reads:
Generally, the notion that these servicing women are common property should be strongly promoted and a sense of monopoly is strictly prohibited,
thus confirming that ianfu were regarded as the common property of soldiers- as "objects.
The appendix also says, "Servicing women should try to understand the position of their customers, treat everyone equally, help customers to maximize their service to the state, and treat customers with the greatest attention so as not to let them fall into wrongness and so become unable to fulfill their military duties for any reason" and, "Servicing women are prohibited from walking around outside the fence or entering barracks and operating sites without reason." Ianfu were monitored to stay inside, detained in small rooms and forced to entertain dozens of soldiers everyday. These women often contracted venereal diseases and their spirits suffered from the humiliation of being used as sexual tools.
China, Southeast Asia, the South Seas Islands, and Japan proper --everywhere the Japanese military went, military brothels followed. When the war turned against Japan and its troops were forced to retreat, some ianfu were left behind, some were forced to fight with soldiers until they died, and some were simply slaughtered by the Japanese military. Ianfu were considered expendable by the military.
It is an undeniable fact of history that the Japanese military operated and administrated its brothels; that such operations were not individually conducted by each troop but rather the army systematically collected and administrated ianfu to deal with the sexual needs of soldiers; and that the army besmirched the dignity of ianfu as women as well as human beings, inflicting incurable pains on them, exposing them to venereal diseases, depriving them of their health, and when they became a burden, abandoning or even dispatching them as if they were worthless expendable.
Only nearly half a century after the end of the war have these facts finally come out in the open as a social issue.
In Korea, where Confucianism deeply permeated the culture throughout the 500-year history of the Lee dynasty, chastity is regarded as the most importantly-held virtue of women to such an extent that the sense of chastity represents one of the central concepts of their national pride and self-esteem. Given this background, it was virtual social suicide for a former ianfu to confess her past. For this reason, even after liberation, these former ianfu could not but live a suffocating life in silence, not letting anyone, even their own children, know of their past.
For Japanese war veterans, the existence of ianfu is not an unfamiliar issue, but rather a given, something they heard about and experienced as a typical part of their service in the military. Taking advantage of the reticence of their victims, these offenders have remained utterly silent on the matter.
Korean military comfort women have endured two-fold torment with regard to both their ethnic identity and sex. The colonial policy of Japanese imperialism toward Korea aggressively enforced destruction of Korean ethnicity, attempting to make them Japanese and imperial subjects in the name of a "consolidation of the mainland and the Peninsula." Korean women were forced to serve the Japanese empire as "Yamato women."
Sex is fundamental to human beings and is directly connected with one's personality. Ianfu were "gifts to imperial soldiers" in the name of raising their morale and, more practically, were prepared to prevent outbursts of grievance by soldiers and to prevent the spread of venereal diseases and rape. In short, the system was designed to control imperial soldiers through the use of ianfu.
These women were treated not as human beings but as "public toilets" (Tetsuo Aso, op.cit.). They were sometimes forced to service as many as a hundred soldiers a day as they were expendable as thus to be abused. From this I must say that the scheme, by using Korean women as a sexual tool of the Japanese military, ultimately was expected to result in an extinction of Korean race. The personality, human dignity, ethnic pride and self-esteem of 100,000 to 200,000 Korean women were severely ravaged through violence and long, daily abuse.
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