Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 03:22, 14 July 2024

Comfort women

Korean comfort women being questioned by the United States Army after the Siege of Myitkyina, August 14, 1944
Native name	Japanese: 慰安婦, ianfu
Date	1932–1945
Location	Asia

Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term comfort women is a translation of the Japanese ianfu (ja:慰安婦), which literally means "comforting, consoling woman". During World War II, Japanese troops forced hundreds of thousands of women from Australia, Burma, China, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, East Timor, New Guinea and other countries into sexual enslavement for Japanese troops; however, the majority of the women were from Korea. Many women died or died by suicide due to brutal mistreatment and sustained physical and emotional distress. After the war, Japan's acknowledgment of the comfort women's plight was minimal, lacking a full apology and appropriate restitution, which damaged Japan's reputation in Asia for decades. Only in the 1990s did the Japanese government begin to officially apologize and offer compensation. However, apologies from Japanese officials have been criticized as insincere.

Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with most historians settling somewhere in the range of 50,000–200,000; the exact numbers are still being researched and debated.

Originally, the brothels were established to provide soldiers with a sexual outlet, to reduce wartime rape and the spread of venereal diseases. The comfort stations, however, had the reverse effect of what was intended—it increased the amount of rapes and increased the spread of venereal diseases. The first victims were Japanese women, some who were recruited by conventional means, and some who were recruited through deception or kidnapping. The military later turned to women in Japanese colonies, due to lack of Japanese volunteers and the need to protect Japan's image. In many cases, women were lured by false job openings for nurses and factory workers. Others were also lured by the promises of equity and sponsorship for higher education. A significant percentage of comfort women were minors.

Outline of the comfort women system

Establishment by Japanese military

Part of a series on
Forced labour and slavery
Contemporary Child Labour Child soldiers Conscription Debt Forced marriage Bride buying Child marriage Wife selling Forced prostitution Human trafficking Involuntary servitude Peonage Penal labour Contemporary Africa 21st-century jihadism Sexual slavery Wage slavery
Historical Antiquity Egypt Babylonia Greece Rome Medieval Europe Ancillae Black Sea slave trade Byzantine Empire Kholop Prague slave trade Serfs History In Russia Emancipation Thrall Genoese slave trade Venetian slave trade Balkan slave trade Muslim world Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate Slavery in al-Andalus ‎ Baqt Contract of manumission Bukhara slave trade Crimean slave trade Khazar slave trade Khivan slave trade Ottoman Empire Avret Pazarları Barbary Coast slave trade pirates Sack of Baltimore Slave raid of Suðuroy Turkish Abductions Concubinage history Ma malakat aymanukum Avret Pazarları Harem Abbasid harem Ottoman Imperial Harem Safavid imperial harem Qajar harem Jarya/Cariye Odalisque Qiyan Umm al-walad Circassian slave trade Saqaliba Slavery in the Rashidun Caliphate Slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate Slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate Volga Bulgarian slave trade 21st century Atlantic slave trade Bristol Brazil Database Dutch Middle Passage Nantes New France Panyarring Spanish Empire Slave Coast Thirteen colonies Topics and practice Conscription Ghilman Mamluk Devshirme Blackbirding Coolie Corvée labour Field slaves in the United States Treatment House slaves Saqaliba Slave market Slave raiding Child soldiers White slavery Naval Galley slave Impressment Pirates Shanghaiing Slave ship
By country or region Sub-Saharan Africa Contemporary Africa Trans-Saharan slave trade Red Sea slave trade Indian Ocean slave trade Zanzibar slave trade Angola Chad Comoros Ethiopia Mali Mauritania Niger Nigeria Seychelles Somalia Somali slave trade South Africa Sudan Zanzibar North and South America Pre-Columbian America Aztec Americas indigenous U.S. Natives United States Field slaves female Contemporary maps partus prison labour Slave codes Treatment interregional Human trafficking The Bahamas Canada Caribbean Barbados British Virgin Islands Trinidad Code Noir Latin America Brazil Lei Áurea Colombia Cuba Haiti revolt Restavek (Encomienda) Puerto Rico East, Southeast, and South Asia Human trafficking in Southeast Asia Bhutan Brunei China Booi Aha Laogai penal system India Debt bondage Chukri System Indonesia Japan comfort women Korea Kwalliso Malaysia Maldives Slavery in the Mongol Empire Thailand Yankee princess Vietnam Australia and Oceania Australia Human trafficking Blackbirding Slave raiding in Easter Island Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea Blackbirding in Polynesia Europe and North Asia Sex trafficking in Europe United Kingdom Penal Labour Slavery Denmark Dutch Republic Germany in World War II Malta Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Spain Sweden North Africa and West Asia Afghanistan Algeria Bahrain Egypt Human trafficking in the Middle East Iran Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Morocco Oman Palestine Saudi Arabia Syria Tunisia Qatar Yemen United Arab Emirates
Religion Bible Christianity Catholicism Mormonism Islam Judaism Baháʼí Faith
Opposition and resistance Abolitionism U.K. U.S. Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90 Temporary Slavery Commission 1926 Slavery Convention Committee of Experts on Slavery Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery Abolitionists Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention Anti-Slavery International Blockade of Africa U.K. U.S. Colonization Liberia Sierra Leone Compensated emancipation Freedman Manumission Freedom suit Slave Power Underground Railroad songs Slave rebellion Slave Trade Acts International law Third Servile War 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom Abolition of slave trade in Persian gulf [fa]
Related Common law Indentured servitude Forced labour Fugitive slaves laws convention Great Dismal Swamp maroons List of slaves owners last survivors of American slavery List of slavery-related memorials and museums Slave marriages in the United States Slave narrative films songs Slave name Slave catcher Slave patrol Slave Route Project breeding court cases Washington Jefferson J.Q. Adams Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation 40 acres Freedmen's Bureau Iron bit Emancipation Day
v t e

Given that prostitution in Japan was pervasive and organized, it was logical to find military prostitution in the Japanese armed forces. Military correspondence within the Imperial Japanese Army shows that there were a number of the aims for facilitating comfort stations: to reduce or prevent rape crimes by Japanese army personnel in an effort to prevent a worsening of anti-Japanese sentiment, to reduce venereal diseases among Japanese troops, and to prevent leakage of military secrets by civilians who were in contact with Japanese officers. Carmen Argibay, a former member of the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice, states that the Japanese government aimed to prevent atrocities like the Rape of Nanking by confining rape and sexual abuse to military-controlled facilities, or stop incidents from leaking to the international press should they occur. She also states that the government wanted to minimize medical expenses on treating venereal diseases that the soldiers acquired from frequent and widespread rape, which hindered Japan's military capacity. Comfort women lived in sordid conditions, and were called "public toilets" by the Japanese. Yuki Tanaka states that local brothels outside of the military's reach had issues of security, since there were possibilities of spies disguised as workers of such private facilities. Japanese historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi further states that the Japanese military used comfort women to satisfy disgruntled soldiers during World War II and prevent military revolt. He said that, despite the goal of reducing rape and venereal disease, the comfort stations did the opposite—aggravating rape and increasing the spread of venereal disease. Comfort women stations were so prevalent that the Imperial Army offered accountancy classes on how to manage comfort stations, which included how to determine the actuarial "durability or perishability of the women procured."

Outline

In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, Japan's military closely regulated privately operated brothels in Manchuria.

Comfort houses were first established in Shanghai after the Shanghai incident in 1932 as a response to wholesale rape of Chinese women by Japanese soldiers. Yasuji Okamura, the chief of staff in Shanghai, ordered the construction of comfort houses to prevent further rape. After the rapes of many Chinese women by Japanese troops during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, the Japanese forces adopted the general policy of creating comfort stations in various places in Japanese occupied Chinese territory, "not because of their concern for the Chinese victims of rape by Japanese soldiers but because of their fear of creating antagonism among the Chinese civilians." To staff the establishments, Japanese prostitutes were imported from Japan. Japanese women were the first victims to be enslaved in military brothels and trafficked across Japan, Okinawa, Japan's colonies and occupied territories, and overseas battlegrounds. According to Yoshiaki Yoshimi, comfort stations were established to avoid criticism from China, the United States of America and Europe following the case of massive rapes between battles in Shanghai and Nanjing.

As Japan continued military expansion, the military found itself short of Japanese volunteers, and turned to local populations—abducting and coercing women into serving as sex slaves in the comfort stations. Many women responded to calls to work as factory workers or nurses, and did not know that they were being pressed into sexual slavery.

In the early stages of World War II, Japanese authorities recruited prostitutes through conventional means. In urban areas, conventional advertising through middlemen was used alongside kidnapping. Middlemen advertised in newspapers circulating in Japan and in the Japanese colonies of Korea, Taiwan, Manchukuo, and China. These sources soon dried up, especially in metropolitan Japan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs resisted further issuance of travel visas for Japanese prostitutes, feeling it tarnished the image of the Japanese Empire. The military turned to acquiring comfort women outside mainland Japan, mostly from Korea and from occupied China. An existing system of licensed prostitution within Korea made it easy for Japan to recruit women in large numbers.

Many women were tricked or defrauded into joining the military brothels. Based on false characterizations and payments—by Japanese or by local recruitment agents—which could help relieve family debts, many Korean girls enlisted to take the job. Furthermore, the South East Asia Translation and Interrogation Center (SEATIC) Psychological Warfare Interrogation Bulletin No.2 states that a Japanese facility-manager purchased Korean women for 300 to 1000 yen depending on their physical characteristics, who then became his property and were not released even after completing the servitude terms specified in the contract. In northern Hebei province of China, Hui Muslim girls were recruited to "Huimin Girls' school" to be trained as entertainers, but then forced to serve as sex slaves. The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that a major issue was that no historian had examined whether the soldiers of the Indian National Army used comfort women, since there had been no investigation for it. Lebra wrote "None of those who have written on Bose's Indian national army has investigated whether, while they were trained by the Japanese army, they were permitted to share in the 'comfort' provided by thousands of kidnapped Korean young women held as sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army at its camps. This might have provided them with some insight into the nature of Japanese, as opposed to British, colonial rule, as well what might be in store for their sisters and daughters."

Under the strain of the war effort, the military became unable to provide enough supplies to Japanese units; in response, the units made up the difference by demanding or looting supplies from the locals. The military often directly demanded that local leaders procure women for the brothels along the front lines, especially in the countryside where middlemen were rare. When the locals were considered hostile in China, Japanese soldiers carried out the "Three Alls Policy" ("kill all, burn all, loot all") which included indiscriminately kidnapping and raping local civilians.

Later archives

On April 17, 2007, Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Hirofumi Hayashi announced the discovery of seven official documents in the archives of the Tokyo Trials, suggesting that Imperial military forces – such as the Tokkeitai (Naval military police) – forced women whose fathers attacked the Kenpeitai (Japanese Army military police) to work in front-line brothels in China, Indochina, and Indonesia. These documents were initially made public at the war crimes trial. In one of these, a lieutenant is quoted as confessing to having organized a brothel and having used it himself. Another source refers to Tokkeitai members having arrested women on the streets and putting them in brothels after enforced medical examinations.

On May 12, 2007, journalist Taichiro Kajimura announced the discovery of 30 Dutch government documents submitted to the Tokyo tribunal as evidence of a forced mass prostitution incident in 1944 in Magelang.

The South Korean government designated Bae Jeong-ja as a pro-Japanese collaborator (chinilpa) in September 2007 for recruiting comfort women.

In 2014, China produced almost 90 documents from the archives of the Kwantung Army on the issue. According to China, the documents provide ironclad proof that the Japanese military forced Asian women to work in front-line brothels before and during World War II.

In June 2014, more official documents were made public from the government of Japan's archives, documenting sexual violence and women forced into sexual slavery, committed by Imperial Japanese soldiers in French Indochina and Indonesia.

A 2015 study examined archival data which was previously difficult to access, partly due to the China-Japan Joint Communiqué of 1972 in which the Chinese government agreed not to seek any restitution for wartime crimes and incidents. New documents discovered in China shed light on facilities inside comfort stations operated within a Japanese army compound, and the conditions of the Korean comfort women. Documents were discovered verifying the Japanese Army as the funding agency for purchasing some comfort women.

Su Zhiliang, a professor at Shanghai Normal University, examined the Japanese Kwantung Army's records in Manchuria (now Northeast China), which are housed at the Jilin Archives in China. The operations of the Japanese Military Police, who were in charge of overseeing the "comfort stations" in various parts of China and Java, were the subject of these records. Su concluded that the sources revealed that comfort women stations were ordered, supported, and managed by the Japanese military authorities.

Documents were found in Shanghai that showed details of how the Japanese Army went about opening comfort stations for Japanese troops in occupied Shanghai. Documents included the Tianjin Municipal Archives from the archival files of the Japanese government and the Japanese police during the periods of the occupation in World War II. Municipal archives from Shanghai and Nanjing were also examined. One conclusion reached was that the relevant archives in Korea are distorted. A conclusion of the study was that the Japanese Imperial government and the colonial government in Korea tried to avoid recording the illegal mobilization of comfort women. It was concluded that they burned most of the records immediately before the surrender; however, the study confirmed that some documents and records survived.

Number of comfort women

Professor Su Jiliang concludes that during the seven-year period from 1938 to 1945, comfort women in the territory occupied by the Japanese numbered 360,000 to 410,000, among whom the Chinese were the largest group, about 200,000. Lack of official documentation has made estimating the total number of comfort women difficult. Vast amounts of material pertaining to war crimes, and the responsibility of the nation's highest leaders, were either destroyed or concealed on the orders of the Japanese government at the end of the war. Historians have arrived at various estimates by looking at surviving documentation, which indicates the ratio of soldiers in a particular area to the number of women and replacement rates of the women.

Most academic researchers and media typically point to Yoshiaki's estimate as the most probable range of the numbers of women involved. This figure contrasts with the inscriptions on monuments in the United States such as those in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and California, which state the number of comfort women as "more than 200,000".

The BBC quotes "200,000 to 300,000", and the International Commission of Jurists quotes "estimates of historians of 100,000 to 200,000 women."

Countries of origin

Most of the women were from occupied countries, including Korea, China, and the Philippines. Women who were used for military "comfort stations" also came from Burma, Thailand, French Indochina, Malaya, Manchukuo, Taiwan (then a Japanese dependency), the Dutch East Indies, Portuguese Timor, Papua New Guinea (including some mixed race Japanese-Papuans) and other Japanese-occupied territories. Stations were located in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya, Thailand, Burma, New Guinea, Hong Kong, Macau, and French Indochina. A smaller number of women of European origin were also involved, mostly from the Netherlands and Australia with an estimated 200–400 Dutch women alone, with an unknown number of other European women.

According to State University of New York at Buffalo professor Yoshiko Nozaki and other sources, the majority of the women were from Korea and China. Chuo University professor and historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi discovered an abundance of documentation and testimony proving the existence of 2,000 comfort women stations where approximately 200,000 Korean, Filipina, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Burmese, Dutch, Australian, and Japanese women, many of whom were teenagers, were confined and forced to perform sexual activities with Japanese troops. According to Qiu Peipei of Vassar College, comfort women were replaced with other women at a rapid rate, making her estimates of 200,000-400,000 comfort women plausible, with the majority being Chinese women. Ikuhiko Hata, a professor of Nihon University, estimated the number of women working in the licensed pleasure quarter was fewer than 20,000 and that they were 40% Japanese, 20% Koreans, 10% Chinese, with others making up the remaining 30%. According to Hata, the total number of government-regulated prostitutes in Japan was only 170,000 during World War II. Others came from the Philippines, Taiwan, the Dutch East Indies, and other Japanese-occupied countries and regions. Some Dutch women, captured in Dutch colonies in Asia, were also forced into sexual slavery.

In further analysis of the Imperial Army medical records for venereal disease treatment from 1940, Yoshimi concluded that if the percentages of women treated reflected the general makeup of the total comfort women population, Korean women made up 51.8 percent, Chinese 36 percent and Japanese 12.2 percent.

In 1997, Bruce Cumings, a historian of Korea, wrote that Japan had forced quotas to supply the comfort women program and that Korean men helped recruit the victims. Cumings stated that between 100,000 and 200,000 Korean girls and women were recruited. In Korea, the daughters of the gentry and the bureaucracy were spared from being sent into the "comfort women corps" unless they or their families showed signs of pro-independence tendencies, and the overwhelming majority of the Korean girls taken into the "comfort women corps" came from the poor. The Army and Navy often subcontracted the work of taking girls into the "comfort women corps" in Korea to contractors, who were usually associated in some way with organized crime groups that were paid for girls they presented. Though a substantial minority of the contractors in Korea were Japanese, the majority were Korean.

In the Philippines during the Japanese occupation, around 1,000 Filipino women were made into comfort women. The victims were as young as 12 years old at the time of their enslavement. As many of the survivors recall, the garrisons or comfort stations/brothels were spread all over the Philippines. The garrisons were located from the northern region of Cagayan Valley to the Davao region in the south.

During the initial invasion of Dutch East Indies, Japanese soldiers raped many Indonesian and European women and girls. The Kenpeitai established the comfort women program to control the problem. The Kenpeitai forced and coerced many interned women to serve as prostitutes, including several hundred European women. A few of these chose to live in the homes of Japanese officers to serve one man as a sex slave rather than many men in a brothel. One such European woman, K'tut Tantri, of Scottish ancestry, wrote a book describing her ordeal. A Dutch government study described the methods used by the Japanese military to seize the women by force. It concluded that among the 200 to 300 European women found in the Japanese military brothels, "some sixty five were most certainly forced into prostitution". Others, faced with starvation in the refugee camps, agreed to offers of food and payment for work, the nature of which was not completely revealed to them. Some of the women also volunteered in hopes protecting the younger ones. The women forced into prostitution may therefore be much higher than the Dutch record have previously indicated. The number of Dutch women that were sexually assaulted or molested were also largely ignored. It was not until individuals and groups such as the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts began advocating for victims of the Japanese occupation that the plight of Dutch comfort women entered the collective conscience. As well as being raped and sexually assaulted every day and night, the Dutch girls lived in constant fear of beatings and other physical violence.

J.F. van Wagtendonk and the Dutch Broadcast Foundation estimated a total number of 400 Dutch girls were taken from the camps to become comfort women.

Besides Dutch women, many Javanese were also recruited from Indonesia as comfort women, including around 1000 East Timorese women and girls who also used as sexual slaves. Most were adolescent girls aged 14–19 who had completed some education and were deceived through promises of higher education in Tokyo or Singapore. Common destinations of comfort women from Java included Burma, Thailand, and Eastern Indonesia. Interviews conducted with former comfort women also suggest that some women came from the island of Flores. After the war, many Javanese comfort women who survived stayed in the locations where they had been trafficked to and became integrated into local populations.

Melanesian women from New Guinea were also used as comfort women. Local women were recruited from Rabaul as comfort women, along with some number of mixed Japanese-Papuan women born to Japanese fathers and Papuan mothers. One Australian Captain, David Hutchinson-Smith, also mentioned of some mixed-race, young Japanese-Papuan girls who were also conscripted as comfort women. A Papuan activist from Western New Guinea claimed an estimated 16,161 Papuan New Guinean comfort women were used by Japanese male soldiers during their occupation of New Guinea.

In 1985, Japanese comfort woman survivor Shirota Suzuko (1921–1993) released her autobiography, detailing the sufferings she and other women endured as comfort women.

More than 2,000 Taiwanese women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military; as of 2020, only two were still believed to be alive. Yoshiaki Yoshimi notes that more than half of Taiwanese comfort women were minors. In 2023 the last surviving Taiwanese comfort woman died.

Treatment of comfort women

It is estimated that most of the survivors became infertile because of the multiple rapes or venereal diseases contracted following the rapes.

Women and girls were stripped of their agency and dehumanized as "'female ammunition', 'public toilets', or 'military supplies'". In order to help injured Japanese soldiers receive treatment, some of them were even forced to donate blood. Even though every victim's testimony was unique, they all shared commonalities: they all experienced severe and brutal physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. They were repeatedly beaten and forced to perform sexual service with 10 men on normal days and up to 40 men on days after combat.

Sufficient food, water, proper housing, toilets, and washing facilities were not provided to the women, and the extent of medical care was restricted to treating sexually transmitted diseases, sterilization, and terminating pregnancies. Torture was used against women who attempted to flee or refused to comply with the troops' demands. In addition, threats were made to the families of girls who attempted suicide.

Since comfort women were forced to travel to the battlefields with the Japanese Imperial Army, many comfort women perished as Allied forces overwhelmed Japan's Pacific defense and annihilated Japanese encampments. In certain cases, the Japanese military executed Korean comfort women when they fled from losing battles with the Allied Forces. During the last stand of Japanese forces in 1944–45, comfort women were often forced to commit suicide or were killed. During World war II, at Chuuk Lagoon, 70 comfort women were killed prior to the expected American assault as the Navy mistook the American air raid as the prelude to an American landing while during the Battle of Saipan comfort women were among those who committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs of Saipan. In Burma, there were cases of Korean comfort women committing suicide by swallowing cyanide pills or being killed by having a hand grenade tossed into their dug-outs. During the Battle of Manila, when Japanese sailors ran amok and simply killed everyone, there were cases of comfort women being killed, though there does not seem to have been any systematic policy of killing comfort women. The Japanese government had told the Japanese colonists on Saipan that the Americans were cannibals, and so the Japanese population preferred suicide to falling into the hands of the Americans. It is possible that many of the Asian comfort women may also have believed this. British soldiers fighting in Burma often reported that the Korean comfort women whom they captured were astonished to learn that the British were not going to eat them. Ironically, given this claim, there were cases of starving Japanese troops cut off on remote Pacific islands or trapped in the jungles of Burma turning towards cannibalism, and there were at least several cases where comfort women in Burma and on Pacific islands were killed to provide food for the Imperial Japanese Army.

According to an account by a survivor, she was beaten when she attempted to resist being raped. The women who were not prostitutes prior to joining the "comfort women corps", especially those taken in by force, were normally "broken in" by being raped. One Korean woman, Kim Hak-sun, stated in a 1991 interview about how she was drafted into the "comfort women corps" in 1941: "When I was 17 years old, the Japanese soldiers came along in a truck, beat us , and then dragged us into the back. I was told if I were drafted, I could earn lots of money in a textile factory ... The first day I was raped and the rapes never stopped ... I was born a woman but never lived as a woman ... I feel sick when I come close to a man. Not just Japanese men, but all men-even my own husband who saved me from the brothel. I shiver whenever I see a Japanese flag ... Why should I feel ashamed? I don't have to feel ashamed." Kim stated that she was raped 30–40 times a day, every day of the year during her time as a "comfort woman". Reflecting their dehumanized status, Army and Navy records where referring to the movement of comfort women always used the term "units of war supplies".

In the Philippines according to the recounts of Filipino survivors Narcisa Claveria, who was enslaved for 18 months at the age of 13, during the day the women were forced to cook, clean, and do laundry. At night the Japanese soldiers raped and abused the women. The story of the comfort women doing household chores during the day and being sexually abused at night was also recounted by another Filipino Survivor Fedencia David, who was kidnapped by Japanese soldiers at age 14, who also remembered being forced to wash clothes and cook for the Japanese soldiers. At night David was raped by as many as 5 to 10 Japanese soldiers. Along with being raped multiple times a day the women were subjected to separation from their families, often watching their families being murdered by Japanese soldiers. One survivor recounts that when the Japanese soldiers took her, "soldiers began to skin her father alive." This maltreatment left physical and emotional scars.

Military doctors and medical workers frequently raped the women during medical examinations. One Japanese Army doctor, Asō Tetsuo, testified that the comfort women were seen as "female ammunition" and as "public toilets"—as literally just things to be used and abused—with some comfort women being forced to donate blood for the treatment of wounded soldiers. At least 80% of the comfort women were Korean, who were assigned to the lower ranks, while Japanese and European women went to the officers. For example, Dutch women captured in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) were reserved exclusively for the officers. Korea is a Confucian country where premarital sex was widely disapproved of, and since the Korean teenagers taken into the "comfort women corps" were almost always virgins, it was felt that this was the best way to limit the spread of venereal diseases that would otherwise incapacitate soldiers and sailors.

Ten Dutch women were taken by force from prison camps in Java by officers of the Imperial Japanese Army to become forced sex slaves in February 1944. They were systematically beaten and raped day and night. As a victim of the incident, in 1990, Jan Ruff-O'Herne testified to a U.S. House of Representatives committee:

Many stories have been told about the horrors, brutalities, suffering and starvation of Dutch women in Japanese prison camps. But one story was never told, the most shameful story of the worst human rights abuse committed by the Japanese during World War II: The story of the "Comfort Women", the jugun ianfu, and how these women were forcibly seized against their will, to provide sexual services for the Japanese Imperial Army. In the "comfort station" I was systematically beaten and raped day and night. Even the Japanese doctor raped me each time he visited the brothel to examine us for venereal disease.

In their first morning at the brothel, photographs of Ruff-O'Herne and the others were taken and placed on the veranda which was used as a reception area for the Japanese personnel who would choose from these photographs. Over the following four months the girls were raped and beaten day and night, with those who became pregnant forced to have abortions. After four harrowing months, the girls were moved to a camp at Bogor, in West Java, where they were reunited with their families. This camp was exclusively for women who had been put into military brothels, and the Japanese warned the inmates that if anyone told what had happened to them, they and their family members would be killed. Several months later the O'Hernes were transferred to a camp at Batavia, which was liberated on August 15, 1945.

Suki Falconberg, a comfort women survivor, shared her experiences:

Serial penetration by many men is not a mild form of torture. Just the tears at the vaginal opening feel like fire applied to a cut. Your genitals swell and bruise. Damage to the womb and other internal organs can also be tremendous … eing used as a public dumping ground by those men left me with deep shame that I still feel in the pit of my stomach – it's like a hard, heavy, sick feeling that never entirely goes away. They saw not just my completely helpless, naked body, but they heard me beg, and cry. They reduced me to something low and disgusting that suffered miserably in front of them … Even years later, it has taken tremendous courage for me to put these words on the page, so deep is the cultural shame …

At Blora, twenty European women and girls were imprisoned in two houses. Over a period of three weeks, as Japanese units passed by the houses, the women and their daughters were brutally and repeatedly raped.

In the Bangka Island, most of the Australian nurses captured were raped before they were murdered.

The Japanese officers involved received some punishment by Japanese authorities at the end of the war. After the end of the war, 11 Japanese officers were found guilty, with one soldier being sentenced to death by the Batavia War Criminal Court. The court decision found that the charge violated was the Army's order to hire only voluntary women. Victims from East Timor testified they were forced into slavery even when they were not old enough to have started menstruating. The court testimonies state that these prepubescent girls were repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers while those who refused to comply were killed.

Hank Nelson, emeritus professor at the Australian National University's Asia Pacific Research Division, has written about the brothels run by the Japanese military in Rabaul, in what is now Papua New Guinea during WWII. He quotes from the diary of Gordon Thomas, a POW in Rabaul. Thomas writes that the women working at the brothels "most likely served 25 to 35 men a day" and that they were "victims of the yellow slave trade". Nelson also quotes from Kentaro Igusa, a Japanese naval surgeon who was stationed in Rabaul. Igusa wrote in his memoirs that the women continued to work through infection and severe discomfort, though they "cried and begged for help".

Contrarily, a report based on interrogation of 20 Korean comfort women and two Japanese civilians captured after the Siege of Myitkyina in Burma indicated that the comfort women lived comparatively well, received many gifts, and were paid wages while they were in Burma. The label 'homecoming women', originally referring to comfort women who returned to Korea, has remained as a pejorative term for sexually active women in South Korea.

Sterility, abortion and reproduction

The Japanese Army and Navy went to great lengths to avoid venereal diseases with large numbers of condoms being handed out for free. Japanese soldiers were required to use these "Attack No. 1"-branded condoms during sex. For example, documents show that in July 1943 the Army handed out 1,000 condoms for soldiers in Negri Sembilan and another 10,000 for soldiers in Perak. However, the women had no ability to resist or object when Japanese soldiers refused to wear condoms.

Comfort women were usually injected with salvarsan, which together with damage to the vagina caused by rape were the causes of unusually high rates of sterility among the comfort women.

As the war went on and as the shortages caused by the sinking of almost the entire Japanese merchant marine by American submarines kicked in, medical care for the comfort women declined as dwindling medical supplies were reserved for the servicemen. As Japanese logistics broke down as the American submarines sank one Japanese ship after another, condoms had to be washed and reused, reducing their effectiveness. Comfort women themselves and local laborers were required to wash and recycle the used condoms. In the Philippines, comfort women were billed by Japanese doctors if they required medical treatment. In many cases, comfort women who were seriously ill were abandoned to die alone.

The Survey of Korean Comfort Women Used by Japanese Soldiers said that 30% of the interviewed former Korean comfort women produced biological children and 20% adopted children after World War II.

History of the issue

In 1944, Allied forces captured twenty Korean comfort women and two Japanese comfort station owners in Burma and issued a report, Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report 49. According to the report, Korean women were deceived into being used as comfort women by the Japanese; in 1942, there were about 800 women trafficked from Korea to Burma for this purpose, under the pretence of being recruited for work such as visiting the wounded in hospitals or rolling bandages.

In Confucian cultures such as those of China and Korea, where premarital sex is considered shameful, the subject of the comfort women was ignored for decades after 1945 as the victims were considered pariahs. In Confucian cultures, traditionally an unmarried woman must value her chastity above her own life, and any women who loses her virginity before marriage for whatever reason is expected to commit suicide; by choosing to live, the survivors made themselves into outcasts. Moreover, documents such as the 1952 Treaty of San Francisco, as well as the 1965 treaty which normalised relations between Japan and South Korea, had been interpreted by the Japanese government as having settled issues related to war crimes, despite the fact that none of them specifically mentioned the comfort women system.

The issue has been discussed in Korean newspapers since the war's end, with the number of articles jumping in the 1960s, when negotiations towards the normalization of Japan-Korea relations were underway, and further spiking in the 1980s, after the discovery of living former comfort women.

An early figure in comfort women research was the writer Kakou Senda, who first encountered photographs of comfort women in 1962, but was unable to find adequate information explaining who the women in the photographs were. Senda, through a long process of investigation, published the first book on the subject, entitled Military Comfort Women, in 1973. Nonetheless, the book did not garner widespread publicity, and his book has been widely criticized as distorting the facts by both Japanese and South Korean historians. In any event, this book did become an important source for 1990s activism on the issue. The first book written by a Korean on the subject of comfort women appeared in 1981. However, it was a plagiarism of a 1976 Japanese book by the zainichi author Kim Il-Myeon.

In 1982, a dispute over history textbooks sprang up after the Ministry of Education ordered a number of deletions in history textbooks related to Japanese wartime aggression and atrocities. This ignited protest from neighbouring countries such as China and also sparked interest in the subject among some Japanese, including a number of wartime veterans who began to speak more openly about their past actions. However, the comfort women issue was not a central topic and instead most of this resurgence in historical interest went towards other themes such as the Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731. Nevertheless, historians who had studied Japan's wartime activities in-depth were already aware of the existence of comfort women in general.

In 1989, the testimony of Seiji Yoshida was translated into Korean. His book was debunked as fraudulent by some Japanese and Korean journalists, and in May 1996 Yoshida admitted that his memoir was fictional, stating in an interview by Shūkan Shinchō that "There is no profit in writing the truth in books. Hiding the facts and mixing them with your own assertions is something that newspapers do all the time too". In August 2014, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun also retracted articles that the paper had published based on or including information from Yoshida, in large part because of pressure from conservative activists and organizations. Following the retraction, attacks from conservatives increased. Takashi Uemura, a journalist who wrote one of the retracted articles, was subject to similar attacks from conservatives, and his employer, Hokusei Gakuen University, was pressured to terminate his position. Uemura sued for libel but lost his case against Professor Tsutomu Nishioka and Japanese news magazine Shūkan Bunshun.

The existence of comfort women in South Korea and activism in their favour began to build momentum following democratisation in 1987, but no former comfort woman had yet come forward publicly. After the Japanese government denied that the state was involved and rejected calls for apologies and compensation in a June 1991 Diet session, Kim Hak-sun came forward in August 1991 as the first to tell her story. She followed by others in several different countries demanding an apology from the Japanese government through filing a lawsuit. The Japanese government initially denied any responsibility, but, in January 1992, historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi discovered official documents from the archives of the Defense Agency's National Institute of Defense Studies which indicated Japanese military involvement in establishing and running "comfort stations." Following this, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa became the first Japanese leader to issue a statement specifically apologising for the comfort women issue. This led to an intense increase of public interest in the topic as well. In 1993, following multiple testimonies, the Kono Statement (named after then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono) was issued by Japanese Government confirming that coercion was involved in seizing the comfort women.

All of this has since triggered a counterreaction from Japanese right-wing forces since the mid-1990's, with disputes over history textbooks being a common example. In 1999, the Japanese historian Kazuko Watanabe complained about a lack of sisterhood among Japanese women, citing a survey showing 50% of Japanese women did not believe in the stories of the comfort women, charging that many Japanese simply regard other Asians as "others" whose feelings do not count. In 2004, Minister of Education Nariaki Nakayama made known his desire to remove references to comfort women from history textbooks, and textbooks approved in 2005 contained no mentions of comfort women at all. In 2007, the Japanese government issued a response to questions which had been posed to Prime Minister Abe about his position on the issue, concluding that "No evidence was found that the Japanese army or the military officials seized the women by force." In 2014, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga formed a team to reexamine the background of the report. The review brought to light coordination between Japan and South Korea in the process of composing the Kono Statement and concluded that, at the request of Seoul, Tokyo stipulated coercion was involved in recruiting the women. After the review, Suga and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that Japan continues to uphold the Kono Statement.

In 2014, China released documents it said were "ironclad proof" that the comfort women were forced to work as prostitutes against their will, including documents from the Japanese Kwantung Army military police corps archives and documents from the national bank of Japan's puppet regime in Manchuria.

In 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan asserted officially the view that the expression "sex slaves" contradicts the facts and should not be used, noting that this point had been confirmed with South Korea in a Japan-South Korea agreement.

Apologies and compensation 1951–2009

In 1951, at the start of negotiations, the South Korean government initially demanded $364 million in compensation for Koreans forced into labor and military service during the Japanese occupation: $200 per survivor, $1,650 per death and $2,000 per injured person. Japan offered to compensate the victims, but South Korea insisted that Japan simply give the South Korean government financial aid instead. In the final agreement reached in the 1965 treaty, Japan provided an $800 million aid and low-interest loan package over 10 years. South Korean government "spent most of the money on economic development, focusing on infrastructure and the promotion of heavy industry".

Initially, the Japanese government denied any involvement in the comfort women system, until Yoshimi Yoshiaki discovered and published documents from the Japanese Self-Defense Agency's library that suggested direct military involvement. In 1994, under public pressure, the Japanese government admitted its complicity and created the public-private Asian Women's Fund (AWF) to compensate former comfort women. The fund was also used to present an official Japanese narrative about the issue. Sixty one Korean, 13 Taiwanese, 211 Filipino, and 79 Dutch former comfort women were provided with a signed apology from the then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, stating "As Prime Minister of Japan, I thus extend anew my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women." Many former Korean comfort women rejected the compensations on principle – although the Asian Women's Fund was set up by the Japanese government, its money came not from the government but from private donations, hence the compensation was not "official". Eventually, 61 former Korean comfort women accepted 5 million yen (approx. $42,000) per person from the AWF along with the signed apology, while 142 others received funds from the government of Korea. The fund was dissolved on March 31, 2007. However, the establishment of the AWF was criticized as a way for the Japanese government to evade state responsibility; the establishment of the fund also prompted protests from various Asian countries.

Three South Korean women filed suit in Japan in December 1991, around the time of the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, demanding compensation for forced prostitution. In 1992, documents which had been stored since 1958 when they were returned by United States troops and which indicated that the military had played a large role in operating what were euphemistically called "comfort stations" were found in the library of Japan's Self-Defense Agency. The Japanese Government admitted that the Imperial Japanese Army had forced tens of thousands of Korean women to have sex with Japanese soldiers during World War II. On January 14, 1992, Japanese Chief Government Spokesman Koichi Kato issued an official apology saying, "We cannot deny that the former Japanese army played a role" in abducting and detaining the "comfort girls," and "We would like to express our apologies and contrition". Three days later on January 17, 1992, at a dinner given by South Korean President Roh Tae Woo, the Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told his host: "We Japanese should first and foremost recall the truth of that tragic period when Japanese actions inflicted suffering and sorrow upon your people. We should never forget our feelings of remorse over this. As Prime Minister of Japan, I would like to declare anew my remorse at these deeds and tender my apology to the people of the Republic of Korea." He apologized again the following day in a speech before South Korea's National Assembly. On April 28, 1998, the Japanese court ruled that the Government must compensate the women and awarded them US$2,300 (equivalent to $4,299 in 2023) each.

In 2007, the surviving women wanted an apology from the Japanese government. Shinzō Abe, the prime minister at the time, stated on March 1, 2007, that there was no evidence that the Japanese government had kept sex slaves, even though the Japanese government had already admitted the use of coercion in 1993. On March 27 the Japanese parliament issued an official apology.

Apologies and compensation since 2010

On February 20, 2014, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the Japanese government may reconsider the study and the apology. However, Prime Minister Abe clarified on March 14, 2014, that he had no intention of renouncing or altering it.

On December 28, 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye formally agreed to settle the dispute. Abe again expressed his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women. He acknowledged that they had undergone immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women. He stated that Japan continued to hold the position that issues relating to property and claims between Japan and the ROK, including the issue of comfort women, had been settled completely and finally by the Japan-ROK Claims Settlement and Economic Cooperation Agreement of 1965 and welcomed the fact that the issue of comfort women is resolved "finally and irreversibly" with this agreement. Japan agreed to pay ¥1 billion (₩9.7 billion; $8.3 million) to a fund supporting surviving victims while South Korea agreed to refrain from criticizing Japan regarding the issue and to work to remove a statue memorializing the victims from in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. The announcement came after Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met his counterpart Yun Byung-se in Seoul, and later Prime Minister Shinzo Abe phoned President Park Geun-hye to repeat an apology already offered by Kishida. The Korean government will administer the fund for the forty-six remaining elderly comfort women and will consider the matter "finally and irreversibly resolved". However, one Korean news organization, Hankyoreh, said that it fails to include the request from the survivals of sexual slavery to state the Japanese government's legal responsibility for the state-level crime of enforcing a system of sexual slavery. The South Korean government did not attempt to collect the viewpoints on the issues from the women most directly affected by it—the survivors themselves. Concerning the deal between two countries, literally, Seoul and Tokyo failed to reach a breakthrough on the comfort women issue during the 11th round of Foreign Ministry director-general level talks on December 15, 2015. Several comfort women protested the agreement as they claim they did not want money, but to see a sincere acknowledgement of the legal responsibility by the Japanese government. The co-representative of a support group of the surviving women expressed that the settlement with Japan does not reflect the will of the comfort women, and they vowed to seek its invalidation by reviewing legal options.

On February 16, 2016, the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Seventh and Eighth Periodic Reports, was held, with Shinsuke Sugiyama, Deputy Minister for Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan), reiterating the official and final agreement between Japan and South Korea to pay ¥1 billion. Sugiyama also restated the Japanese Government apology of that agreement: "The issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of large numbers of women, and the Government of Japan is painfully aware of responsibilities."

In August 2016, twelve comfort women filed suit against the government of South Korea, declaring that the government had nullified the victims' individual rights to claim damages from Japan by signing an agreement not to demand further legal responsibility without consulting with the victims themselves. The suit claimed the 2015 deal violated a 2011 Constitutional Court ruling that the South Korean government must "offer its cooperation and protection so that citizens whose human dignity and values have been violated through illegal actions perpetrated by Japan can invoke their rights to demand damages from Japan."

In January 2018, South Korea's president Moon Jae-in called the 2015 agreement "undeniable" and said that it "finally and irreversibly" was an official agreement between the two countries; however, when referring to aspects of the agreement he found flawed, he said: "A knot wrongly tied should be untied." These remarks came a day after the government announced it would not seek to renew the 2015 agreement, but that it wanted Japan to do more to settle the issue. Moon said: "A real settlement would come if the victims can forgive, after Japan makes a sincere apology and takes other actions". In March 2018, the Japanese government argued that the 2015 Japan-South Korea agreement confirmed that this issue was finally and irreversibly resolved and lodged a strong protest to South Korea through diplomatic channels, stating that "such a statement goes against the agreement and is therefore completely unacceptable and extremely regrettable".

On June 15, 2018, The 20th civil division of Seoul Central District Court dismissed the comfort women's suit seeking damages against the South Korean government for signing the 2015 agreement with Japan. The court announced that the intergovernmental comfort women agreement "certainly lacked transparency or was deficient in recognizing 'legal responsibility' and on the nature of the one billion yen provided by the Japanese government". However, "an examination of the process and content leading up to the agreement cannot be seen as discharging the plaintiffs' right to claim damages." An attorney for the survivors said they would be appealing the decision on the basis that it recognizes the lawfulness of the 2015 Japan-South Korean agreement.

On January 8, 2021, Seoul Central District Court ordered the government of Japan to pay reparations of 100 million won ($91,300) each to the families of the twelve women. On the court case, referring to the principle of Sovereign immunity guaranteed by International law, the Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said that "a sovereign state should not be put under the jurisdiction of foreign courts", claiming that the lawsuit should be rejected. And Suga stressed that the issue is already settled completely and finally, through the 1965 Agreement on the Settlement of Problems concerning Property and Claims and on Economic Cooperation". On the same day, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also spoke about the lawsuit of a claim for damages against Japanese government consistently in Extraordinary Press Conference from Brazil.

In April 2021, in a separate case, a judge at Seoul Central District Court rejected an effort to order Japan to compensate 20 comfort women and their relatives, citing state immunity and "an inevitable diplomatic clash" between Japan and South Korea governments should the lawsuit proceeded. Lee Yong-soo, a former comfort woman and one of the plaintiffs, said she would seek international litigation.

On June 25, 2021, the Japanese government announced that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stands by statements made by past administrations apologizing for Japan's aggression in World War II and admitting the military had a role in coercing comfort women, "largely from the Korean Peninsula", to work in brothels.

In November 2023, Seoul High Court overturned the April 2021 ruling saying state immunity was not applicable to the case because Japan violated international treaties to which it was a party (as well as Japan's own criminal law) that banned sexual slavery and other crimes by the time of World War II. Additionally, the court ordered Japan's government to pay 200 million South Korean wons (US$154,000) in damages to a group of comfort women, most of whom had already died and were represented by their families. Japan condemned the ruling as "extremely regrettable and absolutely unacceptable", and summoned South Korean ambassador to Japan Yun Duk Min to protest it.

Concerns and controversies regarding apologies

Apologies from Japanese officials have faced scrutiny for their lack of sincerity. For instance, in the Kono Statement, while acknowledging the Japanese military's role in the comfort women system, officials denied coercion and forced transportation of women, and declined to provide compensation to the victims. Kono's apology was meticulous in distinguishing the actions of the Japanese army from those of the Japanese government, ensuring that the Japanese government bore no legal liability or responsibility for its treatment of the comfort women. Also, many victims viewed the apology as insufficient because it was delivered by the Cabinent Secretary of Japan and never officially adopted by the Japanese Parliament. Subsequent apologies were also criticized as insincere because they were delivered by the current prime minister of Japan rather than the National Diet, which would have signified an apology backed by the Japanese government. Subsequent apologies written and signed by the standing prime minister of Japan were distributed by the Asian Women's Fund, which is a non-governmental organization, rendering these apologies unofficial.

Japan has largely disregarded recommendations from the United Nations Human Rights Council, as well as the rulings from the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal concerning Japan's military sexual slavery. Japan has resisted pressure from other countries, including the United States and the European Union, who have passed resolutions urging the Japanese government to respond. Instead, Japan has indicated that it does not consider these statements legally binding and therefore does not feel obligated to act upon them.

Controversies

A 2001 comic book, Neo Gomanism Manifesto Special – On Taiwan by Japanese author Yoshinori Kobayashi, depicts kimono-clad women lining up to sign up for duty before a Japanese soldier. Kobayashi's book contains an interview with Taiwanese industrialist Shi Wen-long, who stated that no women were forced to serve and that the women worked in more hygienic conditions compared to regular prostitutes because the use of condoms was mandatory.

Moreover, 'patriotic' emerging faiths like "Kofuku no Kagaku" ('Science of Happiness') and certain Christian factions advocating for the merging of religion and state have initiated a concerted effort domestically and internationally to deny the existence of comfort women system. They've gathered extensive support from Japanese citizens who refute the existence of the comfort women issue, alleging it as a concoction by left-leaning factions. Several leaders of these groups are women.

In early 2001, in a controversy involving national public broadcaster NHK, what was supposed to be coverage of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery was heavily edited to reflect revisionist views. In 2014, the new president of NHK compared the wartime Japanese comfort women program to Asian brothels frequented by American troops, which western historians countered by pointing out the difference between the Japanese comfort stations, which forced women to have sex with Japanese troops, and Asian brothels, where women chose to be prostitutes for American troops.

In publications around 2007, Japanese historian and Nihon University professor Ikuhiko Hata estimates the number of comfort women to have been more likely between 10,000 and 20,000. Hata claims that "none of the comfort women were forcibly recruited". Historian Chunghee Sarah Soh noted that Hata's initial estimate was at approximately 90,000, but he reduced that figure to 20,000 for political reasons. He has been criticized by other Japanese scholars for minimizing the hardship of comfort women.

In 2012, the former mayor of Osaka and co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party, Tōru Hashimoto initially maintained that "there is no evidence that people called comfort women were taken away by violence or threat by the military". He later modified his position, asserting that they became comfort women "against their will by any circumstances around them", still justifying their role during World War II as "necessary", so that soldiers could "have a rest".

In 2014, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone chaired a commission established to consider "concrete measures to restore Japan's honor with regard to the comfort women issue", despite his own father Yasuhiro Nakasone, having organized a "comfort station" in 1942 when he was a lieutenant paymaster in Japan's Imperial Navy.

In 2014, the Japanese Foreign Ministry attempted to pressure McGraw Hill into erasing several paragraphs on comfort women from one of their textbooks. The attempt was unsuccessful, and American academics criticized Japanese attempts to revise the history of comfort women.

In 2018, the Japan Times changed its description of the terms "comfort woman" and "forced labourer" causing a controversy among staff and readers.

On August 18, 2018, United Nations rights experts and UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed that Japan should do more for sufferers of wartime sexual slavery. Japan responded by stating it has already made numerous apologies and offered compensation to the victims.

Since information disclosed by the Asian Women's Fund can be attributed to parts of a speech delivered in 1965 by Japanese Diet Member Arafune Seijuro, some of the information mentioned by the fund remains controversial.

The Japanese government, and the mayor of Osaka, demanded the removal of comfort women monuments located in other countries, blatantly denying that women were coerced into sexual slavery during World War II. They have demanded the removal of comfort women statues in Palisades Park, New Jersey, United States; San Francisco, California, United States; and Berlin, Germany, with each demand rejected by the relevant authorities.

In 2019, about 24 members of Malaya Lolas, an organization that supports Filipina survivors of sexual slavery during World War II, filed a complaint at UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) regarding the Philippine government's failure to fight for their cause, which resulted in ongoing discrimination against comfort women, that continues to this day. In 2023, CEDAW came up with a decision and recommended the government to provide the complainants with full reparation, including material compensation and an official apology for the continuing discrimination.

Based on a statement made by Representative Seijuro Arahune of the Japanese Diet in 1975 in which he claimed to cite numbers provided by Korean authorities during the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty negotiations, as many as three-fourths of Korean comfort women may have died during the war. however, according to the Japanese government, the validity of this statement has since been brought into question as the number does not seem to be based on an actual investigation on the matter.

Asahi Shimbun Third-Party Investigative Committee

In August 2014, the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's second largest newspaper in circulation, retracted 16 articles published between 1982 and 1997. The articles were concerned with former imperial army officer Seiji Yoshida, who claimed he had forcibly taken Korean women to wartime Japanese military brothels from the Jeju Island region in South Korea. Following the retraction of the articles, the newspaper also refused to publish an op-ed on the matter by Japanese journalist Akira Ikegami. The public response and criticism that ensued pushed the newspaper to nominate a third-party investigative committee headed by seven leading scholars, journalists and legal experts. The committee report dealt with the circumstances leading to the publication of Yoshida's false testimony and to the effect these publications had on Japan's image abroad and diplomatic relations with various countries. It found that the Asahi was negligent in publishing Yoshida's testimony, but that the reports on the testimony had "limited" effect on foreign media outlets and reports. On the other hand, the report found that Japanese officials' comments on the issue had a far more detrimental effect on Japan's image and its diplomatic relations.

Fraud accusations against support groups

In 2004, 13 former comfort women filed a complaint against the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery and the House of Sharing with the Seoul Western District Court to prevent these two organizations from profiting and exploiting the victims' past experiences to collect donations. The victims accused Shin Hye-Soo, head of the Korean Council at the time, and Song Hyun-Seob, Head of the House of Sharing, of using the women's past experiences in videos and leaflets without their permission to solicit donations and then keeping the money instead of using it to help the victims. The complaint further stated that a significant number of victims did not receive compensation through the citizen-funded Asian Women's Fund established in 1995 by Japan due to the opposition from the organizations in 1998. In addition, they accused the institutions of recruiting six former comfort women survivors from China and paying them to get them to partake in weekly rallies. The complaint was dismissed by the court in May 2005.

Again, in May 2020, Lee Yong-Soo, a comfort woman survivor and longtime activist for the victims, held a press conference and accused the Korean Council and its former head, Yoon Mee-hyang, of exploiting her and other survivors, politically and financially for decades, to obtain government funds and public donations through the protests while spending little money aiding them.

Consequently, a civic group filed a complaint against Yoon Mee-hyang, a lawmaker-elect and former head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. After an investigation, the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office indicted Yoon, on eight charges including fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust.  

Among the charges, Yoon was indicted for is a count of quasi-fraud against Gil Won-ok, a 92-year-old survivor. The prosecution said Gil suffers from dementia and that Yoon had exploited her reduced physical and mental capacities and pressed her to donate a total of 79.2 million won ($67,102) to the Korean Council between November 2017 and January 2020.

Additionally, she was accused of fraud and embezzlement of almost half a million dollars from governmental organizations and private donors, which were used to buy properties and even pay tuition for her daughter's education at the University of California.

In a forensic audit of the comfort women's shelter controlled by Yoon's group, it was found that barely 2.3% of its massive $7.5 million budget raised since 2015 was actually spent on supporting the living needs of surviving comfort women, many of whom live in cramped quarters, with substandard care, with few luxuries.

In September 2020, the Democratic Party (DP) suspended Yoon's party membership due to the charges that she was facing.

International Court of Justice

The Comfort Women survivors have asked the Korean government multiple times to bring their case in front of the International Court of Justice, but South Korea has yet to respond.

International Court Cases

Members of the group Malaya Lolas in the Philippines have attempted to go to Tokyo to file a suit in the Japanese courts. The lolas were unable to file the lawsuit because according to the Japanese government the lolas could not file a lawsuit due to international law stating that the Malaya Lolas need to be represented by the Philippine government. The lolas filed a case in the Philippine courts, Vinuya et al. v. Executive Secretary et al. The case was directed at the Executive Secretary at the time, Alberto G. Romulo and the main plaintiff was the leader of Malaya Lolas, Isabelita Vinuya. The lolas filed this case to get the Philippine government to support them in pursuing a petition for compensation in the Japanese courts. The Philippine government won the case with the court stating that the Philippine government "is not under any international obligation to espouse petitioners' claims."

International support

The cause has long been supported beyond the victim nations, and associations like Amnesty International are campaigning in countries where governments have yet to support the cause, like in Australia, or New Zealand.

Support in the United States continues to grow, particularly after the passage of United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121 on July 30, 2007. The resolution expresses that the government of Japan should formally redress the situation by acknowledging, apologizing and accepting historical responsibility for the use of comfort women by its armed forces; have the Prime Minister of Japan give a public apology; and educate their people using internationally accepted historical facts about the crime while refuting any claims that deny the crime. In July 2012, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a strong advocate of the cause, denounced the use of the euphemism 'comfort women' for what should be referred to as 'enforced sex slaves'. The Obama Administration also addressed the need for Japan to do more to address the issue. In addition to calling attention to the issue, the American memorial statues erected in New Jersey in 2010 and California in 2013 show support for what has become an international cause.

On November 28, 2007, the Parliament of Canada unanimously passed a motion that recognized Japan's use of women as sex slaves during the Second World War, demanding Japan to make a formal sincere apology to all victims.

In 2007, the Netherland's House of Representatives passed a resolution that urged Japan to apologize for it wartime sex slavery, and to pay compensation to former comfort women.

On December 13, 2007, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on "Justice for the 'Comfort Women' (sex slaves in Asia before and during World War II)" calling on the Japanese government to apologise and accept legal responsibility for the coercion of young women into sexual slavery before and during WWII.

In 2014, Pope Francis met with seven former comfort women in South Korea. Also in 2014, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called for Japan to, as the committee's deputy head Anastasia Crickley put it, "conclude investigations into the violations of the rights of 'comfort women' by the military and to bring to justice those responsible and to pursue a comprehensive and lasting resolution to these issues". U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay had also spoken out in support of comfort women several times.

Health-related issues

In the aftermath of the war, the women recalled bouts of physical and mental abuse that they had experienced while working in military brothels. In the Rorschach test, the women showed distorted perceptions, difficulty in managing emotional reactions and internalized anger. A 2011 clinical study found that comfort women are more prone to showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even 60 years after the end of the war.

Survivors

The last surviving victims have become public figures in Korea, where they are referred to as "halmoni", the affectionate term for "grandmother". There is a nursing home, called House of Sharing, for former comfort women in South Korea. China remains more at the testimony collection stage, particularly through the China "Comfort Women" Issue Research Center at Shanghai Normal University, sometimes in collaboration with Korean researchers. For other nations, the research and the interaction with victims is less advanced.

Despite the efforts at assigning responsibility and victims compensation, in the years after World War II, many former Korean comfort women were afraid to reveal their past, because they are afraid of being disowned or ostracized further.

Memorials and organizations

China

On December 1, 2015, the first memorial hall dedicated to Chinese comfort women was opened in Nanjing. It was built on the site of a former comfort station run by the invading Japanese troops during World War II. The memorial hall stands next to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

In June 2016, the Research Center for Chinese Comfort Women was established at Shanghai Normal University. It is a museum that exhibits photographs and various items related to comfort women in China.

Taiwan

Since the 1990s, Taiwanese survivors have been bringing to light the comfort woman issue in Taiwanese society, and gaining support from women's rights activists and civil groups. Their testimony and memories have been documented by newspapers, books, and documentary films.

Survivors' claims against the Japan government have been backed by the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation (TWRF) a non-profit organization helping women against violence, and sexual violence. This organization gives legal and psychological support to Taiwanese comfort women, and also helps in the recording of testimony and doing scholarly research. In 2007, this organization was responsible for promoting awareness in society, by creating meetings in universities and high schools where survivors gave their testimonies to students and the general public. TWRF has produced exhibitions that give survivors the opportunity to be heard in Taipei, and also in the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace, based in Tokyo.

Thanks to this increasing awareness in society, and with the help of TWRF, Taiwanese comfort women have gained the support their government, which on many occasions has asked the Japanese government for apologies and compensation.

In November 2014, "Song of the Reed", a documentary film directed by Wu Hsiu-ching and produced by TWRF, won the International Gold Panda documentary award.

In December 2016, a museum dedicated to comfort women opened in Taipei.

On August 14, 2018, the first 'comfort women' statue in Taiwan was unveiled in the city of Tainan. The statue symbolizes women forced to work in wartime brothels for the Japanese military. The bronze statue portrays a girl raising both hands to the sky to express her helpless resistance to suppression and silent protest, according to its creator. In September 2018, Japanese right-wing activist Mitsuhiko Fujii [ja] kicked the statue and caused outrage in Taiwan, with the Taiwanese government branding his behavior as unacceptable. A Japanese right-wing group with affiliations to him apologized for his behavior and said he resigned from his group position.

South Korea

Wednesday demonstrations

Every Wednesday, living comfort women, women's organizations, socio-civic groups, religious groups, and a number of individuals participate in the Wednesday Demonstrations in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, sponsored by "The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (KCWDMSS)". It was first held on January 8, 1992, when Japan's Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa visited South Korea. In December 2011, a statue of a young woman was erected in front of the Japanese Embassy to honor the comfort women on the 1,000th Wednesday Demonstration. The Japanese government has repeatedly asked the South Korean government to have the statue taken down, but it has not been removed.

On December 28, 2015, the Japanese government claimed that the Korean government agreed the removal of the statue. As of September 3, 2016, the statue was still in place due to a majority of the South Korean population being opposed to the agreement. On December 30, 2016, another comfort woman statue identical to the one in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul was erected in front of the Japanese consulate in Busan, South Korea. As of January 6, 2017, the Japanese government is attempting to negotiate the removal of the statue. On May 11, 2017, newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced the agreement would not be enacted in its current stage and that negotiations for a deal between Japan and South Korea over the comfort women dispute had to start over.

On June 30, 2017, the local government of Busan enacted the legal foundation to protect the Statue of Peace by passing the relative ordinance. By reason of this, it has become difficult to shift the site or demolish the statue.

On August 14, 2018, South Korea held an unveiling ceremony for a monument memorializing Korean women forced to work in wartime brothels for the Japanese military, as the nation observed its first official comfort women memorial day.

On November 21, 2018, South Korea officially cancelled the 2015 agreement and shut down the Japan-funded comfort women foundation which was launched in July 2016 to finance the agreement's settlement to the victims. The settlement had received criticism from victims' groups.

House of Sharing

The House of Sharing is a nursing home for living comfort women. The House of Sharing was founded in June 1992 through funds raised by Buddhist organizations and various socio-civic groups and it moved to Gyeonggi-do, South Korea in 1998. The House of Sharing includes "The Museum of Sexual Slavery by Japanese Military" to spread the truth about the Japanese military's brutal abuse of comfort women and to educate descendants and the public.

Archives by comfort women

Some of the survivors, Kang Duk-kyung, Kim Soon-duk and Lee Yong-Nyeo, preserved their personal history through their drawings as a visual archive. Also, the director of the Center for Asian American Media, Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, made a comfort women video archive, a documentary film for K–12 through college level students. Feminist visual and video archives have promoted a place for solidarity between the victims and the public. It has served as a living site for the teaching and learning of women's dignity and human rights by bringing people together despite age, gender, borders, nationality, and ideologies.

Philippines

Comfort women in the Philippines, called "Lolas" (grandmothers), formed different groups similar to the Korean survivors. One group, named "Lila Pilipina" (League of Filipino Women), started in 1992 and is member of GABRIELA, a feminist organization. In their brochure they list their demands in two categories, ones to the Japanese government and those for the Philippine government. From the Japanese government Lila Pilipina has five demands:

1. "that Japan fulfills its responsibility in the full disclosure of all information in its war archives concerning the operation of the "comfort stations" and the "comfort women" system
2. "adequate compensation for the women victims and their families from the Japanese government,"
3. "for the Japanese government to include as reference in its textbooks and history books the reality of military sexual slavery through "comfort women" during World War II as a crime,"
4. "for the Japanese government to admit the use of force and violence in the conscription and treatment of the "comfort women" as military sex slaves, contrary to Japanese government report,"
5. "a formal apology to the Filipino people and specifically to the women victims and their families for having a direct hand in the conscription of Asian women for military sexual slavery."

From the Philippine government Lila Pilipina also has five demands:

1. "to issue an official position declaring the comfort women system as a war crime, condemning the Japanese government in its direct involvement for institutionalized sexual slavery and demanding formal apology and compensation for the victims and their families,"
2. "to conduct an official investigation and documentation of the comfort women issue,"
3. "to include the reality of the "comfort women" and "comfort stations" during World War II in Philippine history. These include the curriculum, textbooks and other instructional materials used both in public and private educational institutions in all levels,"
4. "to build historical markers and shrines around the country for the comfort women and war victims of World War II as a reminder to the present generation of the sad realities behind wars of aggression,"
5. "to provide material support for the victims, survivors, and their families."

Lila Pilipina together with the Malaya Lolas (Free grandmothers) took legal actions against Japan. These groups also ask the Philippine government to back their claims against the Japanese government. These groups have taken legal actions against Japan. Malaya Lolas had attempted to go to Tokyo to file a suit in the Japanese courts. Still, according to the Japanese government, the lolas themselves could not file a lawsuit due to international law stating that the lolas need to be represented by the Philippine government. In 2004 the Malaya Lolas filed a cause, Vinuya et al. v. Executive Secretary et al., asking for the support of the Philippine government in pursuing a petition for compensation in the Japanese courts. A decision was made on April 28, 2010, supporting the Philippine government. As of August 2014, after failing in legal action against their own government to back their claims, they planned to take the case the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and Children (CEDAW).

These groups have made demonstrations in front of the Japanese embassy in Manila on many occasions, and have given testimonies to Japanese tourists in Manila. The Filipino news channel ABS-CBN has done interviews with the surviving lolas to bring awareness to the experience of lolas under the Japanese occupation and to remind people that Japan's crimes were not committed that long ago and should not be forgotten.

Similar to the Korean grandmothers, Filipino "Lolas" have their own Grandmother house with a collection of their testimonies. Also two of them have published two autobiographic books: Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny by Rosa Henson and The Hidden Battle of Leyte: The Picture Diary of a Girl Taken by the Japanese Military by Remedios Felias. This second book was written in the 1990s, after Lila Filipina was formed.

In Bulacan, there is an empty villa house Bahay na Pula (meaning Red House in English) which was seized by Japanese soldiers during WWII and had been used as a comfort station where Filipino women were raped and held as comfort women. The Bahay na Pula is seen as a memorial to the forgotten Filipino comfort women in the Philippines.

On December 8, 2017, the 'Filipina Comfort Women' statue by artist Jonas Roces was installed in Baywalk, Roxas Boulevard in Manila. About four months later, the statue was removed by government officials due to a "drainage improvement project" along the Baywalk. It was later declared missing in 2019 when the statue artist Jonas Roces failed to deliver the statue for its reinstallation at the Baclaran Church.

In 2019, a similar memorial statue in a Catholic-run shelter for the elderly and the homeless in San Pedro, Laguna was removed only two days after it was unveiled to the public. The bronze statue of a young woman with fists resting on her lap was removed without explanation and notice. The move came after the Japanese embassy complained.

United States

In 2010, the first American monument dedicated to the comfort women was established in Palisades Park, New Jersey.

On March 8, 2013, Bergen County erected a comfort women memorial on the lawn of the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack, NJ.

In 2013, a memorial statue to comfort women called Peace Monument of Glendale was established in Glendale, California. The statue has been subject to multiple legal attempts to remove it. A 2014 lawsuit seeking the statue's removal was dismissed.

On May 30, 2014, a memorial was dedicated behind the Fairfax County Government Center in Virginia.

On August 16, 2014, a new memorial statue honoring the comfort women was unveiled in Southfield, Michigan.

In June 2017, Brookhaven, Georgia unveiled a statue memorializing the Comfort Women of World War II.

On September 22, 2017, in an initiative led by the local Chinese-American community, San Francisco erected a privately funded San Francisco Comfort Women Memorial to the comfort women of World War II. Some Japanese and Japanese-American opponents of the initiative argue the statue would promote hatred and anti-Japanese sentiment throughout the community and object to the statue singling out Japan. Tōru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka, Japan, objected that the memorial should be "broadened to memorialize all the women who have been sexually assaulted and abused by soldiers of countries in the world". Supporting the statue, Heather Knight of the San Francisco Chronicle pointed to the San Francisco Holocaust Memorial and the landmarked Japanese internment camps in California as evidence that Japan is "not being singled out". In protest over the statue, Osaka ended the sister city relationship with San Francisco that had been established since 1957. When the city accepted the statue as public property in 2018, the mayor of Osaka sent a 10-page letter to the mayor of San Francisco, complaining of inaccuracies and unfairly singling out Japan for criticism.

A 2010 proposal to create a memorial in Koreatown, Fort Lee, New Jersey has been controversial and was undecided as of 2017.

On May 23, 2018, a comfort women memorial was installed in Constitution Park in Fort Lee, NJ. Youth Council of Fort Lee, a student organization led by Korean American high school students in Fort Lee designed the memorial.

Germany

In March 2017, the first comfort women statue in Europe was elected in Wiesent, Bavaria, Germany. The statue was a replica of the bronze statue installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Another German city, Freiburg, had planned to set up a comfort woman statue there but it was scrapped due to "strong obstruction and pressure" by Japan.

Canada

In 2016, the first statue in Canada devoted to comfort women was placed in Toronto.

Australia

A comfort women statue was unveiled in Sydney in August 2016. The 1.5-metre statue imported from Korea was originally meant for a public park in Strathfield, but local council rejected it. Reverend Bill Crews then agreed to install the statue outside his church, Ashfield Uniting Church. He said, "It's finally found a home."

Notable former comfort women

A number of former comfort women had come forward and spoken out about their plight of being a comfort woman:

• Dutch East Indies – Jan Ruff O'Herne (1923–2019); Ellen van der Ploeg (1923–2013)
• Korea – Gil Won-ok (1928–); Kim Hak-sun (1924–1997); Lee Yong-soo (1928–); Song Sin-do (1922–2017); Yoo Hee-nam (1927–2016); Kim Bok-dong (1926–2019)
• Philippines – Rosa Henson (1927–97); Remedios Felias (1928–); Isabelita Vinuya (1931–2021)
• Taiwan – Liu Huang A-tao (1923–2011)

Culture

Art

Media

• Red Angel (Movie) is a 1966 Japanese war drama film by Yasuzō Masumura where there are scenes of comfort women.
• A Secret Buried for 50 Years is a 1998 documentary about the stories of 13 comfort women in Taiwan.
• City of Life and Death is a 2009 Chinese movie written and directed by Lu Chuan. The movie is based on the Nanjing Massacre that took place during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Several scenes of Chinese women tearfully volunteering themselves as comfort women to save the rest of the refugees are depicted, as well as their plight, pain and eventual death.
• Within Every Woman is a 2012 documentary by Canadian filmmaker Tiffany Hsiung on the Japanese comfort women program.
• Snowy Road is a 2015 South Korean film that tells the story about two teenage girls who are taken away from their homes and forced to become comfort women for the Japanese.
• Spirits' Homecoming is a 2016 South Korean period drama film about comfort women.
• The Apology is a 2016 documentary about three former comfort women seeking justice and stating their story.
• I Can Speak is a 2017 South Korean comedy-drama film starring Na Moon-hee as an elderly woman who travels to the United States to testify about her experience as a comfort woman.
• Herstory is a 2018 South Korean drama film based on a real-life story of three comfort women and seven other victims during the Gwanbu Trial which took place in Shimonoseki in 1992.
• How We Disappeared is a 2019 novel by Jing-Jing Lee about a Singaporean woman forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese occupiers.
• Tomorrow Episode 13 of the Korean Netflix series Tomorrow explores the traumatic experiences of the comfort women. The fate of three of these women is the focus of the 60-minute episode Spring, with the peace monument in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul also playing a significant role.
• Kokosuni, is a 2022 KBS documentary film by reporter Lee Seok-jae, on the revisionist histories of comfort women.

See also

• List of former comfort women
• 1921 International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children
• Diary of a Japanese Military Brothel Manager
• German camp brothels in World War II
  • House of Dolls/Joy Division
• German military brothels in World War II
• Bordel militaire de campagne
• Human trafficking
• Historical negationism
• Karayuki-san
  • Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute, a documentary about Japanese women forced into prostitution in occupied territories in WWII
• Korean Women's Volunteer Labour Corps
• List of war apology statements issued by Japan
• Nora Okja Keller, author of the 1997 novel, Comfort Woman
• Park Yu-ha
• Rape during the occupation of Japan
• Rape of Nanking
• Recreation and Amusement Association, military prostitution in occupied Japan
• Sexual jihad
• United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121
• United States Military and prostitution in South Korea
• Walterina Markova, a "comfort gay"
• Wartime sexual violence
• Forced prostitution
• Crimes against humanity
• Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan#Comfort women issue
• Sexual slavery
• Comfort women in the arts

References

1. ^ Psychological Warfare Team Attached to U.S. Army Forces India-Burma Theater (October 1, 1944). Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49 (Report). National Archives and Records Administration. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2004 – via exordio.com.
2. The Asian Women's Fund. "Who were the Comfort Women?-The Establishment of Comfort Stations". Digital Museum The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund. The Asian Women's Fund. Archived from the original on August 7, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
3. The Asian Women's Fund. "Hall I: Japanese Military and Comfort Women". Digital Museum The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund. The Asian Women's Fund. Archived from the original on March 15, 2013. Retrieved August 12, 2014. ...'wartime comfort women' were those who were taken to former Japanese military installations, such as comfort stations, for a certain period during wartime in the past and forced to provide sexual services to officers and soldiers.
4. Argibay 2003
5. "Special Issue: The 'Comfort Women' as Public History (Table of Contents)". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. March 2021. Archived from the original on March 5, 2021. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
6. Soh 2009, p. 69 "It referred to adult female (fu/bu) who provided sexual services to "comfort and entertain" (ian/wian) the warrior...
7. "The Origins and Implementation of the Comfort Women System". December 14, 2018. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
8. Ramaj, Klea (February 2022). "The 2015 South Korean–Japanese Agreement on 'Comfort Women': A Critical Analysis". International Criminal Law Review. 22 (3): 475–509. doi:10.1163/15718123-bja10127. S2CID 246922197.
9. Kuki, Sonya (2013). "The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward". Journal of International Affairs. 67 (1): 245–256. JSTOR 24461685.
10. Chang, Jae (May 4, 2019). "Apology Politics: Japan and South Korea's Dispute over Comfort Women". The Cornell Diplomat.
11. Asian Women's Fund, p. 10
12. ^ Asian Women's Fund, pp. 10–11
13. Huang 2012, p. 206 "Although Ianfu came from all regions or countries annexed or occupied by Japan before 1945, most of them were Chinese or Korean. Researchers at the Research Center of the Chinese Comfort Women Issue of Shanghai Normal University estimate that the total number of comfort women at 360,000 to 410,000."
14. Rose 2005, p. 88
15. Gottschall, Jonathan (May 2004). "Explaining wartime rape". Journal of Sex Research. 41 (2): 129–36. doi:10.1080/00224490409552221. PMID 15326538. S2CID 22215910. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
16. ^ Mitchell 1997.
17. ^ Yoshimi 2000, pp. 100–101, 105–106, 110–111;
    Hicks 1997, pp. 66–67, 119, 131, 142–143;
    Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken 1994, pp. 6–9, 11, 13–14
18. ^ " Pak (her surname) was about 17, living in Hamun, Korea, when local Korean officials, acting on orders from the Japanese, began recruiting women for factory work. Someone from Pak's house had to go. In April 1942, Korean officials turned Pak and other young women over to the Japanese, who took them into China, not into factories. Pak's history is not unusual. A majority of the women who provided sex for Japanese soldiers were forcibly taken from their families, or were recruited deceptively", Horn 1997.
19. Yoshimi 2000, pp. 100–101, 105–106, 110–111;
    Fackler 2007-03-06;
    BBC 2007-03-02;
    BBC 2007-03-08;
    Pramoedya 2001.
20. "Press Conference: Latest research on Japan's military sexual slavery ("comfort women")" (PDF). April 17, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 16, 2020.
21. Hicks 1997, p. 28
22. Asian Women's Fund, p. 51
23. Argibay 2003, p. 376
24. Argibay 2003, p. 377
25. Chang, Iris (1997), The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Basic Books. pp 109-110. ISBN 0-465-06835-9.
26. ^ Wender 2003, p. 144
27. ^ korea.net 2007-11-30.
28. Kotler, Mindy (November 14, 2014). "Opinion | the Comfort Women and Japan's War on Truth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 8, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
29. Tanaka, Toshiyuki (2002). Japan's Comfort Women. London: Routledge (published 2003). p. 172. ISBN 9781134650125. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2020. the brothels that operated in South Manchuria during and immediately after the Russo-Japanese War, despite the close regulation by military authorities, differed from the future 'comfort stations.' They were independently established and managed by civilian brothel keepers.
30. ^ "War, Rape and Patriarchy: The Japanese experience". December 31, 2019. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
31. Mitchell 1997.
32. ^ Norma, Caroline (2015). The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars (War, Culture and Society). London: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 1. ISBN 978-1472512475.
33. Chang, Iris (March 11, 2014). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465028252. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
34. Yoshimi 2000, pp. 82–83;
    Hicks 1997, pp. 223–228.
35. Yoshimi 2000, pp. 101–105, 113, 116–117;
    Hicks 1997, pp. 8–9, 14;
    Clancey 1948, p. 1021.
36. Argibay 2003, p. 378
37. LEI, Wan (February 2010). "The Chinese Islamic "Goodwill Mission to the Middle East" During the Anti-Japanese War". Dîvân Disiplinlerarasi Çalişmalar Dergisi. 15 (29): 141. Archived from the original on March 18, 2014. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
38. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press. 2013. p. 1082. ISBN 9780511252938. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved December 8, 2021. (footnote 155)
39. Fujiwara 1998
40. Himeta 1996
41. Bix 2000
42. ^ Yoshida 2007-04-18
43. Japan Times 2007-05-12
44. Bae 2007-09-17
45. (in Japanese) "宋秉畯ら第２期親日反民族行為者２０２人を選定" Archived February 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, JoongAng Ilbo, 2007.09.17. "日本軍慰安婦を募集したことで悪名高いベ・ジョンジャ"
46. McCurry, Justin; Kaiman, Jonathan (April 28, 2014). "Papers prove Japan forced women into second world war brothels, says China". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 28, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
47. Kimura, Kayoko, "Stance on 'comfort women' undermines fight to end wartime sexual violence Archived 2015-03-06 at the Wayback Machine", Japan Times, March 5, 2014, p. 8
48. ^ Wang, Q. Edward (December 31, 2019). "The study of "comfort women": Revealing a hidden past—introduction". Chinese Studies in History. 53 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1080/00094633.2019.1691414. S2CID 214221542.
49. Lee, SinCheol; Han, Hye-in (January 2015). "Comfort women: a focus on recent findings from Korea and China". Asian Journal of Women's Studies. 21 (1): 40–64. doi:10.1080/12259276.2015.1029229. S2CID 153119328.
50. Weianfu yanjiu, p. 279.
51. Burning of Confidential Documents by Japanese Government, case no.43, serial 2, International Prosecution Section vol. 8;
    "When it became apparent that Japan would be forced to surrender, an organized effort was made to burn or otherwise destroy all documents and other evidence of ill-treatment of prisoners of war and civilian internees. The Japanese Minister of War issued an order on 14 August 1945 to all Army headquarters that confidential documents should be destroyed by fire immediately. On the same day, the Commandant of the Kempetai sent out instructions to the various Kempetai Headquarters detailing the methods of burning large quantities of documents efficiently.", Clancey 1948, p. 1135;
    " , the actual number of comfort women remains unclear because the Japanese army incinerated many crucial documents right after the defeat for fear of war crimes prosecution, ", Yoshimi 2000, p. 91;
    Bix 2000, p. 528;
    "Between the announcement of a ceasefire on August 15, 1945, and the arrival of small advance parties of American troops in Japan on August 28, Japanese military and civil authorities systematically destroyed military, naval, and government archives, much of which was from the period 1942–1945. Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo dispatched enciphered messages to field commands throughout the Pacific and East Asia ordering units to burn incriminating evidence of war crimes, especially offenses against prisoners of war. The director of Japan's Military History Archives of the National Institute for Defense Studies estimated in 2003 that as much as 70 percent of the army's wartime records were burned or otherwise destroyed.", Drea 2006, p. 9.
52. Nakamura 2007-03-20
53. Ward, Thomas J. (December 14, 2018). "The Origins and Implementation of the Comfort Women System". Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
54. "An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 women across Asia, predominantly Korean and Chinese, are believed to have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels", BBC 2000-12-08;
    "Historians say thousands of women; as many as 200,000 by some accounts; mostly from Korea, China and Japan worked in the Japanese military brothels", Irish Examiner 2007-03-08;
    AP 2007-03-07;
    CNN 2001-03-29.
55. "Women and World War II – Comfort Women". Womenshistory.about.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
56. Coop, Stephanie (December 23, 2006). "Japan's Wartime Sex Slave Exhibition Exposes Darkness in East Timor". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
57. ^ ""Japanese Troops Took Locals as Comfort Women": International". Pacific Islands Report. September 21, 1999. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
58. ^ The Consolation Unit: Comfort Women at Rabaul Archived June 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Hank Nelson, The Australian National University–Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, retrieved October 26, 2009
59. Reuters 2007-03-05.
60. "Documents detail how Imperial military forced Dutch females to be 'comfort women'". The Japan Times. October 7, 2013. Archived from the original on March 2, 2017.
61. ""Comfort Woman" Ellen van der Ploeg passed away". Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
62. "The Allied Reoccupation of the Andaman Islands, 1945". Imperial War Museums. Archived from the original on May 4, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
63. Nozaki 2005;
    Dudden 2006.
64. "An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 women across Asia, predominantly Korean and Chinese, are believed to have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels", BBC 2000-12-08;
    "Estimates of the number of comfort women range between 50,000 and 200,000. It is believed that most were Korean", Soh 2001;
    "A majority of the 80,000 to 200,000 comfort women were from Korea, though others were recruited or recruited from China, the Philippines, Burma, and Indonesia. Some Japanese women who worked as prostitutes before the war also became comfort women.", Horn 1997;
    "Approximately 80 percent of the sex slaves were Korean; . By one approximation, 80 percent were between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.", Gamble & Watanabe 2004, p. 309;
    Soh 2001.
65. Yoshimi 2000, p. 
66. Shengold, Nina (June 17, 2013). "Cold Comfort: Peipei Qiu Bears Witness". Vassar College. Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
67. Norma, Caroline (2015). The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars (War, Culture and Society). London: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 4. ISBN 978-1472512475.
68. Hata 1999
    "Hata essentially equates the 'comfort women' system with prostitution and finds similar practices during the war in other countries. He has been criticized by other Japanese scholars for downplaying the hardship of the 'comfort women'.", Drea 2006, p. 41.
69. Soh 2001.
70. chosun.com 2007-03-19;
    Moynihan 2007-03-03
71. Cumings, Bruce (1997). Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History (First ed.). New York London: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 155. ISBN 978-0393316810.
72. ^ Hicks 1996, p. 312
73. Meyer, Cheryl Diaz (May 14, 2021). "Behind the Story: The Legacy of Comfort Women". Pulitzer Center. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
74. "Women made to be Comfort Women - Philippines". www.awf.or.jp. Archived from the original on February 18, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
75. Felton, Mark (2009). Japan's Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem and Torture in Wartime Asia. Pen & Sword Military. p. 104. ISBN 9781844159123.
76. Lindsey, Timothy (2008). The Romance of K'tut Tantri and Indonesia. Equinox Publishing. pp. 123–125. ISBN 9789793780634.
77. Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken 1994, pp. 6–9, 11, 13–14
78. "Digital Museum: The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund". Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
79. Soh, Chunghee Sarah. "Japan's 'Comfort Women'". International Institute for Asian Studies. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
80. Soh 2009, p. 22
81. "Women made to become comfort women – Netherlands". Asian Women's Fund. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015.
82. Poelgeest. Bart van, 1993, Gedwongen prostitutie van Nederlandse vrouwen in voormalig Nederlands-Indië 's-Gravenhage: Sdu Uitgeverij Plantijnstraat.
83. Poelgeest, Bart van. "Report of a study of Dutch government documents on the forced prostitution of Dutch women in the Dutch East Indies during the Japanese occupation. Archived 2014-04-22 at the Wayback Machine"
84. Comfort Women: A History of Japanese Forced Prostitution During the Second By Wallace Edwards
85. "Japans geld voor 'troostmeisjes'". NRC (in Dutch). The Hague. November 19, 1997. Archived from the original on August 28, 2022. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
86. ^ Felton, Mark (2010). The Real Tenko: Extraordinary True Stories of Women Prisoners of the Japanese. Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 9781848840485.
87. "Interview: Dutch foundation urges Japan to pay honorary debts". Archived from the original on January 19, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
88. "Taiwan seeking redress over 'comfort women' from Japan". Archived from the original on September 26, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
89. Jill Jolliffe Dili (November 3, 2001). "Timor's Haunted Women". East Timor & Indonesia Action Network. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
90. Pramoedya 2001
91. Comfort Women and Sex in the Battle Zone, By Ikuhiko Hata, 2018
92. Wang, Q. Edward (2020). "The study of "comfort women": Revealing a hidden past—introduction". Chinese Studies in History. 53: 1–5. doi:10.1080/00094633.2019.1691414. S2CID 214221542.
93. "Group urges update to textbooks' WWII terminology". Taipei Times. August 16, 2020. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
94. Ward, Thomas J. (April 2018). "The Comfort Women Controversy - Lessons from Taiwan" (PDF). The Asia-Pacific Journal. 16 (8). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
95. Yoshiaki Yoshimi (2000). Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II. Columbia University Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-231-12033-3. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
96. Everington, Keoni (May 23, 2023). "Taiwan's last 'comfort woman' survivor dies at age 92". taiwannews.com.tw. Taiwan News. Archived from the original on May 23, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
97. de Brouwer, Anne-Marie (2005) , Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence, Intersentia, p. 8, ISBN 978-90-5095-533-1, archived from the original on October 30, 2023, retrieved October 30, 2020
98. ^ Ramaj, Klea (2022). "The 2015 South Korean–Japanese Agreement on 'Comfort Women': A Critical Analysis". International Criminal Law Review. 22 (3): 475–509. doi:10.1163/15718123-bja10127. S2CID 246922197.
99. Hicks 1997, pp. 153–155.
100. Hicks 1997, p. 154.
101. ^ Hicks 1996, p. 320
102. ^ O'Herne 2007.
103. Hicks 1996, p. 315
104. ^ Watanabe 1999, pp. 19–20
105. ^ Watanabe 1999, p. 20
106. Hicks 1996, p. 316
107. Filipino comfort women fight to seek justice | Iba 'Yan, March 28, 2021, archived from the original on March 24, 2023, retrieved March 24, 2023
108. Fedencia narrates her hardships as a comfort woman | Iba 'Yan, March 28, 2021, archived from the original on March 24, 2023, retrieved March 24, 2023
109. McCarthy, Julie (December 4, 2020). "PHOTOS: Why These World War II Sex Slaves Are Still Demanding Justice". NPR. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
110. "S Congress, House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hearing on Protecting the Human Rights of "Comfort Women," Statement by Jan Ruff O'Herne AO Friends of "Comfort Women" in Australia" (PDF). p. 25. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
111. Watanabe 1999, pp. 20–21
112. Watanabe 1999, p. 21
113. ^ "Allies in adversity, Australia and the Dutch in the Pacific War: Comfort women". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on December 13, 2017. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
114. ^ Onishi 2007-03-08
115. Jan Ruff-O'Herne Archived April 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, "Talking Heads" transcriptabc.net.au
116. "Australian sex slave seeks apology" Archived December 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, February 13, 2007, The Sydney Morning Herald
117. Gary Nunn (April 18, 2019), "Bangka Island: The WW2 massacre and a 'truth too awful to speak'", BBC News, archived from the original on March 15, 2022, retrieved October 5, 2020
118. ^ 日本占領下インドネシアにおける慰安婦 (PDF) (in Japanese). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 28, 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
119. Hirano 2007-04-28
120. Coop 2006-12-23
121. 일본군 위안부 세계가 껴안다-1년간의 기록 Archived June 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, February 25, 2006
122. ^ Nelson 2007.
123. Choi, Chungmoo (1998), 'Nationalism and Construction of Gender in Korea', Dangerous Women ed. Kim & Choi. Routledge, New York.
124. ^ Hicks 1996, p. 319
125. ^ Rodriguez, Sarah Mellors (2023). Reproductive realities in modern China : birth control and abortion, 1911-2021. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-02733-5. OCLC 1366057905.
126. Cal State J Med. 1914 Sep; 12(9): p373–375. The Dose of Salvarsan, Douglass W. Montgomery
127. Rhee Devine, Maija. (2017). Children of 'comfort women'. The Korea Times. February 27, 2018, from link to article. Archived February 28, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
128. Soh 2009, p. 34
129. Clough, Patricia (2007). The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social. Duke University Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-8223-3925-0. Archived from the original on March 5, 2018.
130. Watanabe 1999, pp. 23–24
131. Watanabe 1999, p. 24
132. CHANG, MINA (2009). "The Politics of an Apology: Japan and Resolving the "Comfort Women" Issue". Harvard International Review. 31 (3): 34–37. ISSN 0739-1854. JSTOR 42763319. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
133. "우리가 잊은 할머니들…국내 첫 커밍아웃 이남님, 타이에서 가족 찾은 노수복". Hankyoreh (in Korean). August 7, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
134. Higashi, Julie; Field, Norma; Yamaguchi, Tomomi; Veki, Yoshikata (2015). "'Comfort Women' Denial and the Japanese Right". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
135. Soh, Chunghee Sarah (2008). The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-76776-5. OCLC 225875908. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
136. Stetz, Margaret D.; Oh, Bonnie B. C. (2001). Legacies of the comfort women of World War II. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0543-0. OCLC 45861973.
137. 韓国挺身隊問題対策協議会・挺身隊研究会 （編）『証言・強制連行された朝鮮人軍慰安婦たち』 明石書店 1993年
138. Soh 2009, p. 148
139. Soh 2009, p. 160
140. "KMDb". Archived from the original on May 19, 2007.
141. ^ Hayashi, Hirofumi (2008). "Disputes in Japan over the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" System and Its Perception in History". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 617: 123–132. doi:10.1177/0002716208314191. ISSN 0002-7162. JSTOR 25098017. S2CID 145678875. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
142. "勇気ある告発者か詐話師か？吉田清治を再考する [A brave whistleblower or a swindler? Reconsidering Yoshida Seiji]". Nikkan Berita (in Japanese). March 6, 2007. Archived from the original on April 22, 2007. Retrieved January 24, 2008. 「本に真実を書いても何の利益もない。事実を隠し自分の主張を混ぜて書くなんていうのは、新聞だってやるじゃないか」
143. 水野靖夫 (2006). 近現代史の必須知識: 日本人として最低限知っておきたい [Essential consciousness of modern history: The minimum that Japanese people should know] (in Japanese). PHP研究所 . p. 129. ISBN 978-4-569-64508-7.
144. Ye, Yeong-jun (March 4, 2007). "고노 담화 [The Kono talks]". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2008. 궁지에 몰린 요시다는 "일부 사례의 시간.장소에는 창작이 가미됐다"고 털어놨다.
145. "Thinking about the comfort women issueに関するトピックス：朝日新聞デジタル". The Asahi Shimbun. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
146. "Testimony about 'forcible taking away of women on Jeju Island': Judged to be fabrication because supporting evidence not found". The Asahi Shimbun. August 22, 2014. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
147. Japan Times Asahi Shimbun admits errors in past 'comfort women' stories August 5, 2014 Archived September 4, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
148. Fackler, Martin (December 2, 2014). "Rewriting the War, Japanese Right Attacks a Newspaper". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
149. "元朝日記者の敗訴確定 慰安婦報道訴訟―最高裁". 時事ドットコムニュース. March 12, 2021. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
150. ^ Kuki, Sonya (2013). "The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward". Journal of International Affairs. 67 (1): 245–256. ISSN 0022-197X. JSTOR 24461685. Archived from the original on October 19, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
151. Kono 1993.
152. "衆議院議員辻元清美君提出安倍首相の「慰安婦」問題への認識に関する質問に対する答弁書" [Answer to the question by the House of Representatives member Kiyomi Tsujimoto regarding the prime minister Abe's recognition of Comfort women issue]. House of Representatives. March 16, 2007. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013.
153. 軍の強制連行の証拠ない 河野談話で政府答弁書 [No evidence of the forced seizures. A cabinet decision on Kono statement.] (in Japanese). 47News. Kyodo News. March 16, 2007. Archived from the original on September 2, 2012.
154. "Japan to review lead-up to WW2 comfort women statement". BBC News. The BBC. February 28, 2014. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
155. "Japan, S Korea coordinated on wording of Kono statement". Nikkei Inc. June 20, 2014. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
156. Justin McCurry in Tokyo; Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing (April 28, 2014). "Papers prove Japan forced women into second world war brothels, says China". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 4, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
157. "Diplomatic Bluebook 2019 / The Issue of Comfort Women". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan). 2019. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
158. "Seoul Demanded $364 Million for Japan's Victims Updated", The Chosun Ilbo January 17, 2005 (archived from the original Archived February 9, 2006, at archive.today on February 9, 2006)
159. Korea-Japan ties burdened by baggage, November 23, 2013
160. ^ Drea 2006, p. 40.
161. "Establishment of the AW Fund, and the basic nature of its projects". Archived from the original on May 26, 2012.
162. "The "Comfort Women" Issue and the Asian Women's Fund" (PDF). The Asian Women's Fund. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
163. Asian Women's Fund 1996.
164. ^ "Atonement money for Comfort women: 30% lower Koreans accepted" (in Japanese). The Mainichi Newspapers. February 27, 2014. Archived from the original on February 27, 2014.
165. Historical currency exchange rates Archived October 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Oanda.com.
166. Estimated at January 1, 2007, exchange rate of .0084JPY/USD.
167. "Details of Exchanges Between Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Regarding the Comfort Women Issue" (PDF). Ministry of Foreign Affairs. p. 29. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 8, 2014.
168. "Atonement Project of the Asian Women's Fund, Projects by country or region-South Korea". Asian Women's Fund. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013.
169. Hogg, Chris (April 10, 2007). "Japan's divisive 'comfort women' fund". BBC. Archived from the original on October 27, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
170. Asian Women's Fund Online Museum Closing of the Asian Women's Fund Archived October 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on August 17, 2012
171. Su, Zhiliang; Vickers, Edward (2021). "Reconstructing the History of the 'Comfort Women' System: The Fruits of 28 years of Investigation into the 'Comfort Women' Issue in China". The Asia-Pacific Journal. 19 (5, No. 7). Archived from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
172. ^ Sanger, David E. (January 14, 1992). "Japan Admits Army Forced Koreans to Work in Brothels". The New York Times. Tokyo. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
173. "Japan Apologizes for Prostitution of Koreans in WWII". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. January 14, 1992. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
174. "Japan makes apology to comfort women". New Straits Times. Reuters. January 14, 1992. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
175. "Japanese Premier Begins Seoul Visit". The New York Times. January 17, 1992. Archived from the original on February 9, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
176. "Japan Apologizes on Korea Sex Issue". The New York Times. January 18, 1992. Archived from the original on January 24, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
177. "Japan Court Backs 3 Brothel Victims". The New York Times. April 28, 1998. Archived from the original on January 24, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
178. Fastenberg, Dan (June 17, 2010). "Top 10 National Apologies: Japanese Sex Slavery". Time. Archived from the original on January 7, 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
179. "Japan may review probe on WWII sex slavery". www.stripes.com. Associated Press. February 20, 2014. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
180. "Abe says won't alter 1993 apology on 'comfort women'". Reuters. March 14, 2014. Archived from the original on March 14, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
181. ^ "Japan-ROK summit telephone call". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. December 28, 2015. Archived from the original on February 20, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
182. "Announcement by Foreign Ministers of Japan and the Republic of Korea at the Joint Press Occasion". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. December 28, 2015. Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
183. "한·일 외교장관회담 결과(일본군위안부 피해자 문제 관련 합의 내용)". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (South Korea). December 28, 2015. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
184. "日韓合意のポイント - 日本経済新聞". The Nikkei. December 29, 2015. Archived from the original on September 28, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
185. Lionel Babicz (January 5, 2016). "Japan–ROK comfort women agreement a key step to reconciliation". East Asia Forum. Archived from the original on March 18, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
186. Adelstein, Jake; Kubo, Angela (December 28, 2015). "South Korea and Japan 'finally and irreversibly' reconcile on World War II sex slaves". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
187. "Japan and South Korea agree WW2 'comfort women' deal". BBC News. BBC. December 28, 2015. Archived from the original on December 28, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
188. ^ english.hani.co.kr - December 29, 2015:[Editorial] No final resolution without legal responsibility on comfort women issue ' | english.hani.co.kr Archived August 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
189. english.hani.co.kr - December 15, 2015:"South Korea and Japan fail to reach breakthrough on comfort women issue" | english.hani.co.kr Archived August 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
190. Tessa Berenson. "South Korea: Watch 'Comfort' Woman Yell At Foreign Minister". Time. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
191. ^ english.hani.co.kr - December 30, 2015: "25 years of progress on comfort women issue 'wiped out' by new agreement" | english.hani.co.kr Archived August 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
192. ^ english.hani.co.kr - December 29, 2015:"Diverse interests paved the way for historic comfort women agreement" | english.hani.co.kr Archived August 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
193. "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Archived from the original on September 9, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
194. ^ "Summary of remarks by Mr. Shinsuke Sugiyama, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Question and Answer session" (PDF). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 10, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
195. ^ "Court dismisses comfort women's suit against government for signing 2015 agreement with Japan". Hank Yoreh. June 17, 2018. Archived from the original on August 19, 2018. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
196. "New apology from Japan needed over "comfort women": S. Korea's Moon". Kyodo News+. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
197. "Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary". Prime Minister's Official Residence (Japan). March 1, 2018. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
198. "Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary". Prime Minister's Official Residence (Japan). March 18, 2018. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
199. "South Korean court orders Japan to pay "comfort women," WWII sex slaves, reparations". CBS News. January 8, 2021. Archived from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
200. "Press Conference by the Prime Minister on the court case brought by a group of former comfort women". Prime Minister's Official Residence (Japan). January 8, 2021. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
201. "Extraordinary Press Conference by Foreign Minister MOTEGI Toshimitsu, Friday, January 8, 2021, 8:43 p.m. Brazil". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. January 8, 2021. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
202. "South Korea court dismisses 'comfort women' case against Japan". The Straits Times. April 21, 2021. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
203. "Suga upholds Japan's apologies for wartime aggression, comfort women". Mainichi Daily News. June 26, 2021. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
204. KYODO. "PM Suga upholds Japan's apologies for wartime aggression, comfort women". Kyodo News+. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
205. "South Korea court overturns Japan's immunity from 'comfort women' suit". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
206. ^ Lee, Hyunsuk (January 2, 2022). "Themes of the "comfort women" and "we" in K. Min's Herstory". Asian Journal of Women's Studies. 28 (1): 131–142. doi:10.1080/12259276.2021.2025324. ISSN 1225-9276.
207. Chang, Jae (May 4, 2019). "Apology Politics: Japan and South Korea's Dispute over Comfort Women". The Cornell Diplomat.
208. "The Politics of Apology for Japan's 'Comfort Women'". March 5, 2007.
209. Kuki, Sonya (2013). "The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward". Journal of International Affairs. 67 (1): 248. JSTOR 24461685.
210. Kuki, Sonya (2013). "The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward". Journal of International Affairs. 67 (1): 248. JSTOR 24461685.
211. Kuki, Sonya (2013). "The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward". Journal of International Affairs. 67 (1): 249. JSTOR 24461685.
212. Kuki, Sonya (2013). "The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward". Journal of International Affairs. 67 (1): 249. JSTOR 24461685.
213. Kuki, Sonya (2013). "The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward". Journal of International Affairs. 67 (1): 249. JSTOR 24461685.
214. Landler 2001-03-02
215. "Japanese Religions and the Issue of "Comfort Women" - The University of Chicago Divinity School". divinity.uchicago.edu. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
216. "However, the second night's programming on January 30 was heavily censored through deletion, interpolations, alterations, dismemberment and even fabrication. This segment was originally supposed to cover the 'Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery' that had been held in Tokyo in December 2000." Yoneyama 2002.
217. Fackler, Martin (February 19, 2014). "Nationalistic Remarks From Japan Lead to Warnings of Chill With U.S." The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
218. "None of them was forcibly recruited." Hata undated, p. 18.
219. C. Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 23–24.
220. Drea 2006, p. 41.
221. "Japan's paradoxical shift to the right • Inside Story". December 6, 2012. Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
222. Donald Kirk (May 31, 2013). "Japan's new drift: Neo-conservative or neo-imperialist?". World Tribune. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
223. Johnston, Eric (August 23, 2012). "No evidence sex slaves were taken by military: Hashimoto". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
224. ^ "Hashimoto says 'comfort women' were a necessary part of war". The Asahi Shimbun. May 13, 2013. Archived from the original on June 9, 2013. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
225. "Comfort women and Japan's war on truth" Archived November 15, 2014, at the Wayback Machine – The New York Times – November 15–16, 2014
226. Fifield, Anna (February 9, 2015). "U.S. academics condemn Japanese efforts to revise history of 'comfort women'". Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
227. 'Comfort women': anger as Japan paper alters description of WWII terms Archived November 30, 2018, at the Wayback Machine The Guardian, 2018
228. "Japan must do more for WWII 'comfort women': UN". SBS News. August 17, 2018. Archived from the original on August 19, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2018.
229. "The "Comfort Women" Issue and the Asian Women's Fund" (PDF). The Asian Women's Fund. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 9, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
230. Semple, Kirk (May 4, 2012). "In New Jersey, Memorial for 'Comfort Women' Deepens Old Animosity". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 29, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
231. McCurry, Justin (October 4, 2018). "Osaka drops San Francisco as sister city over 'comfort women' statue". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 4, 2018. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
232. Hauser, Christine (October 4, 2018). "'It Is Not Coming Down': San Francisco Defends 'Comfort Women' Statue as Japan Protests". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 25, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
233. Shin, Mitch (December 7, 2020). "South Koreans Welcome Decision to Maintain 'Comfort Women' Statue in Berlin". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
234. "Philippines failed to redress continuous discrimination and suffering of sexual slavery victims perpetrated by Imperial Japanese Army, UN committee finds". OHCHR. Archived from the original on March 10, 2023. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
235. Subingsubing, Krixia (March 9, 2023). "PH failed to aid World War II 'comfort women' – UN body". INQUIRER.net. Archived from the original on March 9, 2023. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
236. Parker, Karen; Chew, Jennifer (1994), Compensation for Japan's World War II War-Rape Victims, Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev., p. 499, supra note 6, archived from the original on October 28, 2020, retrieved September 9, 2020
237. "Number of Comfort Stations and Comfort Women". www.awf.or.jp. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
238. The Asahi Shimbun Co. Third-Party Committee report (abridged). December 22, 2014. Archived November 18, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
239. "House of Sharing faces whistleblower complaints". May 19, 2020. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
240. "Victims absent from South Korea's 'comfort women' rally amid graft allegations over ex-leader". Reuters. May 20, 2020. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
241. Carmona-Borjas, Robert (November 4, 2020). "Korea's 'Comfort Women' Movement Enriches the Activists but Ignores the Victims". Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
242. "Civic group raided over 'comfort women' scandal". May 21, 2020. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
243. "Yoon Mee-hyang suspended from Democratic Party". September 16, 2020. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
244. "South Korea charges former 'comfort women' activist with fraud, embezzlement". Reuters. September 14, 2020. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
245. "Survivor of wartime sexual slavery calls on S. Korean government to pursue UN action". The Hankyoreh. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
246. ^ "ICD - Vinuya v. Philippines - Asser Institute". www.internationalcrimesdatabase.org. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
247. "Justice for comfort women – our achievements". Amnesty Australia. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014.
248. ""Stop violence against women: "Comfort Women"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 27, 2014.
249. "H.Res.121 - A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces' coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as comfort women, during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II". United States Congress. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
250. "Clinton says 'comfort women' should be referred to as 'enforced sex slaves'". Japan Today. July 11, 2012. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
251. "White House: Japan should do more to address 'comfort women' issue". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on March 30, 2014.
252. ^ Levine, Brittany; Wells, Jason (July 30, 2013). "Glendale unveils 'comfort women' statue, honors 'innocent victims'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 17, 2013.
253. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/house-of-commons-passes-motion-recognizing-japanese-comfort-women-1.638239
254. "Call for Apology | Netherlands Adopts Resolution on 'Comfort Women'". koreatimes. November 11, 2007. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
255. "European Parliament resolution of 13 December 2007 on Justice for the 'Comfort Women' (sex slaves in Asia before and during World War II)". European Parliament. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016.
256. Shannon Tiezzi. "Pope Francis Meets Korean 'Comfort Women'". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on September 2, 2014.
257. "The Pope's Verdict on Japan's Comfort Women". The National Interest. August 31, 2014. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014.
258. ^ "U.N. issues fresh call to Japan over World War II 'comfort women'". The Japan Times. May 10, 2013. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014.
259. Min SK, Lee CH, Kim JY, Shim EJ (November 2004). "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of Former Comfort Women for Japanese Army during World War II". Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association (in Korean): 740–748.
260. Min, SK; Lee, CH; Kim, JY; Sim, EJ (2011). "Posttraumatic stress disorder in former 'comfort women'". The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences. 48 (3): 161–9. PMID 22141139.
261. "Shanghai Opens Comfort Women Archives – china.org.cn". Archived from the original on September 23, 2015.
262. Pilzer, Joshua D. (2012). Hearts of Pine: Songs in the Lives of Three Korean Survivors of the Japanese "Comfort Women". New York: Oxford University Press. Page 8. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from link to Google Books Archived March 5, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
263. "Memorial hall for 'comfort women' opens to public in Nanjing". China.org.cn. December 2, 2015. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015.
264. "'Comfort women' museum opens in Shanghai". China Daily. October 22, 2016. Archived from the original on October 23, 2016.
265. Logan, William; Reeves, Keir (2008). "7. A Cave in Taiwan". Places of Pain and Shame: Dealing with 'Difficult Heritage'. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-05149-6. Archived from the original on February 8, 2016.
266. "New exhibition on Taiwanese 'comfort women' to open in Taipei". Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
267. John Hofilena. "Taiwanese 'comfort woman' speaks out in Tokyo exhibition to raise WWII awareness". Archived from the original on May 3, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
268. "Taiwan demands Japan's apology over comfort women issue". January 10, 2015. Archived from the original on April 18, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
269. "Taiwan urges Japan to apologize over comfort women issue". April 30, 2015. Archived from the original on May 2, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
270. "Film on Taiwanese comfort women wins Gold Panda award". Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
271. "Museum on comfort women opens in Taipei". The Straits Times. December 13, 2016.
272. Katz, Brigit (August 17, 2018). "Taiwan Unveils Its First Statue Honoring 'Comfort Women'". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
273. "1st 'comfort women' statue installed in Taiwan". Japan Today. August 14, 2018. Archived from the original on May 30, 2022.
274. china, Record. "日本人が台湾の慰安婦像を蹴る、安倍首相のフェイスブックに謝罪要求コメント殺到―台湾紙". Record China. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
275. "Taipei says activist kicking 'comfort woman' memorial was unacceptable". September 11, 2018. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
276. "KMT caucus criticizes 'inaction' over statue case". Taipei Times. September 12, 2018. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
277. "Japanese nationalist group apologises for member who kicked Taiwan comfort woman statue". sg.news.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
278. "'Comfort women' statue installed near Japanese consulate in Busan". The Japan Times Online. December 30, 2016. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
279. Sol Han; James Griffiths (February 6, 2017). "Why this statue of a young girl caused a diplomatic incident". CNN. Archived from the original on October 20, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
280. ^ James Griffiths (May 11, 2017). "South Korea's new president questions Japan 'comfort women' deal". CNN. Archived from the original on May 11, 2017.
281. "부산 소녀상 보호, 법적 근거 마련됐다". Hankook Ilbo. June 30, 2017. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
282. "S. Korea unveils 'comfort women' monument on national memorial day". Mainichi Daily News. August 14, 2018. Archived from the original on August 15, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
283. Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press (November 21, 2018). "South Korea Shuts Japanese-Funded 'Comfort Women' Foundation". Time. Archived from the original on November 21, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
284. Choe Sang-Hun (November 21, 2018). "South Korea Signals End to 'Final' Deal With Japan Over Wartime Sex Slaves". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 19, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
285. "Welcom Nanum House!". Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
286. "한국정신대문제대책협의회". March 29, 2014. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014.
287. 한국정신대문제대책협의회 Archived January 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
288. ^ Mina Roces. "Filipino Comfort Women". University of New South Wales. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
289. ^ "Lila-Pilipina Brochure". World History Commons. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
290. ^ "Filipino comfort women stage protest outside Japanese embassy". Kyodo News International. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
291. Gonzales, Iris C. (June 15, 2013). "'Comfort Women' Are Old Now, But Still Fighting". Women's Enews. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
292. Etsuro Totsuka. "COMMENTARY ON A VICTORY FOR "COMFORT WOMEN": JAPAN'S JUDICIAL RECOGNITION OF MILITARY SEXUAL SLAVERY" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
293. Virgil B. Lopez. "Lawyer to take case of Filipino 'comfort women' to UN". Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
294. "Philippines' Former Comfort Women Push For Compnsation". Archived from the original on May 28, 2015.
295. "The house where the Philippines' forgotten 'comfort women' were held". BBC. June 17, 2016. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016.
296. "'Comfort woman' statue not an insult vs Japan". Philippine Daily Inquirer. December 26, 2017. Archived from the original on April 9, 2023. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
297. "Flowers for Lolas: Accurate historical inclusion while the comfort women's voices can still be heard". INQUIRER.net. March 21, 2023. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
298. "'Comfort woman' statue removed in Philippines". The Korea Times. January 4, 2019. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
299. Semple, Kirk (May 18, 2012). "In New Jersey, Memorial for 'Comfort Women' Deepens Old Animosity". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
300. Sullivan, S. P. (March 9, 2013). "Bergen County marks International Women's Day with Korean 'comfort women' memorial". nj.com. Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
301. Levine, Brittany (February 22, 2014). "Lawsuit seeks removal of Glendale 'comfort women' statue". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014.
302. Hamilton, Valerie. "A California statue stirs passions in South Korea and ire in Japan" Archived March 29, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. PRI. January 29, 2014. Retrieved on February 1, 2014.
303. Huang, Josie (August 11, 2014). "Glendale wins legal battle over monument to WW II 'comfort women'". Southern California Public Radio. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015.
304. Levine, Brittany (August 11, 2014). "Federal judge upholds 'comfort women' statue in Glendale park". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
305. "Comfort Women Memorial Peace Garden Unveiled in Northern Virginia". Kore Asian Media. June 2, 2014. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
306. "Michigan latest to install comfort woman statue". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on August 16, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
307. "comfort women statue unveiled in Michigan". Archived from the original on August 19, 2014.
308. "Korea Times: Michigan City Installs Comfort Women Memorial". AsAm News. August 21, 2014. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
309. Hagen, Lisa (June 28, 2017). "Brookhaven To Unveil 'Comfort Women' Statue, Despite Japanese Opposition". WABE. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
310. "SF Chinese American-led comfort women memorial to undergo vote". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
311. ^ Fortin, Jacey (November 25, 2017). "'Comfort Women' Statue in San Francisco Leads a Japanese City to Cut Ties". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 23, 2018. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
312. "Plans for SF 'comfort women' memorial move closer to reality – The San Francisco Examiner". The San Francisco Examiner. September 18, 2015. Archived from the original on December 23, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
313. "Supervisors' support of a 'comfort women' memorial in San Francisco sparks debate – The San Francisco Examiner". The San Francisco Examiner. September 15, 2015. Archived from the original on December 23, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
314. Knight, Heather (September 12, 2017). "Memorialize wartime sex slaves known as 'comfort women,' or just move on?". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
315. McKurry, Justin (October 4, 2018). "Osaka drops San Francisco as sister city over 'comfort women' statue". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 4, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
316. Shkolnikova, Svetlana (August 21, 2017). "Fort Lee to revisit 'comfort women' memorial". USA Today. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
317. "Fort Lee students give voice to 'comfort women' abused during World War II". North Jersey. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
318. "First 'comfort women' statue in Europe is unveiled in Germany". SCMP. March 9, 2017. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
319. Longley, Richard (April 25, 2021). "Hidden Toronto: the Comfort Woman Statue". NOW Magazine. Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
320. "The big row over a small Australian statue". BBC. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
321. "'Comfort woman' who was repeatedly raped by Japanese troops dies at 96". The Age. Australian Associated Press. August 21, 2019. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
322. Jan, Banning. ""Comfort Woman" Ellen van der Ploeg passed away". Jan Banning. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Ellen van der Ploeg, 84, from the Netherlands. During World War II, she lived with her family in the former Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Between 1943 and 1946, date at which she was liberated, Ellen lived in five different internment camps. When she was working in one of the camps, she was turned over to a comfort station by the Imperial Japanese forces. Soldiers would cut her food rationing if she did not work hard enough. They also ignored orders to use condoms, which led to her contracting a venereal disease.
323. "Former 'Comfort Women' Hold 1,000th Protest at Japanese Embassy". The Chosun Ilbo. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
324. "House Approves 'Comfort Women' Measure". vday.org. August 2, 2007. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
325. "WWII 'comfort woman' demands apology from Japan". Washington Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2015.
326. "Comfort Woman Film Touches Japan". The Korea Times. March 18, 2009. Archived from the original on December 26, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
327. "Number of surviving Korean sex slavery victims falls to 40". Yonhap News Agency. July 10, 2016. Archived from the original on November 13, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
328. "Former Korean 'comfort woman' prepares lawsuit against Japan". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on December 26, 2015.
329. Asian Boss (October 27, 2018), Life As A "Comfort Woman": Story of Kim Bok-Dong | Asian Boss, archived from the original on October 30, 2021, retrieved March 16, 2019
330. "The hidden battle of Leyte : the picture diary of a girl taken by the Japanese military / Remedios Felias". filipinaslibrary.org.ph. Filipinas Heritage Library. Archived from the original on August 7, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
331. Calunsod, Ronron (November 24, 2021). "Filipino 'comfort woman' leading her group's quest for justice dies". ABS CBN News.
332. "Profile: Taiwanese former 'comfort woman' dies before apology". Taipei Times. September 6, 2011. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
333. "Red Angel (1966, Yasuzo Masumura)". DeeperIntoMovies.net. April 4, 2008. Archived from the original on December 16, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
334. Hsiao, Sherry (December 11, 2019). "'Comfort women' film reels given to film institute". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
335. "Snowy Road". March 2017 – via www.imdb.com.
336. Film depicting horrors faced by 'comfort women' for Japan army tops Korea box office. (2016). The Japan Times. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from link to article. Archived February 28, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
337. "The Apology". IMDb.
338. "'I Can Speak': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. January 25, 2018. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
339. "Herstory" – via www.imdb.com.
340. Fisk, Alan (August 2019). "How We Disappeared: An Interview with Jing-Jing Lee". Historical Novels Review.
341. Blumberg-Kason, Susan (August 29, 2019). ""How We Disappeared" by Jing-Jing Lee". Asian Review of Books.
342. "'Tomorrow' Episode 13: SF9 Rowoon Part of a Comfort Women's Survival". KdramaStars. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
343. Jung, Kyung-ah (August 26, 2022). "[이번주 개봉영화] 일본은 위안부 역사를 어떻게 왜곡했나…다큐 '코코순이'" [ How did Japan distort the history of comfort women... Documentary 'Kokosuni']. Gyeonggi Shinmun (in Korean).

Bibliography

United Nations

• McDougall, Gay J. (June 22, 1998). "Contemporary Forms of Slavery – Systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during armed conflict". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2007.

Japanese government

• Kono, Yohei (August 4, 1993), Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of "comfort women", Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, archived from the original on July 9, 2014.
• "The Comfort Women Issue", us.emb-japan.go.jp, archived from the original on October 10, 2007, retrieved July 4, 2008

Netherlands government

• Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken (January 24, 1994). "Gedwongen prostitutie van Nederlandse vrouwen in voormalig Nederlands-Indië [Enforced prostitution of Dutch women in the former Dutch East Indies]". Handelingen Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal (in Dutch). 23607 (1). ISSN 0921-7371. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.

U.S. government

• Honda, Mike (February 15, 2007). "Honda Testifies in Support of Comfort Women". U.S. House of Representatives. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
• O'Herne, Jan Ruff (February 15, 2007), Statement of Jan Ruff O'Herne AO, Subcommittee on Asia, Pacific and the Global Environment, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, archived from the original on February 28, 2007, retrieved March 23, 2007
• GovTrack.us (2007–2008). "H. Res. 121: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally." Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2007.

Books

• Bix, Herbert P. (2000), Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-06-019314-0
• Drea, Edward (2006), Researching Japanese War Crimes Records. Introductory Essays (PDF), Washington DC: Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, ISBN 978-1-880875-28-5, archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016, retrieved July 1, 2008
• Gamble, Adam; Watanabe, Takesato (2004), A Public Betrayed, Regnery Publishing, ISBN 978-0-89526-046-8
• Fujiwara, Akira (藤原彰) (1998), The Three Alls Policy and the Northern Chinese Regional Army (「三光作戦」と北支那方面軍), Kikan sensô sekinin kenkyû 20
• Hata, Ikuhiko (1999), Ianfu to senjo no sei (Shinchōsha) [Comfort women and sex in the battlefield] (in Japanese), 新潮社, ISBN 978-4106005657
• Hicks, George (1996), "The 'Comfort Women", in Duus, Peter; Myers, Ramon Hawley; Peattie, Mark R. (eds.), The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945, Princeton University Press, pp. 305–323, ISBN 9780691043821
• Hicks, George (1997), The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War, W W Norton & Company Incorporated, ISBN 978-0-393-31694-0
• Himeta, Mitsuyoshi (姫田光義) (1996), Concerning the Three Alls Strategy/Three Alls Policy By the Japanese Forces (日本軍による『三光政策・三光作戦をめぐって』), Iwanami Bukkuretto
• Huang, Hua-Lun (2012). The Missing Girls and Women of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: A Sociological Study of Infanticide, Forced Prostitution, Political Imprisonment, "Ghost Brides," Runaways and Thrownaways, 1900–2000s. McFarland. ISBN 9780786488346.
• Rose, Caroline (2005), Sino-Japanese relations: facing the past, looking to the future?, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-29722-6.
• Soh, C. Sarah (2009). The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-76777-2.
• Pramoedya Ananta Toer (2001), Perawan Remaja dalam Cengkraman Militer [Young Virgins in the Military's Grip] (in Indonesian), Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia, ISBN 9789799023483
• Yoshimi, Yoshiaki (2000), Comfort Women. Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II, Asia Perspectives, translation: Suzanne O'Brien, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-12033-3
• Zhiliang, Su (1999). Weianfu yanjiu 慰安婦硏究 [Studies on the comfort women] (in Chinese) (Di 1 ban ed.). Shanghai Shudian Chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-80622-561-5.

Journal articles

• Argibay, Carmen (2003). "Sexual Slavery and the Comfort Women of World War II". Berkeley Journal of International Law. 21 (2).
• Mitchell, Richard H. (April 1997), "George Hicks. The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War", The American Historical Review, 102 (2): 503, doi:10.2307/2170934, JSTOR 2170934 (Review of Hicks 1997). via JSTOR
• Yoneyama, Lisa (2002), "NHK's Censorship of Japanese Crimes Against Humanity", Harvard Asia Quarterly, vol. VI, no. 1, archived from the original on August 27, 2006
• Wender, Mellisa (2003). "Military Comfort Women: Doing Justice to the Past". Critican Asian Studies. 35 (1): 139–145. doi:10.1080/14672710320000061514. S2CID 143569098.
• Watanabe, Kazuko (1999). "Trafficking in Women's Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military "Comfort Women"". Women's Studies Quarterly. 27 (1/2): 19–31. JSTOR 40003395.

News articles

• "Canada MPs demand Japan apologize to WWII 'comfort women'". AFP. November 28, 2007. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
• "Sex slaves put Japan on trial", BBC News, December 8, 2000, retrieved July 1, 2008
• "Abe questions sex slave 'coercion'", BBC News, March 2, 2007, retrieved March 23, 2007
• "Japan party probes sex slave use", BBC News, March 8, 2007, retrieved March 23, 2007
• 'Comfort women' distortion stirs indignation, China Daily, July 13, 2005, retrieved May 20, 2008
• "Memoir of comfort woman tells of 'hell for women'". China Daily. Associated Press. July 6, 2007. Retrieved August 29, 2007.
• Japan court rules against 'comfort women', CNN, March 29, 2001, archived from the original on September 22, 2006
• ""Comfort Women" Resolution Likely to Pass U.S. Congress". Digital Chosun (English edition). February 2, 2007. Archived from the original on March 13, 2007. Retrieved March 30, 2007.
• Comfort Women Were 'Raped': U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Digital Chosun (English edition), March 19, 2007, archived from the original on June 5, 2008, retrieved July 2, 2008\
• "Human rights: Chad, women's rights in Saudi Arabia, Japan's wartime sex slaves". Europees Parlement. December 13, 2007. Archived from the original on May 19, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008. (Scholar search)
• Jeff Davis (November 28, 2007), MPs Moved to Tears by Comfort Women, Hill Times, archived from the original on May 18, 2008, retrieved July 4, 2008
• Japan refuses to apologise for WW2 brothel scandal, Irish Examiner, March 8, 2007, archived from the original on March 26, 2009, retrieved June 1, 2008
• Japanese opposition calls on prime minister to acknowledge WWII sex slaves, International Herald Tribune, March 7, 2007, archived from the original on March 9, 2007, retrieved June 1, 2008
• Coop, Stephanie (December 23, 2006), Sex slave exhibition exposes darkness in East Timor, The Japan Times, archived from the original on September 29, 2007, retrieved December 23, 2006
• Reiji Yoshida (March 11, 2007), Sex slave history erased from texts; '93 apology next?, The Japan Times, archived from the original on March 17, 2008, retrieved May 20, 2008
• Nakamura, Akemi (March 20, 2007), Were they teen-rape slaves or paid pros?, The Japan Times, archived from the original on July 4, 2007, retrieved March 23, 2007
• Reiji Yoshida (April 18, 2007), Evidence documenting sex-slave coercion revealed, The Japan Times, archived from the original on September 29, 2007
• Keiji Hirano (April 28, 2007), East Timor former sex slaves start speaking out, The Japan Times, archived from the original on September 29, 2007, retrieved August 29, 2007
• Files: Females forced into sexual servitude in wartime Indonesia, The Japan Times, May 12, 2007, archived from the original on September 26, 2007, retrieved August 29, 2007
• U.S. got Abe to drop denial over sex slaves, The Japan Times, November 9, 2007, archived from the original on September 17, 2008, retrieved July 4, 2008
• Masami Ito (October 18, 2011), 'Comfort women' issue resolved: Noda '65 treaty cited on eve of first Seoul trip, The Japan Times (via the Alliance to Preserve the History of WWII in Asia – Los Angeles), archived from the original on March 4, 2016, retrieved January 7, 2016
• Bae Ji-sook (September 17, 2007), 202 Pro-Japanese Collaborators Disclosed, The Korea Times, archived from the original on December 11, 2013, retrieved July 1, 2008
• "FOCUS: Amnesty's European 'comfort women' campaign makes steady progress". Kyodo News. November 24, 2007. Archived from the original on May 22, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
• Edward Epstein (July 31, 2007), House wants Japan apology, San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved August 1, 2007
• Mark Landler (March 2, 2001), "Cartoon of Wartime 'Comfort Women' Irks Taiwan", The New York Times, retrieved March 13, 2024
• Fackler, Martin (March 6, 2007), "No Apology for Sex Slavery, Japan's Prime Minister Says", The New York Times, retrieved March 23, 2007
• Onishi, Norimitsu (March 8, 2007), "Denial Reopens Wounds of Japan's Ex-Sex Slaves", The New York Times, retrieved March 23, 2007
• "EU passes resolution on Japanese-enslaved 'comfort women'". The Parliament Magazine. December 14, 2007. Archived from the original on January 8, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
• "FACTBOX-Disputes over Japan's wartime "comfort women" continue", Reuters, March 5, 2007, retrieved March 5, 2008
• "No Comfort", The New York Times, March 6, 2007, retrieved March 23, 2007
• Stephen Moynihan (March 3, 2007), "Abe ignores evidence, say Australia's 'comfort women'", The Age, retrieved July 2, 2008
• Irene Lin (December 18, 2000), WWII sex slaves want Japan to wake up, Taipei Times, retrieved July 4, 2008
• Tabuchi, Hiroko (March 1, 2007), "Japan's Abe: No Proof of WWII Sex Slaves", The Washington Post, retrieved March 23, 2007
• Coleman, Joseph (March 23, 2007), "Ex-Japanese PM Denies Setting Up Brothel", The Washington Post, retrieved July 1, 2008
• "Dutch parliament demands Japanese compensation for "comfort women"". Xinhau. November 21, 2007. Archived from the original on February 25, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
• Comfort station originated in govt-regulated 'civilian prostitution', The Daily Yomiuri, March 31, 2007, p. 15, retrieved June 14, 2008
• McCurry, Justin (May 3, 2007), "Japan rules out new apology to 'comfort women'", The Guardian, London, retrieved August 17, 2008
• 慰安婦問題、敗北主義に陥るな 外務省「韓国は確信犯的にやっている」(Comfort women issue – Do not be influenced by defeatism. Foreign Ministry Staff say "South Korea is doing a criminal conviction".), MSN Sankei News, June 9, 2012, p. 2, archived from the original on July 2, 2012, retrieved June 14, 2012
• Sang-Hun, Choe (December 18, 2015). "Disputing Korean Narrative on 'Comfort Women,' a Professor Draws Fierce Backlash". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2015.

Online sources

• "European Parliament speaks out on sexual slavery during WWII". Amnesty international. December 13, 2007. Archived from the original on December 19, 2007. Retrieved July 4, 2008..
• Comfort women used to prevent military revolt during war: historian, The Korea Times, November 30, 2007, retrieved December 30, 2015
• The "Comfort Women" Issue and the Asian Women's Fund (PDF), Asian Women's Fund, archived from the original (PDF) on June 28, 2007, archived from on 2007-06-28.
• Clancey, Patrick, ed. (November 1, 1948), "International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Chapter 8) – Judgment", Hyperwar, a hypertext history of the Second World War.
• Hata, Ikuhiko. No Organized or Forced Recruitment: Misconceptions about Comfort Women and the Japanese Military (PDF). hassin.sejp.net. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 4, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2007. None of them was forcibly recruited.
• Horn, Dottie (January 1997). "Comfort Women". Endeavors Magazine. No. Winter. Archived from the original on June 25, 2008. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
• Soh, C.Sarah (May 2001), Japan's Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors, Japan Policy Research Institute (JPRI), archived from the original on June 28, 2012, retrieved July 1, 2008.
• WCCW (2004). "Comfort-Women.org FAQ". Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues. Archived from the original on June 15, 2007. Retrieved June 20, 2007. ( archived on 2007-06-15).
• Dudden, Alexis (April 25, 2006), US Congressional Resolution Calls on Japan to Accept Responsibility for Wartime Comfort Women, www.japanfocus.org, retrieved March 30, 2014.
• Nelson, Hank (May 17, 2007), The Consolation Unit: Comfort Women at Rabaul (PDF), The Australian National University, archived from the original (PDF) on June 10, 2007, retrieved November 26, 2007.
• Lawsuits against the Government of Japan filed by the survivors in Japanese Courts, archived from the original on December 9, 2006, retrieved March 23, 2007.
• History of Comfort Women by the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues – History, archived from the original on July 24, 2008, retrieved May 28, 2008.
• Asian Women's Fund (1996), Letter from Prime Minister to the former comfort women, since 1996, archived from the original on May 16, 2007, retrieved March 23, 2007, archived from on 2007-05-16.
• Nozaki, Yoshiko (August 1, 2005), The Horrible History of the "Comfort Women" and the Fight to Suppress Their Story, History news Network, retrieved July 4, 2008.
• Diary of a Japanese Military Comfort Station (Brothel) Manager (excerpt in English). Translated from Japanese version. July 20, 2018.

Further reading

• Drinck, Barbara and Gross, Chung-noh. Forced Prostitution in Times of War and Peace, Kleine Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-89370-436-1.
• Hayashi, Hirofumi. "Disputes in Japan over the Japanese Military 'Comfort Women' System and Its Perception in History", Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, May 2008, Vol. 617, pp 123–132
• Henson, Maria Rosa "Comfort woman: Slave of destiny", Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism: 1996. ISBN 971-8686-11-8.
• Henson, Maria Rose (1999). Comfort Woman: A Filipina's Story of Prostitution and Slavery Under the Japanese Military. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8476-9149-4. maria rosa henson.
• Howard, Keith; Hanʼguk Chŏngsindae Munje Taechʻaek Hyŏbŭihoe; Research Association on the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (1995). True stories of the Korean comfort women: testimonies. Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-33262-5.
• Keller, Nora Okja "Comfort Woman", London, Penguin: 1998. ISBN 0-14-026335-7.
• Kim-Gibson, D. Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women, 1999. ISBN 0-931209-88-9.
• Levin, Mark, Case Comment: Nishimatsu Construction Co. v. Song Jixiao Et Al., Supreme Court of Japan (2d Petty Bench), April 27, 2007, and Ko Hanako Et Al. V. Japan, Supreme Court of Japan (1st Petty Bench), April 27, 2007 (January 1, 2008). American Journal of International Law, Vol. 102, No. 1, pp. 148–154, January 2008. Available at SSRN:
• Molasky, Michael S. American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa, Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0-415-19194-7, ISBN 0-415-26044-2.
• Przystup, James (July 2007). Glosserman, Brad; Namkung, Sun (eds.). "Japan-China Relations: Wen in Japan: Ice Melting But." (PDF). Comparative Connections, A Quarterly e-Journal on East Asian Bilateral Relations. 9 (2): 131–146. ISSN 1930-5370. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 2, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
• Schellstede, Sangmie Choi; Yu, Soon Mi (2000). Comfort Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military : Includes New United Nations Human Rights Report. Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8419-1413-1.
• Tanaka, Yuki. Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the US Occupation, London, Routledge: 2002. ISBN 0-415-19401-6.
• Tanaka, Y. (2019) . Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes In World War Ii. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-429-72089-5.
• Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashii "Comfort Women: Beyond Litigious Feminism"

External links

• Thinking about the comfort women issue, Look squarely at essence of 'comfort women' issue. on August 22, 2014, Asahi Shimbun
  • Testimony about 'forcible taking away of women on Jeju Island': Judged to be fabrication because supporting evidence not found on August 22, 2014, Asahi Shimbun
• Asian Women's Fund web site (archived from the original on 2007-02-02)
• Comfort-Women.org
• Digital Museum of The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund(in Japanese)
• Jugun Ianfu Indonesia at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009)
• Korea Dutch Indies Sex Slavery Translation Project
• 121 Coalition Archived January 26, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
• "The Victims" (from the South Korean Ministry of Gender and Family Equality)
• Japanese Military Sex Slaves on YouTube, CBS Report featuring Mike Honda and Nariaki Nakayama's infamous comment comparing "comfort houses" and cafeterias
• Japan forced women to work as sex slaves during World War II on YouTube
• Photo gallery at the Seoul Times.
• A Public Betrayed – Comfort Women—The Asian Sex Slaves of World War II
• "Allies in adversity, Australia and the Dutch in the Pacific War: Comfort women" (Web page). Australian War Memorial. 2006. Retrieved December 12, 2017. – describes the experience of Jan O'Herne in Java
• Nakamura, Akemi; Ikuhiko Hata; Yoshiaki Yoshimi (March 20, 2007). "Comfort Women: Were they teen-rape slaves or paid pros?". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on July 4, 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2006.
• Friends of "Comfort Women" Australia (FCWA) – not-for-profit organisation focusing on the plight of the Japanese military "Comfort Women" of World War II.
• Mourning on YouTube, song about comfort women composed by Mu Ting Zhang and directed by Po En Lee
• House of Sharing The "House of Sharing" is a South Korean home for surviving comfort women and incorporates "The Museum of Sexual Slavery".
• Justice For Comfort Women
• Archive Museum 女たちの戦争と平和資料館(wam) A museum documenting oral account publications, images and interactive maps of designated "Comfort Women" military establishments and experiences of "Comfort Women" (in Japanese)

Academic research

• "The Comfort Women project". Archived from the original on December 9, 2006. Retrieved April 22, 2005.
• Hayashi Hirofumi's papers on comfort women
• Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors Archived June 28, 2012, at archive.today: Japan Policy Research Institute Working Paper 77.
• Japan's Comfort Women, Theirs and Ours Archived September 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine: Book review, Japan Policy Research Institute Critique 9:2.
• Journal of Asian American Studies 6:1, February 2003, issue on American studies of comfort women, Kandice Chuh, ed.

Japanese official statements

• "Japan's Efforts on the Issue of Comfort Women". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan). January 14, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
• "Diplomatic Bluebook 2019 / The Issue of Comfort Women". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan). 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
• "Announcement by Foreign Ministers of Japan and the Republic of Korea at the Joint Press Occasion". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan). December 28, 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
• "Letter from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the former comfort women". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan), 2001.
• "Statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on the occasion of the establishment of the Asian Women's Fund". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan), 1995.

United States historical documents

• House Resolution 121, introduced by Rep. Michael Makoto Honda (California 17th), Passed House amended (July 30, 2007)
• Japanese Comfort Women (1944, United States Office of War Information)
• Korea official website for sex slaves victims

v t e Korea under Japanese rule
Colony of the Empire of Japan from 1910 to 1945
Government	Governor-General of Chōsen (list) Japanese Korean Army
Cultural policies	Chōsen Art Exhibition (1922–1944) Chosun Exhibition (1929) Colored Clothes Campaign (1920–1945) Office of the Yi Dynasty Sōshi-kaimei (1939–1945) Shinto in Korea State Shinto
Economy	Bank of Chōsen Hwacheon Dam Korean yen Sup'ung Dam Companies Chōsen Anthracite Company Chōsen Government Railway Chosen Railway Oriental Development Company
Controversies	Comfort women (list) Sakhalin Koreans Forced labor Aso Mining forced labor controversy Hashima Island Korean Women's Volunteer Labour Corps Sado Island Slavery during World War II Utoro, Uji Events 105-Man Incident (1911) March First Movement (1919) Jeamri Massacre (1919) Battle of Fengwudong (1920) Battle of Samdunja Battle of Qingshanli (1920) Gando Massacre (1920–1921) Shinano River incident (1922) Kantō Massacre (1923) June Tenth Movement (1926) Gwangju Student Independence Movement (1929) Hongkou Park Incident (1932) Battle of Pochonbo (1937) Korean Language Society Incident (1942) Collaborators Five Eulsa Traitors Hong Sa-ik Iljinhoe Korean History Compilation Committee Park Yeong-hyo Refrain Club Park Jung-yang Song Byeong-jun Yi Yun-yong Independence movement Declaration of Independence Independence Club Korean National Association List of militant independence organizations List of independence activists Provisional Government
Places and structures	Altteureu Airfield Gyeongbokgung Government-General Museum of Chōsen Heijō Shrine Hyochang Park Japanese General Government Building, Seoul Keijō (Seoul) Keijō Post Office Keijō Shrine Keijō Imperial University Seodaemun Prison
Legacy	Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan Controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine Japan–Korea disputes Japan–North Korea relations Japan–South Korea relations Japanese history textbook controversies List of war apology statements issued by Japan Division of Korea (1945–) Koreans in Japan (1945–) Hibakusha (1945–) Treaty of San Francisco (1952) Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea (1965) Independence Hall of Korea (1987–) Murayama Statement (1995) Special Law to Redeem Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property (2005) Museum of Japanese Colonial History in Korea (2018–) Comfort women Futsukaichi Rest Home (1946–1947) The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (1990–) Wednesday demonstration (1992–) Kono Statement (1993) Asian Women's Fund (1994) Shimonoseki Trial (1998) Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery (2000) United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121 (2007) Japan–South Korea Comfort Women Agreement (2015)

• Comfort women
• Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan
• Anti-Korean violence
• Euphemisms
• Japanese war crimes
• Violence against women in Asia
• Women in war
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• History of Asia
• Transitional justice
• Women in China
• Women in Korea
• Slavery in Japan
• Sexual violence in Asia during World War II
• Human trafficking in Japan
• Sex trafficking
• Women in Korea under Japanese rule