Comfort women

• Euphemism for sexual slavery
• Targeted poor women in Japanese occupied countryside
  • Sold by family members
  • Tricked into false claims of factory labor
  • Kidnapped
• Little evidence remaining
  • Few survivors
  • Destruction of evidence by Japanese
  • US failure to follow through with prosecution
• Total number of victims ranges from 80k–200k
• Only 238 Korean women registered as victims
• In 1992 Korean women march on Japanese Embassy
  • Demanding apology

origin

• Why
  • To prevent STDs among soldiers as consequence of rape
  • To boost morale
• After 1932 Shanghai occupation
  • Sped up after Nanjing Massacre 1937
• Began with Japanese prostitutes enlisted, but needed more as “Empire” expanded
  • Most recruited from Korea