Comfort women

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 (慰安婦), a euphemism that 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 soldiers; however, the majority of the women were from Korea. Many women died due to brutal mistreatment and sustained physical and emotional distress. After the war, Japan denied the existence of comfort women, refusing to provide an apology or appropriate restitution. After numerous demands for an apology and the revelation of official records showing the Japanese government's culpability, the Japanese government began to offer an official apology and compensation in the 1990s. However, apologies have been criticized as insincere by some victims, advocacy groups, and scholars. Many Japanese government officials have continued to either deny or minimize the existence of comfort women.

Quotes

• “I couldn’t come out and speak out when I was young, because of the shame. Shame was the first thing in my mind then. Now I’m older and it’s easier for me … since I’ve overcome those thoughts. But when I was younger, I was ashamed… Wouldn’t you feel the same? The fact that you were taken to the Japanese military and used as a ‘comfort woman’ instead of leading a life as others do. Is it acceptable? No, never! … I kept weeping day and night behind the closed doors. I wept in secret; I had no one to talk to. Because we survived, now the whole world (will know) …”
  • [1]

• “I became a ‘comfort woman’. I was in a three‑story building in Nanjing that was at the Kinsui‑rou ‘comfort station’. There I was called by the Japanese name ‘Utamaru’. I had to service up to thirty soldiers every day. One day I was really in pain …that bastard officer … held a long knife up against my throat … cut me. The blood poured out … Other ‘comfort women’ who caught diseases and became malnourished were carted out or often dumped into the river to drown. I also saw two Japanese army privates stab a pregnant woman in the belly and kill her. I was there for three years. …”
  • [2]

• “My name is Won‑ok Gil, and I am one of the 22 surviving victims who were called ‘comfort women.’ When I was 13 years … I was forcibly dragged away by Japan and went through unspeakable pain and suffering, the horrors of which I cannot speak of. … Before I die, I want Japan to reveal the truth, and I also want the Emperor of Japan … to sincerely apologize for the ‘comfort women’ issue.”
  • [3]