Comfort women

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Comfort women in Myitkyina , Myanmar , after they were liberated by US soldiers, August 14, 1944
Comforting women who cross a river in a train of soldiers
Chinese girl of a Japanese "consolation" with a British officer in Rangoon
Job advertisements for comfort women in daily newspapers published in Korea. Left: “Urgently wanted: Army comfort women”. In Mainichi Shimpō , Oct. 27, 1944; right: "Most urgently wanted: comfort women". In Keijō Nippō , July 26, 1944.

" Comfort women " ( Japanese 慰安婦 ianfu ) is a euphemistic term for girls and women who were forced into prostitution for the Japanese war brothels of World War II .

backgrounds

Since prostitution has traditionally been dealt with fairly openly in Japan , it was considered consistent to provide organized prostitution for the Japanese army . The Japanese leadership hoped that easy access to prostitutes would improve soldiers' morale and thus a more efficient army. In addition, one wanted to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among the soldiers. Organized prostitution should also prevent rape of the civilian population. This discussion was mainly held in Japan itself in order to counter voices critical of the war in their own camp.

It is estimated that 100,000 to 300,000 girls and women are affected. The historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi calculated based on data from a unit in which there was one comfort woman for every 100 soldiers that there should have been a total of around 50,000 to 200,000 comfort women. Ikuhiko Hata set the lower limit at 20,000. The Chinese historian Su Zhiliang, on the other hand, assumes 360,000 to 410,000 comfort women, including 200,000 Chinese women. Most of the victims came from Korea , China and Japan itself, but also from other occupied territories such as Indonesia , Malaysia , the Philippines and Taiwan . A small proportion of women also came from the Netherlands and Australia .

After 1945, many documents were destroyed for fear that the men involved could be held accountable as war criminals. Many women were also murdered by the Japanese military or prevented from returning to their home countries. Those who came to the Allied camps were able to return to their homeland after a while. Many of them kept silent about their past out of shame or were stigmatized and marginalized. Forced prostitution was not an issue in the war crimes trials . In Japan to date (2015) there is no consensus on war crimes and guilt. The subject was and is discussed in Japan.

Recruitment and Coercion

At the beginning of the war, Japanese authorities recruited prostitutes through conventional methods. Middlemen placed advertisements in Japanese newspapers distributed in the colonies of Korea , Taiwan , Manchuko and China . These methods quickly reached their limits as the reservoir of voluntary, professional prostitutes was very limited.

On April 17, 2007, Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Hirofumi Hayashi reported having found seven documents from the Tokyo Trials , which stated that the Imperial Japanese military forces - for example the Tokkeitai (Navy Military Police ) - daughters of men who served the Kempeitai (Army Military Police ) were forced to work in frontline brothels in China, Indochina and Indonesia. Originally these documents were published at the war crimes trials. One of these documents quotes a lieutenant who reports that he set up such a brothel and used it himself. Another source reports Tokkeitai members arresting women off the street, having them forcible medical examinations and then taking them to brothels.

On May 12, 2007, Taichiro Kaijimura published the discovery of 30 documents sent to the Tokyo Tribunal by the Dutch government, reporting massive amounts of forced prostitution in a 1944 incident in Magelang .

As the State Department stopped issuing travel visas to Japanese prostitutes, the military began to seek more and more "comfort women" outside of Japan, particularly in Korea and occupied China. Many women have also been turned into prostitutes by cheating. A report by the US Army, which reproduced interviews with 20 such women, informed of women from Burma who were promised large sums of money by Japanese officers for "foreign services" that could have paid off family debts and the like, and those after the women committed, never paid. Instead, they were given a small advance payment of a few hundred yen.

In addition to advertising recruitment, kidnapping has also been used in urban areas. Particularly near the front, the local authorities were also asked directly by the Japanese military to provide women for brothels. As the war progressed, this situation worsened. Witnesses from East Timor have reported that there were girls who were drafted before their first menstrual period. Since the "supply" of prostitutes was in some cases no longer sufficient during the course of the war, the Japanese troops began to take care of themselves by looting, etc. Especially in areas where the population was particularly hostile to the occupiers, Japanese troops carried out the scorched earth tactic, raping and kidnapping women from the population. This is how one of the largest historically known and systematically established networks of forced prostitution emerged in the areas occupied by Japan during World War II.

Treatment of comfort women

A soldier from Unit 731 , Yasuji Kaneko, testified, “The women screamed, but we didn't care if the women were alive or dead. We were the emperor's soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages - we raped without hesitation. ”Beatings and torture were not uncommon either.

In February 1944, ten Dutch women were taken out of their prison camps in Java by members of the Imperial Japanese Army to be able to use them as forced prostitutes. They were beaten and raped daily. Before a committee of the US House of Representatives, Jan Ruff-O'Hearn testified:

“Many stories have been told of the horror, brutality, suffering and starvation of Dutch women in Japanese prison camps. But one story was never told, the shameful story of the Japanese’s worst human rights violation during World War II. The story of comfort women, jugun ianfu, and how these women were forced against their will to provide sexual services to members of the Japanese Imperial Army. I was systematically beaten and raped day and night in the so-called consolation centers. Even the doctor who checked us regularly for sexually transmitted diseases raped me every time he came to the brothel to examine us. "

Due to protests from the Netherlands, the women were brought back to their prison camps three months later, but the officers responsible were not punished by the Japanese for this until the end of the war. After the war, eleven Japanese officers were found guilty by the Batavia court martial and one of them was executed.

Australian National University Emeritus Professor Hank Nelson has written about brothels in Rabaul , Papua New Guinea , operated by the Japanese military. In it he quotes from the diary of Gordon Thomas, a prisoner of war in Rabaul. Thomas writes that the women who work in the brothels have to be “between 25 and 35 men” every day and are victims of the “yellow slave trade”. Nelson also quotes a Navy surgeon named Kentaro Igusa who describes how, despite infections and other illnesses, the women had to work, despite begging for help and crying.

Public debate after the war until today

In Japan, a discussion on this topic officially began in the 1970s. In South Korea , from the late 1980s, former forced prostitutes began to speak out in public, and in 1992 they began to protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul every Wednesday, saying, “It is the Japanese government that must be ashamed not us! ”Confessions by former Japanese officers also made the fate of these women known to a wider public.

August 14th has been the national day of remembrance for the comfort women in South Korea since 2018.

Apologies and compensations

In 1965, after 14 years of negotiations, South Korea and Japan signed the basic treaty between Japan and the Republic of Korea , which was supposed to normalize relations between the two countries. South Korea asked for US $ 364 million in compensation for one million Korean forced laborers. Japan provided US $ 800 million in aid payments and low-interest loans over 10 years to meet all of Korea's demands, which was the view of the South Korean government until the 1990s. Japan intended the South Korean government to distribute these funds to the victims, but all of the funds were used to build infrastructure and the economy.

On January 1, 1992, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologized for Japan's treatment of the comfort women and repeated this on January 16 and 17 to South Korea's President Roh Tae-woo and in front of the South Korean parliament. Shortly before, in December 1991, the government commissioned a study to investigate this issue, to which Cabinet Secretary Kōichi Katō announced on July 6, 1992 that this documented the significant involvement of the Japanese government at the time in the comfort women system. This resulted on August 4, 1993 in the Kono statement ( English Kono statement ) of the cabinet secretary Yōhei Kōno , with which the government recognized the participation of the Japanese army in the procurement of women against their will for the war brothels. As a result, this chapter of war history was included in schoolbooks in 1994, although at the instigation of liberal democratic politicians not all schoolbooks deal with this topic. The Japanese government has since expressed regret for the involvement of the army and the treatment of the comfort women and apologized on several occasions.

In 1995 the Japanese government set up a private fund called the Asian Women's Fund to provide financial compensation and "medical and social assistance" to the women affected. The fund, headed by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama , was co-financed by donations from the Japanese public. Of the eleven million euros, 364 former forced prostitutes received money. The Japanese government donated a little more than half, the rest came from private donors. In addition, they received an unofficial written apology signed by the incumbent Prime Minister. Many former forced prostitutes refused to claim this compensation because of the unofficial nature of the fund. Many expect and seek direct apology and compensation from the Japanese state. However, the Japanese government takes the position that the peace treaty problem has been resolved after the war. At the beginning of 2005, the liquidation of the fund was announced in March 2007. Indonesia received US $ 3.1 million for medical facilities and old people's homes for its comfort women.

While his predecessor Junichirō Koizumi expressed his “deep regrets” in 2001 for the fate of those women who were forced into prostitution in the occupied territories of Korea, China and Southeast Asia during World War II and their “immeasurable and painful experiences”, the Prime Minister said Shinzō Abe on March 1, 2007: "There is no evidence that coercion was exercised on women, as it was initially said." This was preceded by plans for a resolution of the US Congress , in which it should be required that Japan formally recognize responsibility for the suffering inflicted on these "comfort women". After severe criticism, however, Abe also renewed the Japanese apology on March 26, 2007. Nonetheless, Abes ’remarks culminated in another apology from the Japanese parliament on March 27, 2007 to the 200,000 so-called comfort women . Since Japan does not recognize North Korea, it is not known whether this number includes all comfort women from the former Chosen colony or only from South Korea.

So far, there have been nine major class action lawsuits against the Japanese government, all of which have failed. At the end of April 2007, Japan's highest court ruled that the “comfort women” were not entitled to compensation .

The mayor of the metropolis of Osaka, Tōru Hashimoto , said in May 2013 that the system was necessary to "maintain discipline" and to allow a break for soldiers who risked their lives. Japan's conservative government is debating whether the country should continue to apologize for the crimes committed at the time.

On December 28, 2015, Japan and South Korea signed an agreement with which the two states want to resolve the dispute over the comfort women. The agreement provides for a renewed public apology from Japan and the payment of one billion yen (7.56 million euros) to a fund under South Korean administration to benefit the victims. In the words of the Japanese Foreign Minister, Prime Minister Abe expressed a "wholehearted apology and memory of those who have endured multiple pain and whose scars, both physical and psychological, are difficult to heal." South Korean officials said that the dispute was "finally and irrevocably" resolved. At the time of the agreement, 46 of the comfort women were still living in Korea.

Following the agreement between South Korea and Japan, David Lin, Foreign Minister of the Republic of China in Taiwan, called on January 6, 2016, that Japan swiftly start talks with its government on the compensation of the Taiwanese women affected. Lin's statement came in response to a comment by Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga at a press conference that Japan had no intention of entering into new negotiations with other countries, including Taiwan, on the matter. On January 14, 2016, at the age of 93, one of the four surviving comfort women from Taiwan who sued the Japanese government for compensation and an official apology in 1999, died.

International reactions

On the international level, sexual violence against women in war was first discussed at the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 and then at the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing. In November 1996 the UN announced that the actions of the Japanese military during the occupation were war crimes . Thus the victims would have the right to individual compensation. In February 1997 the UN special rapporteur on violence against women published a report in which he warned the Japanese government of its responsibility towards the forced prostitutes of the time. The Tokyo government was asked to accept moral and legal responsibility for the human rights violations perpetrated against women, to officially apologize to them, to compensate them financially and to bring those who were forcibly recruited and ill-treated to justice to justice. The Japanese government contradicted this.

Actions have also been launched by non-governmental organizations . One example is the so-called “International Women's Tribunal for War Crimes”, which was launched in December 2000. Former high-ranking politicians and military officials were charged with crimes against humanity in this symbolic 'trial' . These actions were ignored by the Japanese side, and US President George W. Bush declared in November 2001 that he would the campaign do not support the comfort women.

In Germany, an application was submitted by the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid in the Bundestag (by Angelika Graf (Rosenheim), Wolfgang Gunkel , Gernot Erler , Petra Ernstberger , Iris Gleicke , Ute Kumpf , Ullrich Meßmer , Thomas Oppermann , Christoph Strässer , Frank-Walter Steinmeier ), which called for the recognition and reparation of forced prostitution by the Japanese Empire during World War II. A special request was made to “support the United Nations in its efforts to implement resolutions 1325 , 1820, 1888 and 1889 comprehensively .” On April 25, 2012, this motion was rejected by the Bundestag. "It is not clear why this issue is being put on the agenda now," said the CDU / CSU. It is also not understandable why the focus is on Japan. Forced prostitution in wars existed all over the world. "The terrible suffering and guilt is undisputed," said a member of the FDP parliamentary group. As an outside nation, however, it is always difficult to initiate a social discourse in a country.

In front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul there is a statue in memory of the "comfort women", which has led to violent diplomatic entanglements for years. When the city of Freiburg im Breisgau was offered the same memorial as a gift from its Korean twin city Suwon in 2016 , diplomatic entanglements also ensued, especially since Freiburg has had a partnership with the Japanese city of Matsuyama for years . Thereupon Freiburg OB Dieter Salomon refused the gift. After the rejection, the statue "SuNI" was inaugurated on the occasion of Women's Day in March 2017 in the Bavarian municipality of Wiesent in the Nepal-Himalaya pavilion. "SuNI" is the fifth statue of its kind worldwide and the first in Europe after South Korea, Australia, Canada and the USA.

Literary reception

(in alphabetical order)

  • Mira Choi, Regina Mühlhäuser : We know that it is the truth ... - Violence against women during war - Forced prostitution of Korean women 1936–1945. Research u. Documentation Center Chile, 1996, ISBN 3-923020-19-8 .
  • Kiana Davenport: Song of the Lost Women. Novel. DTV, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-423-24248-5 .
  • Barbara Drinck, Chung-Noh Gross: Forced prostitution in times of war and peace. Sexual violence against women and girls . Kleine Verlag, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 3-89370-422-1 .
  • Burkhard Eiswaldt: "Hainan Comfort Women" - forced prostitution under Japanese occupation, Hainan 1939–1945. Books on Demand , Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-8838-0 .
  • Ruth Hello: The comfort women. Novel. Langen-Müller, Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3-7844-3302-8 (winner of the IHK culture award 2012).
  • Nora Okja Keller : The comfort woman. Novel. From the American by Cornelia Holfelder-von der Tann. Limes Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-8090-2421-X .
  • Juliette Morillot: The red orchids of Shanghai. The fate of Sangmi Kim. Goldmann, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-442-30982-4 (novel / story based on an old woman's life story).
  • Yuki Tanaka: Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the US Occupation. Routledge, London 2002, ISBN 0-415-19401-6 .
  • Jun Tschongmo: My mother was a "Korean hooker". Translation from the Korean by Helga Picht . Kiro-Verlag, Schwedt 1995, ISBN 3-929220-43-1 .
  • Yoshiaki Yoshimi: Comfort women: sexual slavery in the Japanese military during world war II. Translated by Suzanne O'Brien. Columbia University Press, New York 2002, ISBN 0-231-12033-8 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 『京城 日報』 （1944 年 7 月 26 日 付）「慰安婦 至急 大 募集」 年 齢 17 歳 以上 23 歳 ま で / 勤 め 先 後方 ○○ 隊 慰 安 部 / 月 収 300 円 以上 （前 借 年 可円） / で 借 3000 可円 ま /毎 日新 報 』（1944 年 10 月 27 日 付） //「 軍 慰安婦 急 募集 」/ 行 先 ○○ 部隊 慰 安 所 / 応 募 資格 年 齢 18 歳 以上 30 歳 以内 身体 強健 女性 / 募集 期日 10 月 27 日 よ り 11 8 日 / 契約 及 待遇 本人 面 接 後 即時 決定 / 募集 人員 数十 名 希望 者 左 記 場所 に 至 急問 議 の 事 / 京城 府 鍾 路 区 樂園 町 195 朝鮮 旅館 内 光 ③2645 （許 氏
  2. ↑ George Hicks: The Comfort Women. Allen & Unwin, ISBN 1-86373-727-8 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Burkhard Eiswaldt: "Hainan Comfort Women" - forced prostitution under Japanese occupation, Hainan 1939–1945. March 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-8838-0 .
  4. ^ The "Comfort Women" Issue and the Asian Women's Fund. (PDF) 2. How Many Comfort Women Were There? Asian Women's Fund, pp. 10-13 , archived from the original on June 28, 2007 ; accessed on December 31, 2015 .
  5. ↑ a b FAZ.net December 28, 2015: Late satisfaction for the violated women
  6. ↑ Reiji Yoshida: Evidence documenting sex-slave coercion revealed , Japan Times. April 18, 2007. Retrieved August 29, 2007. 
  7. ↑ Files: Females forced into sexual servitude in wartime Indonesia , Japan Times. May 12, 2007. Retrieved August 29, 2007. 
  8. ^ Yoshiaki Yoshimi [1995]: Comfort Women. Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II , translation Suzanne O'Brien (= Asia Perspectives), Columbia University Press , New York 2000, ISBN 0-231-12033-8 , pp. 82-83.
  9. ↑ George Hicks [1995]: The Comfort Women. Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War . W. W. Norton & Company , New York 1997, ISBN 0-393-31694-7 , pp. 223-228.
  10. ^ Yoshiaki Yoshimi [1995]: Comfort Women. Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II , translation Suzanne O'Brien (= Asia Perspectives), Columbia University Press , New York 2000, ISBN 0-231-12033-8 , pp. 101-105, 113, 116-117 . George Hicks [1995]: The Comfort Women. Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War . W. W. Norton & Company, New York 1997, ISBN 0-393-31694-7 , pp. 13, 50, 52-54, 69-71, 113, 115, 142, 145-146, 148.
  11. ^ Minister van Buitenlandse zaken [Minister of Foreign Affairs]: Gedwongen prostitutie van Nederlandse vrouwen in voormalig Nederlands-Indië [Enforced prostitution of Dutch women in the former Dutch East Indies] . In: Nationaal Archief [Dutch National Archive] (ed.): Handelingen Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal [Hansard Dutch Lower House] . tape 23607 , no. 1 , January 24, 1994, ISSN  0921-7371 , p. 8–9, 14 .
  12. ^ International Military Tribunal for the Far East: Judgment International Military Tribunal for the Far East . In: Hyperwar, a hypertext history of the Second World War . Hyperwar Foundation. 1135. November 1, 1948. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
  13. ↑ Report No. 49: Japanese POW Interrogation on Prostitution . Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  14. ↑ Keiji Hirano: East Timor former sex slaves start speaking out , Japan Times. April 28, 2007. Retrieved August 29, 2007. 
  15. ^ Akira Fujiwara (藤原 彰): The Three Alls Policy and the Northern Chinese Regional Army. (「三光 作 戦」 と 北 支那 方面軍), Kikan sensō sekinin kenkyū 20, 1998
  16. ↑ Mitsuyoshi Himeta (姫 田光義): 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, 1996
  17. ^ Herbert P. Bix: Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. Harper Collins, 2000, ISBN 0-06-019314-X .
  18. ↑ 731 部隊 「コ レ ラ 作 戦」 ( yes ) Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  19. ↑ "宋秉 畯 ら 第 ２ 期 親 日 反 民族 行為 者 202 人 を 選定" , JoongAng Ilbo , 2007.09.17. "日本 軍 慰安婦 を 募集 し た こ と で 悪 名 高 い い ・ ・ ジ ョ ン ジ ャ"
  20. ↑ Hiroko Tabuchi: Japan's Abe: No Proof of WWII Sex Slaves (en) . In: The Washington Post , March 1, 2007. Retrieved April 17, 2016. 
  21. ^ A b Statement of Jan Ruff O'Herne AO, Subcommittee on Asia, Pacific and the Global Environment, Committee on Foreign Affairs, US House of Representatives . Archived from the original on February 28, 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  22. ↑ a b Norimitsu Onishi: Denial Reopens Wounds of Japan's Ex-Sex Slaves. In: The New York Times . March 8, 2007, archived from the original on March 22, 2007 ; accessed on September 15, 2019 .
  23. ↑ 日本 占領 下 イ ン ド ネ シ ア に お け る 慰安婦 ( yes , PDF; 170 kB) Retrieved on April 25, 2013.
  24. ↑ a b Hank Nelson (2008): The Consolation Unit: Comfort Women at Rabaul. The Journal of Pacific History, 43 (1), pp. 1-21. on-line
  25. ↑ a b c d Renate Müller-Wollermann: Neither consolation nor justice for "comfort women". Amnesty International , archived from the original on June 9, 2013 ; accessed on February 27, 2018 .
  26. ↑ Goethe University: Sculpture commemorates victims of Japanese army brothels. February 18, 2020, accessed February 24, 2020 .
  27. ^ A b Ashley AC Hess: Korea-Japan ties burdened by baggage. In: Asia Time Online. November 22, 2012, accessed February 27, 2018 .
  28. ↑ Jane Yamazaki: Japanese Apologies for World War II: A Rhetorical Study . Routledge, 2012, ISBN 978-0-415-64937-7 , pp. 146 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  29. ^ Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato on the Issue of the so-called "Wartime Comfort Women" from the Korean Peninsula. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, July 6, 1992, accessed February 27, 2018 .
  30. ^ Ministry of Foreign Affairs : Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of "comfort women" , August 4, 1993. Accessed January 5, 2012.
  31. ↑ Japan to end WWII sex slave fund. In: BBC News . BBC, January 24, 2005, accessed February 27, 2018 .
  32. ^ Letter from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the former comfort women. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2001, accessed February 27, 2018 .
  33. ↑ Japan puts forced prostitution into perspective. In: SRF of March 1, 2007. Retrieved on February 27, 2018.
  34. ↑ Japanese Sex Slavery. In: Top 10 National Apologies. Time, June 17, 2010, accessed February 27, 2018 .
  35. ↑ spiegel.de: Japanese politician defends forced prostitution
  36. ^ Japan and South Korea agree 'comfort women' deal. In: BBC News . December 28, 2015, accessed February 27, 2018 .
  37. ↑ Meg Chang: Foreign Ministry urges Japan to talk about "comfort women". Taiwan today January 8, 2016; archived from the original on January 10, 2016 ; accessed on September 15, 2019 .
  38. ↑ One of the last four remaining “comfort women” in Taiwan passes away. Radio Taiwan International, January 14, 2016, accessed January 14, 2016 .
  39. ^ Application: Recognition and reparation for the suffering of the “comfort women” (PDF; 69 kB), German Bundestag, printed matter 17/8789 of February 29, 2012.
  40. ↑ Application on Japanese “comfort women” rejected ( memento from January 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), on bundestag.de from April 25, 2012.
  41. ^ Deutsche Welle: Freiburg and the comfort woman
  42. ^ Joachim Röderer: Southwest: Freiburg: bronze figure triggers diplomatic trouble with Japan. Badische Zeitung, September 23, 2016, accessed on September 24, 2016 .
  43. ↑ Stefan Gruber: "Consolation Woman" urges peace. Mittelbayerischer Verlag, March 12, 2017, accessed on March 17, 2017 .
  44. ^ Rainer Werning: The suffering of the »comfort women«. Junge Welt , March 17, 2017, accessed March 17, 2017 .