South Korean Comfort women

Yoshimi Yoshiaki is a historian from Japan, and in the year 1992, he brought to light documents that showed a connection between the government of Japan and the network of brothels that operated during the time of war in the 1930s and 1940s. The materials allegedly contained information about the abduction and enslaving women for sex by the Japanese government. Also, it is claimed that Japan massacred the women once the war in Asia had ended. The victims at the center of it all are allegedly South Korean comfort women, and the comfort women stories have indeed captured global attention, The United Nations released an infamous report known as Coomaraswamy Report in the year 1996 and politicians from Japan have also made tons of apologies about the issue.

However, the initial claims revolving around the issue of comfort women testimonies are not valid. Contrary to reports that the women were abducted and that there were over 200,000 Korean comfort women, these claims are not accurate as there was no forced abduction that occurred systematically and most of the victims were not Korean. The work of Yoshida Seiji “My War Crimes” has been used by many partisans in the issue of war crimes and also there is an indication report by the united nations has recycled points from Yoshida’s book. Furthermore, keen inspection of the issue about comfort women only makes other countries such as South Korea look worse. A German researcher, Magnus Hirschfeld conducted research and established a connection between war and sex. Looking back since the ancient Greek and the civil war that took place in America, there is clearly a connection between war and sex. Magnus Hirschfeld found out that in the tenure of the great war, business in brothels boomed as the arrangements were made by the governments involved.

During world war II despite the men being in hostile environments, America was a giant in the business with their operations stationed at Hotel Street in Honolulu. It is fascinating that field commanders of Japan cautioned on their juniors from being patronizing over the local prostitutes in an effort to mitigate leaking of information. The military of Japan made an effort to mitigate rape during the times of war but other governments encouraged the act and the soviet union tops the list. In World War II soldiers of the soviet union went rogue at the end of the war. Reports indicate that women in Manchuria ended their lives with the news of advancing troops of the soviet union. Although the commanding officers of the US military did not encourage rape among their men, it has been reported that after liberating Normandy, thousands of French women were raped. Venereal diseases are among the ordeals a commanding officer has to deal with, and this was an issue that dreaded the US Flying Tigers under the command of Gen Claire Chennault. The US GIs were forbidden from visiting the popular red-light district in Kunming by their superior but the order was not heeded and the General had to fly in prostitutes from India. The comfort women still had its operations even after 1945 and during the Korean war the troops from the United States were being serviced by comfort stations. In 1977 the president of South Korea signed an order or “camptowns” to be cleaned. This order that was signed was aimed at keeping the US Military in South Korea, and the economy of the country experienced a bubble from the American dollar. South Korea is not a victim in the picture but is just as guilty given their troops were also involved in war crimes in 1966 and 68.