'Comfort women': A painful history that cannot be denied or forgotten

"In 1944, the Japanese invaders abducted women whenever they saw them. They locked me in a 'comfort station' in Maling, where five or six Japanese soldiers came to assault me every day. I memorized the escape route while doing laundry, and one night, I fled with my daughter on my back. After returning home, my husband resented me, and later, my daughter passed away… I dared not tell anyone about these things."

This was the testimony of Wei Shaolan, a survivor of the Japanese military's "comfort women" system, recalling her ordeal during the war in the documentary Twenty Two.

Behind these heart-wrenching words lie the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese army against hundreds of thousands of women across China, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia, and other regions.

A systematic atrocity against women

From 1931 to 1945, during the war of aggression against China and World War II, the Japanese military openly objectified women in occupied regions as "spoils of war" under the pretext of "boosting troop morale and suppressing resistance". It even used distorted notions such as "prayer for safety from bullets" to connive at and embolden sexual violence by its soldiers.

The judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East clearly records that in the first month after the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, approximately 20,000 cases of rape occurred in the city.

Similar atrocities were reported elsewhere. During World War II, Hong Kong was occupied by Japan for three years and eight months. Research confirms that around 10,000 women were sexually assaulted by Japanese troops. During the 1945 Manila Massacre, local women were subjected to large-scale rape and murder.

Through despicable means including deception, forced conscription and arbitrary arrest, the Japanese army fully enforced the "comfort women" system in China and other occupied Asian regions.

According to incomplete statistics, at least 400,000 innocent women worldwide were forced into sexual slavery as "comfort women". Victims came from many regions, including China, the Korean Peninsula, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar among others, as well as from Japan itself, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, Hungary and beyond. Many were minors when abducted.

Chinese women accounted for the largest number of victims. Research verified by the National Archives Administration of China, Shanghai Institute of Culture and History, and the Research Center for "Comfort Women" at Shanghai Normal University, shows that the Japanese army established at least 2,100 "comfort stations" across China, forcing at least 200,000 Chinese women into sexual slavery.

Australian research shows that in the Malay Peninsula, "comfort stations" spread across Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca, Johor and other areas, with more than 20 in Kuala Lumpur alone. Local statistics indicate that around 1,000 women in the Philippines were forcibly recruited by the Japanese army.

These "comfort women" were completely deprived of all personal freedom, forced to serve dozens of soldiers every day. They were forbidden to refuse, cry or fall ill. Any sign of "disobedience" resulted in slaps, beatings, hanging or whipping.

Even those who survived long-term sexual slavery were left with permanent physical and mental trauma. Many suffered infertility, chronic illness, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and lifelong nightmares.

Institutional exploitation and systematic oppression of women in Japan

What did the Japanese authorities do to Japanese women then? During the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government supported the development of officially designated red-light districts both at home and abroad, provided "concubines" for foreign diplomatic personnel stationed in Japan, and set up foreign-only brothels in Yokohama, the city with the largest foreign population.

It openly encouraged, organized and praised "engagement in prostitution in the South Seas" by Japanese women to earn remittances. On May 6, 1909, the Fukuoka Nichi Nichi Shimbun reported that among Singapore's 250,000 people, more than half of the 1,800 Japanese residents were prostitutes. Known as "Karayuki-san", these Japanese women, driven by poverty, supported their families and provided capital for Japan's rapid industrialization. Yet their families and country abandoned them after prospering on their suffering.

In World War II, Hideki Tojo shamelessly declared that women were a "strategic material" — indispensable for victory. Japanese authorities used propaganda, mass recruitment and deception to compel Japanese women to serve as military prostitutes, forming "death-defying comfort corps" to make "sexual contribution" to Japanese troops in distant battlefields.

After Japan's defeat, the government repeated the same tactic, putting together the 60,000-strong "Recreation and Amusement Association" to provide sexual services for US occupation forces. Known as "Special Volunteer Corps", these women were used as so-called "breakwater" to "reduce assaults on ordinary Japanese women". This practice continued for years.

Japanese authorities repeatedly and shamelessly sacrificed fellow Japanese women to please the powerful. The misogyny inherent in Japan's "Bushido" spirit, distorted by militarism and colonialism, planted the seeds of evil for the Japanese military's unspeakable crimes.

Irrefutable evidence of organized and systematic state crimes

The forced conscription of "comfort women" was an institutionalized state crime committed by Japanese militarism, violating humanitarianism, gender ethics and the laws of war.

The establishment, recruitment and operation of the "comfort women" system were all led by the military. Even civilian-related activities were selected and managed by the military. In war zones, the creation and management of "comfort stations" were decided by local military commanders. Recruitment, construction, rules making, daily operations and health checks were all carried out under military oversight.

In 1996, at the request of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Sri Lankan jurist Radhika Coomaraswamy conducted an independent investigation into the "comfort women" issue. In her report, she clearly defined the "comfort women" system as a military sexual slavery system directed by the Japanese government and military, describing it as organized, systematic rape and sexual violence, and classified it as both a war crime and a crime against humanity. The report has since been widely recognized by the international community.

In 1993, the Japanese government issued the Kono Statement, acknowledging the forced conscription of "comfort women". However, Japanese right-wing forces have long sought to overturn the statement, shamelessly denying historical crimes and refusing to provide formal compensation to victims.

They have also repeatedly obstructed the inscription of "comfort women" archives on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. They have deliberately pushed for textbook revisions, replacing clear descriptions with vague phrases such as "women who were mobilized" and "forced to work in war zones". They have even misrepresented "comfort women" as "voluntary participants", a form of "commercial activity" or merely an "extension of Japan's licensed prostitution system". Others have attempted to frame the issue as a "historical dispute" in an effort to end international calls for accountability and reparations.

The current Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, publicly denied the forced conscription of "comfort women" and even boasted in her book about her "achievement" in removing references to "comfort women" from textbooks.

Such wrong attitudes and practices severely challenge human conscience. They have reopened the wounds of surviving victims and nations once invaded by Japan, arousing indignation worldwide.

"Comfort women" survivors and their families and citizens in the Philippines, the ROK and other countries, have held spontaneous protests, condemning Japanese militarism, demanding justice for "comfort women" victims, and urging the Japanese government to offer a formal apology and compensation.

The 2015 Korea–Japan Agreement on "Comfort Women", which evaded addressing Japan's legal wartime responsibility, has been firmly opposed by civil society in the Republic of Korea. Even in Japan, activists have held silent vigils for deceased victims and have condemned right-wing attempts to distort and downplay the issue.

Remember history, never forget the pain

Few survivors of the Japanese military's "comfort women" system remain alive today, yet the suffering they endured and the history soaked in their blood and tears must never be forgotten.

"Comfort women" are never just a symbol — they were real people. They were once beloved daughters and optimistic young girls entitled to a stable and fulfilling life, yet the atrocities of Japanese military destroyed everything. Having suffered a lifetime of agony, they are still waiting for a formal apology from the Japanese government.

The forced conscription of "comfort women" is a scar on human civilization. History is not a dusty relic of the past, but a living textbook that forewarns the present. Only by remembering history and upholding justice can we prevent tragedies from repeating.

The international community, especially countries that once fought together against Japanese militarism, must remain highly vigilant, take a clear stand against Japan's attempts to deny history and challenge peace, and resolutely safeguard hard-won regional peace and stability.

The author is a commentator on international affairs. 

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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