Were Comfort Women Really Abducted by the Japanese Government's Policy at That Time?
Professor Nobukatu Fujioka insists comfort women were not abducted by
the Japanese government's policy.
I) No documents prove that the Army abducted comfort women.
II) No witness of abduction appeared in Korea and other Asian countries.
III) No testimonies by former Japanese soldiers or military police officers proved they abducted Asian women.
IV ) A lot of documents written by Japanese Army and former soldiers
prove that the Army effectively investigated and regulated some bad pimps who abducted
or deceived women.
Professor Nobukatu Fujioka's insistences are reliable.
I) Professor Yoshiaki Yoshimi disagrees with Fujioka. "Cases of Recruiting Comfort Women for Military Comfort Station" (on 4th March 1938) written by the commissariats' section in the Department of Japanese Army, suggests that the Army abducted comfort women.
According to Yoshimi's interpretation, the (military) police officers helped brothels' dealers to gather prostitutes for Japanese soldiers. Major Haruo Yamazaki's diary reported that military policemen abducted village women in China and forced them into prostitution. "Cases of Recruiting Comfort Women for Military Comfort Station" caused such abductions in China. Therefore, these abductions occured by the Japanese government.
However, Yoshimi's explanation is distorted. The document describes brothel's dealers gathered prostitutes by abduction and deception. The police arrested those who abducted and deceived women. Brothel's dealers, severely selected by Army properly, gathered prostitutes. The (military) police officers would have cooperated with the Army in order to control and watch the action of brothel's dealers. They would have prevented social problems without a slip.
Next, "Major Haruo Yamazaki's diary" (on December 18th, 1938) told that Lieutenant Colonel Terada led military policemen to set up a comfort house in Huzhou, China. At first, four comfort women were in the comfort house, then three more were added. Their attendance and service was bad because they still had fear. A military policeman asked about 100 applicants for comfort women one after another whether they were safe, appropriately paid, and exploited or not.
Although military authorities did not announce to soldiers and signs were not set up at the doors of comfort houses, a lot of soldiers who heard the news came to the comfort houses. Comfort houses were very crowded. A military policeman who reported the comfort house might have exploited comfort women. Military police did not abduct women in villages but they recruited comfort women according to the description of applicants in this diary.
Moreover, the comfort women were also anxious about the military police and how they would be treated. They might be exploited. Military authorities must have taken care of them.
No document of the Japanese Army or government proves that the Army abducted
comfort women. If the Japanese government did so, the military or police action must have had a name, and the document would remain. It is strange that the name of people who issued and accepted was not found in both institutions. There is no document which did the related business. Comfort women were not abducted by the Japanese government's policy.
Some might think this is the Neo-Nazis' logic such as "there is no documents that Hitler ordered holocausts, therefore Hitler must not have known the fact that a lot of Jews were slaughtered." However, the case of comfort women is argued on whether comfort women were abducted by the Japanese government or not. On the other hand, in the case of the Nazis' holocausts, the fact is not doubtful at all. These are totally different problems.
Go back Next