Were Comfort Women Really Abducted by the Japanese Government's Policy at That Time?
II) A lot of comfort women existed before and during World War II. Mr. Itakura, a researcher about comfort women, insisted the number of comfort women was 20,000 to 30,000. Professor Kunihiko Hata insisted the number was 60,000 to 90,000. Professor Yoshimi insisted the number was 80,000 to 200,000. If the Japanese Army abducted 20,000-200,000 women by force, far more people would know this fact. If this is true,100,000 too 1,000,000(?) witnesses must have existed, but no witness exists. Even if 1,000 comfort women had been abducted by Japanese Army, about 10,000(?) witnesses must have exised but no witness exists. Are Korea and other Asian countries trying to protect Japan?
III) Formerly, Professor Yoshimi gave two kinds of strong testimonies
of Japanese former soldiers who abducted and forced Asian women into comfort women. They were testimonies of Seiji Yoshida and Zenjirou Hara, who was a staff officer.
Yoshida's testimony: He was a recruiter of the Japanese Army and abducted many Korean women as "Teisintai," women's volunteer corps in July, 1943 in Saishu Island (Cheju Do, Korea) in Japan Sea. Professor Kunihiko Hata went there and asked a lot of people on the island whether they knew about the incidents or not. No people on the island knew of any abductions.
For example, Tyon Ok-Tan, who was 85 years old, recalled that there were about
250 families in the village in 1943 and 1944. If fifteen women had been abducted by the Japanese Army, it would have become a big problem. However, no fact of abduction by the Japanese Army existed in the village.
Kim Pon-Oku, a Korean researcher, said, "For a long time, I have researched this matter, as a result, it was not truth. This testimony is a frivolous, shrewd
product." After the research, Professor Hata tried to ask Yoshida whether his testimony was true or not, Yoshida did not answer him at all. It is
reasonable to conclude Mr. Yoshida was lying.
Women's volunteer corps called "Teishintai," were formed by the Japanese government after September 13th, 1943. Besides, the word of "Teishintai" did not exist
as an administrative term in May, 1943 when Mr. Yoshida went to Seishu island in July, 1943. This is the only testimony of gathering comfort women as "Teishintai." Whether comfort women were gathered by force under the name of "Teishintai" or not, is quite doubtful.
Next, according to the Zenjirou Hara's testimony on August 9th, 1941, when the
Japanese Army was preparing to start a war against the Soviet Union (Russia),
Hara calculated Armies in North-East China would require 20,000 comfort women. Then he went to the governor's office of Korea. He requested the governor's office of Korea to gather comfort women in a short term. He testified that the governor allotted comfort women to prefectural governors; prefectural governors allotted Comfort women to influential men of the county, and influential men of the county allotted comfort women to village mayors.
Senda, a researcher of comfort women, heard Hara's testimony. Senda insisted village mayors and police were absolutely influential in a farm village society. Korean women felt somewhat uneasy, but they did not doubt because village mayors and police ordered them to do that. He asserted that such kinds of recruitments were half forced. His colleague testified Hara's career was different. That is, he was in charge of education, not recruiting comfort women.
Moreover, General Mobilization Orders were not carried out in Korea in 1941. In September, 1944, General Mobilization Orders were given to general citizens in Korea. (However, General Mobilization Orders were already given to Army Korean personnel in 1941 and Korean workers in big factory in February, 1944.) This type of recruitment carried by village mayors and police was not by General Mobilization Order, not by a law or ordinance, but by cooperation. Unless the government had conducted the legal recruitment, the government would not pay the expenses for the recruitment.
However, this kind of recruitment was not financially supported by the government. The government could never finance illegal actions. Even if village mayors deceived Korean women, there are still a lot of big questions which need to be cleared up. From which part of Korea or North-East China were the abducted women recruited? Who was the leader in charge of transporting the abducted women? Who paid the travel expenses for the women? These points have not been clarified yet. Regarding almost all cases of recruitment and mobilization conducted in Korea, there remains no record about what kind of people or organization recruited, trained, and mobilized these women. Nobody testified about those facts. Even if Hara's testimony were true, the identity of those paying the travel expense for abducted women remains a mystery.
According to a government document entitled, "The Inquiry How to Handle Women Who Would Make a Voyage to China" (on 4th November 1938), Japanese Armies in the Southern part of China actually requested The Ministry of Interior to gather four hundred comfort women. The Ministry of Interior allotted comfort women to the governors of Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, Fukuoka, and Yamaguchi prefectures. However, the governors and police strictly investigated and properly selected brothel dealers, then brothel dealers gathered comfort women. (These were very different from Hara's testimony.)
Uesugi, a researcher of comfort women, insists that the Japanese Army tacitly allowed and even directed by order brothel dealers to abducted and deceived Asian women in order to fill the quota. However, the police strictly regulated some brothel dealers who gathered comfort women by pretending to have agreements and contacts with the Army, and who gathered comfort women by exaggerated and false advertisements.
According to "The case how to treat women who would make a voyage to the
South of China" (on 8th November 1938), these recruitments were based on the same document (on 23th February 1938.) The police explained their work (prostitution) to the women who were gathered by dealers of brothel. Some of them were under 21 years old. The police intervened with brothel dealers about comfort women's contracts. Most comfort women contracted with brothel dealers, not with the Army. For example, the police regulated the comfort women's large former debts to brothel dealers and the long term of the comfort women's contracts.
IV) For the reasons stated above, comfort women were not abducted under the Japanese government's policy at that time. However, there are many former comfort women who insist they were abducted or deceived by the Army, and forced into prostitution. Some Japanese soldiers and brothel dealers who abducted or deceived Asian women were breaking Japanese laws and Army regulations.
A lot of documents about the Japanese Army and testimonies of former Japanese soldiers prove the Army investigated some bad pimps who abducted or deceived women. (Details of these documents are in the section II.) The Japanese government seemed to have protected comfort women. Some comfort women were actually under twenty. A lot of prostitutes who were under twenty have existed in the world even since the World War II. It is necessary for the people in modern world to understand the situation fifty years before.
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