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I Learned about the Wretchedness of War: Women Settlers' ‘Sexual Entertainment’ of Soviet Red Army Troops in Postwar Manchuria
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
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The history of the “comfort women” (ianfu) concerns women and girls from Korea, China, the Philippines, and other parts of the Japanese empire who were forced into sexual slavery in Japanese military-run or sponsored stations during the Asia-Pacific War. Knowledge of this episode in human history is above all the result of the courage and persistence of the victims who have testified and chronicled their experiences, but also of the work of researchers, journalists, and concerned citizens inside and outside Japan, who investigated the facts and published their findings despite efforts by history denialists to intimidate them. For example, their experience is well documented in memoirs by former “comfort women,” such as South Korean Kim Hak-sun, the first woman to come forward in 1991, and Filipina comfort woman Maria Rosa Henson, who wrote a memoir describing her experience. Activists and NGOs, such as the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Sexual Slavery by Japan, recorded testimonies by former “comfort women.” In 2000, survivors from more than a dozen countries gathered and gave testimonies at the International Women's War Crimes Tribunal held in Tokyo. Works by scholars and journalists were also significant. For example, historians such as Yoshimi Yoshiaki discovered Japanese military archival documents describing the “comfort woman” system, and journalists such as Uemura Takashi covered the story of Kim Hak-sun for the Asahi Shimbun. Yoshimi, Uemura and others were subjected to vicious attacks by Japanese neonationalists.
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1 “Fact Sheet on Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’,” Asia-Pacific Journal Feature, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 13:19:2 (11 May 2015).
2 Maria Rosa Henson, Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, 1996).
3 The full documentary of the tribunal, Breaking the History of Silence, is available here on youtube.
4 Yoshimi's works include Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II, trans. Suzanne O'Brien (Columbia UP, 2002). See also, “Reexamining the ‘Comfort Women’ Issue: An Interview with Yoshimi Yoshiaki.” Introduction by Satoko Oka Norimatsu. For Uemura's coverage of Kim Hak-sun, see Uemura Takashi, “Labeled the Reporter Who ‘Fabricated’ the Comfort Woman Issue: A Rebuttal.”
5 NHK, “Kokuhaku: manmo kaitakudan no onna tachi,” (8 August 2017)
6 Inomata, Yuusuke. “Homo sōsharu na sensō no kioku wo koete – ‘manshū imin josei’ ni taisuru senji sei bōryoku wo jirei to shite.” (Beyond the homosocial memory of the war: a case study of wartime sexual violence against ‘settler women in Manchuria‘) Gunji Shigaku, 51(2), 2015:94-115.
7 Hirai, Miho. “Wasuretai ano ryōjoku no hibi, wasure sasenai otome tachino aietsu” (We want to forget the days of humiliation, we won't let the maidens' tears be forgotten) Josei Jishin, October 4, 2016. Hirai Miho, “Sorenhei no ‘seisettai’ wo meijirareta otome tachi no 70nen go no kokuhaku” (Testimonies 70 years later by maidens who were ordered to “sexually entertain” the Soviet soldiers) See part 1 here and part 2 here.
8 In some cases Japanese authorities pressed Japanese settlers as well as soldiers to commit suicide rather than surrender.
9 In 1981 the Settler Community printed a commemorative booklet (“kinenshi”) to record their history. In a section that one man wrote, he gave the “entertainers” some recognition, saying that the settlers owed their lives to the girls who entertained the Soviet soldiers, but he only spoke of their serving the soldiers various foods, such as a cooked pork dish. (See section 40:40 to 41:30 of the documentary here).
10 See here.
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