{"id":10410,"date":"2023-09-29T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T17:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/?p=10410"},"modified":"2023-12-05T08:37:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T23:37:36","slug":"1-6-was-there-coercion-in-military-comfort-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/?p=10410&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"1-6 Was there coercion in military comfort stations?"},"content":{"rendered":"\nThe major point in the issue of Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d is whether there was coercion in comfort stations. Regardless of the manner in which the women were transported, even, for example, if they were brought in on luxury passenger liners, or in fancy cars on land, even if they came of their own free will, if they were coerced to provide sex to military and civilian personnel in comfort stations, which were military facilities, the military cannot escape responsibility.\r\n\r\nOn this point, the Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono in 1993 acknowledges clearly that \u201cthey lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere.\u201d This is an accurate statement. There are many testimonies from victimized women. And these testimonies coincide with the fact that many military and civilian personnel who actually used the comfort stations were repelled by the appalling conditions they found there.\r\n\r\nMoreover, if the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system was Sexual Slavery, then the women forced to provide sex to military and civilian personnel under such a system can\u2019t be regarded as having done so of their own free will.\r\n\r\nThe following table shows a comparison between the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system and the licensed prostitution system that existed in Japan. Both the licensed prostitution system and the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system were Sexual Slavery, but there are a few differences in their forms.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/td>\r\nfreedom to choose and change their residences<\/span><\/td>\r\nfreedom to go out<\/span><\/td>\r\nfreedom to quit<\/span><\/td>\r\nfreedom to refuse<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
licensed prostitution system<\/span><\/td>\r\nNone<\/span><\/td>\r\nNot guaranteed. The Ministry of Home Affairs encouraged brothel owners to grant this freedom from 1933.<\/span><\/td>\r\nDespite legal provisions, in practice extremely difficult<\/span><\/td>\r\nIn theory women became prostitutes of their own free will, but in practice it was difficult for them to refuse.<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
\u201ccomfort women\u201d system<\/span><\/td>\r\nNone<\/span><\/td>\r\nNot guaranteed.<\/span><\/td>\r\nNot guaranteed.<\/span><\/td>\r\nIt was almost impossible to refuse.<\/span><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nUnder neither the licensed prostitution system nor the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system were women given the freedom to choose orchange their residences. The requirement to live in residences in a controlled area is common to both systems. \u201cComfort women\u201d had to live in designated tiny rooms.\r\n\r\nUnder the licensed prostitution system, the women were called \u201ccaged birds\u201d and weren\u2019t given the freedom to go out. However, in 1933 the Ministry of Home Affairs began to recommend that the permit system be abolished, and that prostitutes be guaranteed the freedom to go out, on the grounds that freedom to go out wasn\u2019t guaranteed under the permit system. Foreign countries criticized the system of licensed prostitution, saying that it was actually Sexual Slavery, and one reason for this was that the women could not go out freely because of the permit system. The Ministry\u2019s recommendations were made with the aim of avoiding this criticism.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, under the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system, the Japanese military never guaranteed the freedom to go out in the first place. Regulations for military comfort stations include provisions that specifically prohibit women from leaving their assigned residences. For example, the \u201cInternal Regulations for Stationing at Changzhou\u201d set out by the 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>Battalion of the Independent Heavy Artillery stationed at Changzhou, China in 1938 states that \u201cProprietors are prohibited from going out, except to specifically permitted places.\u201d(\u201cProprietors\u201d means \u201ccomfort women.\u201d) This clearly indicates that the women were not free to leave their rooms.\r\n\r\n
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An abbreviation of \u201cDokuritsu-Sanhouhei-Dainirentai<\/i>\u201d (the 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>Regiment of the Independent Mountain Artillery).<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nRegulations of the Iloilo Local Office, Visayas Branch of the Government Staff Office of the Philippine Military (Iloilo city, Panay Island) (1942) also \u201cstrictly regulates comfort women\u2019s going out\u201d, \u201cComfort women are strictly prohibited, without the permission of the Manager of the Iloilo Local Office, from going out.\u201d Under the permit system, freedom to go out wasn\u2019t guaranteed.\r\n\r\n

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Iloilo Local Office, Visayas Branch of Government Staff Office of the Philippine Military, \u201cRegulations for comfort stations (Asia Hall, the 1<\/span>st<\/sup>\u00a0comfort station)\u201d(November 22<\/span>nd<\/sup>, 1942).<\/span><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\nUnder the licensed prostitution system, the Ministry of Home Affairs laid down provisions concerning the freedom to quit in order to give the appearance that this system was not Sexual Slavery. \u201cFreedom to retire\u201d means that women forced to become prostitutes in red-light districts were guaranteed the right to leave the brothel behind immediately whenever they chose to do so.\r\n\r\nHowever, these provisions were seldom put into practice. To begin with, most women brought to red-light districts didn\u2019t know that they had the freedom to quit any time. And even if they did know, the brothel owners prevented them from notifying the police. Even if a woman had the good fortune to make her way to the police , the operator would always file a lawsuit demanding repayment of her debt. When her case came to court, the judge would almost always rule that the debt must be repaid, even though contracts to repay debts incurred by prostitution are null and void because they violate public order and morality. In such cases, regardless of provisions guaranteeing the freedom to quit, women in red-light districts who were unable to repay their debts continued to be arrested.\r\n\r\nThus, it should be noted that the licensed prostitution system is, in practice, Sexual Slavery. In contrast, under the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system, there were no provisions concerning the freedom to quit in the first place. This freedom was ignored from the beginning.\r\n\r\nWere they guaranteed the freedom to refuse customers? Under the licensed prostitution system, in theory the women became prostitutes of their own free will, but because they had to repay their debt, it would be difficult for them to refuse. Under the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system, it was virtually impossible to refuse. If they refused, they were beaten by the operators or by military personnel.\r\n\r\nIn this way, both the licensed prostitution system and the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system were forms of Sexual Slavery. The difference was that the licensed prostitution system was Sexual Slavery in practice, even though under civil law it appeared not to be. . The \u201ccomfort women\u201d system, on the other hand, was literally Sexual Slavery under military law; it was unconcealed Sexual Slavery. It must be said that under this system, women providing sex to military personnel were forced to do so.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The major point in the issue of Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d is whether there was coercion in comfort sta […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10411,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10410\/revisions\/10411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}