{"id":11958,"date":"2023-09-29T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T07:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/?p=11958"},"modified":"2023-12-05T08:37:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T23:37:36","slug":"1-1%e3%80%80why-the-name-japanese-military-comfort-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/?p=11958&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"1-1\u3000Why the name Japanese Military \u201cComfort Women\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"\nThis website uses the name Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d instead of \u201cmilitary comfort women\u201d(\u5f93\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u5a66) or \u201ccomfort women\u201d (\u6170\u5b89\u5a66). The reasons are as follows.\r\n\r\nWartime Designations<\/strong>\r\n\r\nTo begin with, the Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d system began with the establishment of comfort stations for Japanese army generals in 1932 in Shanghai, China, which was invaded by the Japanese army. The comfort stations were expanded throughout mainland China and even to other Asia-Pacific countries, and until the defeat of Japan, women from Asian countries, including Japanese, were made \u201ccomfort women\u201d. At the time, the Japanese military referred to these sexual facilities as \u201ccomfort stations\u201d(\u6170\u5b89\u6240)<\/span>, \u201cmilitary comfort stations\u201d(\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u6240), \u201ccomfort facilities\u201d(<\/span>\u6170\u5b89\u65bd\u8a2d) and \u201ccanteens\u201d(\u9152\u4fdd)<\/span>. It referred to the women as \u201ccomfort women\u201d(\u6170\u5b89\u5a66)<\/span>,\u201cmilitary comfort station attendants\u201d(\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u6240\u914c\u5a66),<\/span>\u201cspecial women\u201d(\u7279\u7a2e\u5a66\u5973)<\/span>, \u201cspecial comfort women\u201d(\u7279\u6b8a\u6170\u5b89\u5a66)<\/span>, \u201cmilitary comfort station employees\u201d(\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u6240\u5f93\u696d\u5a66)<\/span> and more discriminately, \u201cpeas\u201d(\u30d4\u30fc)<\/span>,\u201ccomfort natives\u201d(\u6170\u5b89\u571f\u4eba)<\/span> etc. (according to official documents).\r\n\r\nPopularization of the term \u201cmilitary comfort women\u201d<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFor a long time after the war, this issue was largely forgotten in Japanese society, although it was occasionally the subject of novels and movies. However, the term \u201cmilitary comfort women\u201d (\u5f93\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u5a66)<\/span>became popular after journalist Kak\u014d Senda published his book \u201cMilitary Comfort Women \u2013 80,000\u00a0 Accusations from Voiceless Women\u201d(\u300e\u5f93\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u5a66\u2015\u201c\u58f0\u306a\u304d\u5973\u201d\u516b\u4e07\u4eba\u306e\u544a\u767a\u300f) (Futabasha) in 1973. According to Senda, he coined the term \u201cmilitary comfort women,\u201d and the book, including its sequel, became a long seller, selling 700,000 copies (according to an interview in 2000). The term is still used today, which demonstrates the book\u2019s powerful influence.\r\n\r\nIn fact, during this period, Suzuko Shirota (pseudonym), a Japanese \u201ccomfort woman\u201d, published \u201cMaria\u2019s Hymn\u201d(\u300e\u30de\u30ea\u30a2\u306e\u8cdb\u6b4c\u300f)<\/span> in 1971, in which she confessed her past, and in 1975, Bae Bong-ki, a Korean \u201ccomfort woman\u201d in Okinawa, came to light. However, at that time in Japan, there were no social movements, women\u2019s movements, or academic research aimed at resolving this issue.\r\n\r\nSurvivor Testimonies and the Clarification of the Reality of the \u201cComfort Women\u201d system<\/strong>\r\n\r\nA major shift occurred in Asia. In 1990, a women\u2019s movement was launched in democratized South Korea, and in 1991, Kim Gak-soon came out for the first time and demanded compensation from the Japanese government, saying that she had been made a \u201ccomfort woman\u201d. This was followed by a series of simultaneous testimonies from\u3000 victims in other Asian countries. This was the #MeToo movement of the 1990s. These testimonies revealed the concrete and diverse nature of the damage caused by sexual violence on the battlefield. In addition, military archives and testimonies from former Japanese soldiers have been unearthed, and academic research has helped to clarify the reality of the situation.\r\n\r\nThe shift to the term Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn the early 1990s, the name \u201cmilitary comfort women\u201d was proposed for review at the Asia Solidarity Conference (\u300c\u30a2\u30b8\u30a2\u9023\u5e2f\u4f1a\u8b70\u300d)(formed by support groups from various countries), which sought to resolve this issue.<\/span>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe reasons for this are as follows: (1) The name \u201ccomfort women\u201d was given by the Japanese military, and the term \u201ccomfort\u201d derived only from a male (Japanese military generals) perspective, and for women it was nothing more than \u201csexual slavery,\u201d as they had no freedom to leave the comfort station, live outside, go out of business, or refuse to work. The term \u201cJapanese military\u201d was added to clarify where the responsibility lies, because the term \u201cmilitary\u201d does not make clear to which country this military belonged and implies that the women followed voluntarily.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAs the actual situation in each country became clearer, the term \u201cwartime sexual violence\u201d came to be used to distinguish the strong aspect of violent abduction, confinement and continuous rape by the Japanese military experienced by women in the occupied territories, such as China and the Philippines, from the Japanese military\u2019s \u201ccomfort women\u201d system, which was systematized and institutionalized through fraud and cajolery, as was the case of women in colonial territories. Women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military in both cases.\r\n\r\nThe International Spread of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u201cIanfu\u201d is translated into English as \u201cComfort Women,\u201d but when this issue became an international problem in January 1992, it was translated into English as \u201cSex Slaves\u201d in the foreign media, and in February of the same year, the term was used for the first time at the United Nations. The term \u201cianjyo\u201d (\u201ccomfort stations\u201d) was also translated into English. UN spokesman Gay McDougall called it an \u201cinexcusable distortion\u201d and said that rape centers were the essence of the term.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThus, since the mid-1990s, the term Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d (\/system) or \u201cJapanese military sex slaves\u201d (\/system) has been used. An example of the latter use is The Women\u2019s International War Crimes Tribunal to Try Japanese Military Sexual Slavery (\u65e5\u672c\u8ecd\u6027\u5974\u96b7\u5236\u3092\u88c1\u304f\u5973\u6027\u56fd\u969b\u6226\u72af\u6cd5\u5ef7), held in Tokyo in 2000. Thus, it can be seen that survivors\u2019 testimonies and clarification of the actual situation prompted the change in the term.<\/span>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAs mentioned above, this website refers to the Japanese military as \u201ccomfort women,\u201d with the term \u201ccomfort women\u201d added in the sense of criticism of the Japanese military, in order to clarify where the responsibility lies.\r\n\r\nPolitical Intervention by the Japanese Government<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAs a result of the above, the terms Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d and \u201cJapanese military sex slaves\u201d have become widely used in academic research (the term \u201cmilitary comfort women\u201d continues to be used by many scholars). In addition, until 2021, the term \u201cmilitary comfort women\u201d was commonly used in history textbooks. The Japanese government has intervened politically in these matters.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nFirst, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted on its website that the expression \u201csexual slavery\u201d is \u201ccontrary to the facts,\u201d and has repeatedly expressed this assertion to the international community. For example, on February 16, 2016, Shinsuke Sugiyama, Deputy Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, stated at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva that \u201cexpressions such as \u2018sex slavery\u2019 are contrary to the facts.\u201d As mentioned above, the term \u201cJapanese military sex slaves\u201d is a well-established international and academic term, and to call it \u201ccontrary to the facts\u201d is a serious issue.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nFurthermore, on April 27th<\/sup>, 2021, the Government of Japan stated, \u201cThe Government of Japan considers it appropriate to simply use the term \u2018comfort women\u2019 instead of \u2018military comfort women\u2019 or \u2018so-called military comfort women\u2019 because the use of the term \u2018military comfort women\u2019 may lead to misunderstandings. As a result, The Government of Japan has been using the term \u2018comfort women\u2019 in recent years.\u201d\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAs a fundamental issue, it is dangerous and disrespectful of historical facts for the cabinet to decide on the interpretation of history and terminology at the convenience of the current administration. It is also highly problematic that the cabinet decided to ignore the results of academic research and deny that the Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d system was forced upon women against their will, and that the term “military” should be removed with the intention of erasing the existence and responsibility of the Japanese military (as mentioned above, in recent years, the term Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d or \u201cJapanese military sex slaves\u201d has become more widely used, but the term “military comfort women\u201d is also used in academic research, and we consider it problematic that this term is denied due to political intervention).\r\n\r\nIntervention in Textbook Writing<\/strong>\r\n\r\nBased on the above cabinet decision, there has been intervention in textbook writing.\r\n\r\nIn 2014, the \u201cTextbook Authorization Standards\u201d (\u6559\u79d1\u66f8\u691c\u5b9a\u57fa\u6e96)<\/span>were revised and the following statement was added.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\u201cIn cases where there is a unified government view expressed by a cabinet decision or other means, or precedents of the Supreme Court, the text shall be written based on such rulings.\u201d\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThis is a provision that stipulates the intervention of state power in textbook writing by forcing the inclusion of government views in textbooks, and it has been pointed out as problematic.\r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\nBased on the \u201cTextbook Authorization Standards\u201d, pressure was exerted on textbook companies in 2021. In response, textbook companies submitted applications to correct the descriptions of textbooks that had already been published, such as deleting the word \u201cmilitary\u201d in \u201cmilitary comfort women,\u201d and the descriptions were changed.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, there have been requests to revise terms such as military \u201ccomfort women\u201d in the textbooks that will be used from the 2023 academic year and these descriptions have also been revised.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe above is political intervention in textbook writing, and cannot be tolerated. It is a denial of academic freedom and freedom of speech and publication, as well as a distortion of textbook writing based on empirical research for political purposes, and cannot be overlooked.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe Japanese government should embrace the historical background and its own responsibility and use the name Japanese military “comfort women”.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<References\uff1e\r\n\r\nSenda, N. (1973) Military Comfort Women \u2013 \u201cVoiceless Women\u201d 80,000 People\u2019s Accusations <\/em>(\u300e\u5f93\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u5a66\u2015\u201c<\/span>\u58f0\u306a\u304d\u5973\u201d<\/span>\u516b\u4e07\u4eba\u306e\u544a\u767a\u300f). Futabasha.<\/span>\r\n\r\nYoshimi, Y. (1993) Military Comfort Women <\/em>(\u300e\u5f93\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u5a66\u300f)<\/span>. Iwanami Shinsho.\r\n\r\nMcDougall, G. (2000) How to Judge Wartime Sexual Violence: The Complete Translation of the UN McDougall Report<\/em> (\u300e\u6226\u6642\u30fb\u6027\u66b4\u529b\u3092\u3069\u3046\u88c1\u304f\u304b\u2015<\/span>\u56fd\u9023\u30de\u30af\u30c9\u30a5\u30fc\u30ac\u30eb\u5831\u544a\u5168\u8a33\u300f). Kaiwasha, 1998, enlarged and updated edition.<\/span>\r\n\r\nKurahashi, K. (2018) Historical Revisionism and Subcultures: Media Culture of Conservative Discourse in the 1990s<\/em> (\u300e\u6b74\u53f2\u4fee\u6b63\u4e3b\u7fa9\u3068\u30b5\u30d6\u30ab\u30eb\u30c1\u30e3\u30fc\u201590\u5e74\u4ee3\u4fdd\u5b88\u8a00\u8aac\u306e\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2\u6587\u5316\u300f). Seikyusha.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This website uses the name Japanese military \u201ccomfort women\u201d instead of \u201cmilitary comfort women\u201d(\u5f93\u8ecd\u6170\u5b89\u5a66) or \u201cco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9482,"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\/11958"}],"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=11958"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12634,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11958\/revisions\/12634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}