The Basic Facts About Comfort Women - The Comfort Women Controversy

The basic fact I want you to know about the controversy surrounding comfort women is that the comfort women mainly consisted of women who worked as prostitutes of their own free will, because they could make enough money to live for the rest of their lives with 1 or 2 years of labor, when the war was going well.
When the soldiers went to military brothels, they would pay their fees individually.

However, among the comfort women, there were some who were sold into this life by their own parents because of poverty.

As the police did not give permission for comfort women to work unless they interviewed the woman first and confirmed the "willingness of the person concerned to work," even those who became comfort women for the sake of their poor parents gave their consent at that time.

Whatever the circumstances were for them becoming comfort women, after working as such on a contract of 1-2 years, they were certainly able to earn enough money to build homes in their hometowns.

There are cases where Korean proprietors, who were dealing with the Imperial Japanese military, commissioned agents to recruit prostitutes, and these agents kidnapped women and forced victims into prostitution.

If such fraud had come to life at the recruitment stage, many Korean brokers would have been arrested. (Numerous arrests in cases of employment fraud by recruiters can be found in newspaper articles of the time.)

Whatever the circumstances were for them becoming comfort women, after working as such on a contract of 1-2 years, they were certainly able to earn enough money to build homes in their hometowns.

The Japanese government accepted responsibility for this, including collective liability for soldiers who bought prostitutes, and kept on apologizing and paying compensation again and again.
The investigation of comfort women portrayed in the U.S. military report only covers the military brothels system in Burma, rather than the whole situation.

In a survey by the US government, no evidence could be found supporting the declaration by the Korean comfort women.
However, there is a large amount of evidence that the comfort women received high levels of compensation, and were treated well as prostitutes.
The only grounds for the UN resolution of condemnation is the testimony of the Korean comfort women.

Fact

"There are growing, unsubstantiated questions about whether the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped 200,000 sex-slaves (Comfort Women) in World War II. Mostly from Korea.

A $30 million US Government Study specifically searched for evidence on Comfort Women allegations. After nearly seven years with many dozens of staff pouring through US archives -- and 30 million dollars down the drain -- we found a grand total of nothing. The final IWG report to Congress was issued in 2007."
--Michael Yon (journalist)

http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/final-report-2007.pdf

★Please see the site below for the declaration by the Japan side.

nadesiko-action.org

What'is“Comfort Women.”BASIC FACTS

http://nadesiko-action.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/pocketbook.pdf

US Office of War Information No.49

http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html

For further details, please listen to the contentions of the international politics scholar in this video.

youtu.be

For example, in “I was a “comfort woman” for the TATESHIDAN in the Burma Campaign”, an autobiography written by former comfort woman, Mun Okucyu, there is a description about an occasion where, while living as a comfort woman in Burma, she went to an officer's club, where she received a lot of tips from the officers, and saved 500 yen at a field post office.

Below is an extract from the book:-

With 1,000 yen, I can buy a small house in Daegu. I can make my mother’s life a bit easier. I felt proud and really happy. The savings passbook became my treasure. (P.76)

Burma was a large producer of gemstones, so you could buy stones like rubies and jade cheaply. (Omission) I thought I had better get one, so I took the plunge and bought a diamond. (P.107)

I showed the telegram to the officer, and told him that I wanted to send money for my mother’s funeral, and he gave me permission. I withdrew money from my account and sent 5,000 yen. (P.137~138)

5,000 yen was a significant amount, with which you could buy several houses in Japan in those days, and it was impossible with the average income for a 21 year-old female.

In 1992 Mun Okucyu filed a suit to withdraw money from the wartime post office account, and the recorded balance of the wartime post office account was 26,145 yen.