ID :
96067
Mon, 12/21/2009 - 09:31
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/96067
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260 memoirs published 1990-2006 detail wartime sex slavery+
TOKYO, Dec. 20 Kyodo - About 260 memoirs from World War II published between 1990 and 2006 contain specific references to the Japanese military's wartime brothels in which so-called ''comfort women'' were forced to provide sexual services to military personnel, and sexual violence at the battlefront, the Center for Research and
Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility said Sunday.
The center, made up mainly of researchers, said that from the books it was able
to newly identify the locations of 35 brothels in countries such as China and
Indonesia, in addition to the more than 700 sites discovered earlier.
''There are many specific descriptions, perhaps because people became conscious
of the issue,'' said Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a Chuo University professor who analyzed
the documents, referring to a series of lawsuits filed in the 1990s by former
comfort women against the Japanese government seeking apologies and damages.
''They are valuable data as some of them point out the (Japanese) military's
deep involvement,'' Yoshimi said.
The books, containing references to interviews of comfort women by military
police offices as well as drawings of brothels, were among around 2,000 World
War II chronicles and memoirs held at the National Diet Library that the center
surveyed from March to June.
A former military police officer who interviewed a woman from the Korean
Peninsula in China wrote in one of the books, ''When I asked her, 'Do you know
what kind of work you will do?' she replied, 'Entertain soldiers,' and so there
were only a few women who were clearly aware that they would get laid by
soldiers.''
In a memoir, a former military doctor who was assigned to Indonesia included a
chart of the brothels' operational system headed by a commanding officer, while
a former private first class assigned to China wrote that the military was
''practically supervising'' the brothels.
Because such references were mostly contained in personal memoirs and rarely
mentioned in more prominent sources such as chronicles of troop activities,
Chuo University's Yoshimi said, ''There is a possibility that restrictions
imposed by groups such as war comrades associations were at work.''
Of the 35 newly located brothel sites, 24 were in China, three in Indonesia,
two each in Taiwan and Myanmar, and one each in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and
the Philippines, the center said.
''There must have been even more places where brothels were set up,'' Yoshimi
said. ''It remains a matter for further research.''
==Kyodo
Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility said Sunday.
The center, made up mainly of researchers, said that from the books it was able
to newly identify the locations of 35 brothels in countries such as China and
Indonesia, in addition to the more than 700 sites discovered earlier.
''There are many specific descriptions, perhaps because people became conscious
of the issue,'' said Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a Chuo University professor who analyzed
the documents, referring to a series of lawsuits filed in the 1990s by former
comfort women against the Japanese government seeking apologies and damages.
''They are valuable data as some of them point out the (Japanese) military's
deep involvement,'' Yoshimi said.
The books, containing references to interviews of comfort women by military
police offices as well as drawings of brothels, were among around 2,000 World
War II chronicles and memoirs held at the National Diet Library that the center
surveyed from March to June.
A former military police officer who interviewed a woman from the Korean
Peninsula in China wrote in one of the books, ''When I asked her, 'Do you know
what kind of work you will do?' she replied, 'Entertain soldiers,' and so there
were only a few women who were clearly aware that they would get laid by
soldiers.''
In a memoir, a former military doctor who was assigned to Indonesia included a
chart of the brothels' operational system headed by a commanding officer, while
a former private first class assigned to China wrote that the military was
''practically supervising'' the brothels.
Because such references were mostly contained in personal memoirs and rarely
mentioned in more prominent sources such as chronicles of troop activities,
Chuo University's Yoshimi said, ''There is a possibility that restrictions
imposed by groups such as war comrades associations were at work.''
Of the 35 newly located brothel sites, 24 were in China, three in Indonesia,
two each in Taiwan and Myanmar, and one each in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and
the Philippines, the center said.
''There must have been even more places where brothels were set up,'' Yoshimi
said. ''It remains a matter for further research.''
==Kyodo
