The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars

Description

The Japanese military was responsible for the sexual enslavement of thousands of women and girls in Asia and the Pacific during the China and Pacific wars under the guise of providing ‘comfort’ for battle-weary troops. Campaigns for justice and reparations for ‘comfort women’ since the early 1990s have highlighted the magnitude of the human rights crimes committed against Korean, Chinese and other Asian women by Japanese soldiers after they invaded the Chinese mainland in 1937. These campaigns, however, say little about the origins of the system or its initial victims. The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars explores the origins of the Japanese military’s system of sexual slavery and illustrates how Japanese women were its initial victims. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: The First Victims Structure of the discussion Underpinnings of the discussion Abolitionist terms of the discussion What was the comfort station system of military sexual slavery? Why focus on prostituted victims of military sexual slavery? Contemporary comfort women 1. Scapegoat Survivors: Japanese Comfort Women and the Contemporary Justice Movement Scapegoating as a methodological framework The abolitionist history of the ‘justice for comfort women’ movement Prostituted victims in the rhetoric of right-wing defenders of the Japanese military Progressive scapegoating of prostituted victims of the wartime system ‘Sex worker rights’ discourse in Japan in the 1990s Myths about Japanese comfort station survivors Radical historical critique 2. The Taisho Democratization of Prostitution The Japanese ‘New Woman’ The dark valley of prostitution Ideological resistance to a prostitution ‘dark valley’ Th e sex industry boom of the Taisho era Trafficking: The sex industry supply chain of the Taisho era The prostitution of girls Geisha sector prostitution Women’s experience of brothels in the Taisho era Accounts of Taisho-era civilian sexual slavery Conclusion 3. The 1930s Militarization of Civilian Prostitution Military co-optation of Japan’s civilian economy and society Civilian prostitution and the shaping of male sexuality Behavioural antecedents of military sexual slavery Pornography consumption among military men Civilian sex industry response to military demand Total war mobilization and Japan’s civilian sex industry Conclusion 4. The Military Democratization of Prostitution The pre-war trafficking of prostituted women out of Japan The deployment of men out of Japan The military democratization of prostitution Military export of prostitution demand Democratized access to prostitution Democratized prostitution rights and the ‘catharsis effect’ Intra-military transmission of a ‘prostitution sexuality’ Conclusion 5. Japan’s Imperial Sex Industries and the Trafficking of Colonial Prostituted Women into Comfort Stations Women who are forced and women who choose Japanese development of Korea’s colonial sex industry The pre-war trafficking of Korean women out of the colonial sex industry Japanese development of Taiwan’s colonial sex industry Conclusion 6. Okinawan Prostituted Women and Comfort Stations at War’s End Condemning military sexual slavery for its lack of prostituted victims Prostituted victims till the very end Japanese prostituted women on Okinawa Conclusion Conclusion: Sexual Slavery and the Crucible of Contemporary Japan The Taisho era rebooted? Scapegoated victims of military sexual slavery Military reductionism A historical view of civilian sexual slavery Notes Bibliography Index