Comfort Women (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Suzanne O'Brien (Translator) "For more than sixty years now, women enslaved by the Japanese military during the Asia Pacific War have paid a terrible price to ensure the..." (more)
Key Phrases: comfort station system, military comfort stations, licensed prostitution system, Ministry of War, Southeast Asia, Foreign Ministry (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

During the Asia Pacific War (1931-45), the Japanese government forced up to 200,000 Korean, Taiwanese, Indonesian, and other young Asian women to work as so-called comfort women, providing sexual services for the armed forces of Imperial Japan. Yoshiaki's invaluable study explodes the claims of right-wing Japanese nationalists that comfort women were merely wartime prostitutes. Citing official military records and correspondence, the author proves beyond a doubt that the victims of this monstrous system were actually sex slaves who were subjected to repetitive rape and violence. Often kidnapped or tricked by false promises of legitimate employment, the comfort women were trebly exploited as colonial subjects, members of the rural and urban poor, and women. Yoshiaki, a politically engaged scholar, analyzes the comfort-women issue against the background of Japan's prewar system of licensed prostitution and contemporary Asian sex tourism, where Japanese men continue to exploit the women of neighboring Asian countries. The translator's introduction illuminates the Japanese debate over comfort women, to which this book is an indispensable contribution. Steven I. Levine, Univ. of Montana, Missoula
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

For 10 years, Japan has been torn by the question of its moral and legal responsibility for the women from various Asian countries (primarily Korea) that its World War II military used as "comfort women." Yoshiaki, a professor of modern Japanese history at Tokyo's Chuo University, found and published the first documentary evidence that the military (not independent procurers) established and ran "comfort stations"; the angry debate stirred by the Japanese publication of his book continues because the government has not yet adequately addressed the issue. After a new introduction for U.S. readers, the volume traces the history of the military comfort station system at various stages of the war in Asia and describes how women were "rounded up" and how they lived, placing both issues in the context of international law. In addition to testimonies of surviving women, Yoshiaki combed government archives (though many relevant documents were destroyed, and others remain classified) and analyzed memoirs and biographies of men who served in the military during the war. His study considers the gender, ethnic, and class aspects of this disturbing history. Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 262 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 023112032X
• ISBN-13: 978-0231120326
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,488,382 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Longer in Silence, July 14, 2006

By	Wonro Lee (Maryland United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Comfort Women (Paperback)

I feel that this book is finally getting some recognition that it deserves. What I do find disturbing is the justification or downright arrogance of Japanese past actions. There are many jumbled facts about what has happened and the numbers of what is true. But, there is an agreeance. It did happen.

One reviewer states that a military documentation had these women earning 1000-2000 yen a month on average. According to most accounts there were 200,000 to 300,000 women in these brothels. That meant the Japanese government would have been spending anywhere from 100,000,000 yen to 600,000,000 a MONTH on these women. That's like saying the US will now spend 1/4 of the national budget on the hookers of Las Vegas to keep the populous happy. Someone must have been misinformed.

Then, another reviewer states that these women were well compensated. As if that made their lives more fulfilling or happy or extending from their OWN CHOICE. That's like saying the Japanese people that lived in the internment camps in the US were happy because the US provided a roof over their head. Not so funny when the shoe is on the other foot. Then, to have the gall to say that the Japanese soldiers tried to take care of the women with "good intentions." These women are not cattle. These women were kidnapped. They should not have been put in this situation in the first place.

These CRIMES did happen. Recently, there was an incident in Korea when a Korean actress insensitively depicted herself in photos as a comfort woman. There was outrage from the victims of these crimes because there were true victims out there. This book is not trying to sensationalize this story. Nor, is it popular subject matter. Women from these Asian countries should NOT have been kidnapped and forced into these conditions. And no one should trivialize or eradicate the suffering of these women. This book touches on a familiar subject in this country: slavery. Yoshiaki Yoshimi opens it up and exposes it for what it is.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing and Intelligent, December 12, 2000

By A Customer

It is a delight to find a scholarly work that is so accessible to non-academics. This fascinating examination of "comfort women" should be read by every WWII scholar, feminist, historian, college student, and thinking person! Particularly of interest is the critical introduction; Ms. O'Brien (who translated the book from the Japanese) has provided an excellent overview that not only examines this work but demonstrates a wide comprehension of similar works by contemporary authors. Superb.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Upfront history education helps stop the ignorance & denial, May 12, 2003

By A Customer

It is books like these which are so important to educating those who are ignorant or in stubborn denial (like Unko Tamezou) of their past history. The history of the ianfu are just one of the many war crimes from the Pacific War that Japan continues to deny and/or treat lightly. Other countries, of course, are guilty of similar injustices to their own history, but Japan's is well-known and blatant. It is my hope that books and research like these as well as the gradual rise of Japanese witnesses to these war crimes continue to make the truth be heard so that defiantly nationalist people like Unko Tamezou may learn from the wrongs of her nation's past history and truly begin to understand why Japan sets itself up as a pacifist nation.