The Origins of the US Army’s Korean Comfort Women

Abstract

Abstract: US Army’s Korean Comfort Women

This book was written by Professor Ch’oe Kil-song, who experienced the Korean War when he was ten years old. He was born and grew up in a village about 40 kilometers north of Seoul. He witnessed the goings-on of the liberators-to-be US-led UN Army. They perpetrated dreadful acts of sexual violence against women in his village. The only solution open the residents to solve this problem was to allow prostitution in the village.
Moved by this experience, he discusses the Korean government-approved comfort station in his village that was set-up specifically for comfort women that serviced the US Army, war, sex and prostitution, the transformation of Korean society after the war, and more, from a wide range of viewpoints.
Chapter 5 of this book cites key contents from the book entitled "Diary of a Japanese Military Brothel Manager," which was published in Korea in August 2013. The Korean author of the diary was in the brothel business, once a manger and then a brothel proprietor. It can be assumed that the diary reflects the reality of overseas comfort stations, which were run in almost the same manner as domestic brothels. One should note his earnings. He sent home anywhere from ￥500 or 600 or ￥2000. This shows his earnings were quite high, considering that the monthly pay of a Japanese private first class soldier was ￥10. The diary is valuable primary source material that illustrates the daily activities of a wartime Japanese military comfort station and the comfort women who worked in them.