The Truth about the Question of “Comfort Women”

Abstract

The Truth about the Question of “Comfort Women”
Extremely distorted information prevails in the world concerning the “comfort women” and their
working for the Japanese army during the World War Ⅱ. They are perceived as “sex slaves,”
being coerced to provide sexual service to soldiers. But this is a completely false notion. They
were just prostitutes doing legally permitted business, employed by commercial brothels adjacent
to military facilities. Their earnings were generally very high, more than ten times as much as
that of soldiers. A US military document records the deposition of three Korean civilians in the
employment of the Japanese army as “If any women had been the victims of coercion, all Koreans
both young and old would have risen up in rage, and regardless of whatever retaliation, killed
Japanese.” No such revolt took place, simply because no coercion or the forced taking of women
occurred. The article illustrates how the false story was created and spread by a particular group
of people and the truth behind the “comfort women”.