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

Caroline Norma

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781350040014
• eBook ISBN: 9781472507808
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents 
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: The First Victims
• 1. Scapegoat Survivors: Japanese Comfort Women and the Contemporary Justice Movement
• 2. The Taisho Democratization of Prostitution
• 3. The 1930s Militarization of Civilian Prostitution
• 4. The Military Democratization of Prostitution
• 5. Japan’s Imperial Sex Industries and the Trafficking of Colonial Prostituted Women into Comfort Stations
• 6. Okinawan Prostituted Women and Comfort Stations at War’s End
• Conclusion: Sexual Slavery and the Crucible of Contemporary Japan
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint