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.

Caroline Norma is Lecturer in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Making abundant use of survivor testimony - Japanese victims included - Caroline Norma makes clear the need to continue to learn from the violence endemic to Japan's history of state-sponsored sexual slavery many decades ago. The current day incidences of sexual slavery as a weapon of war makes this history more urgent than ever. * Alexis Dudden, University of Connecticut, USA *