Methods of “Recruitment” There were various ways in which the Japanese Military “recruited” woman for comfort stations. It is important to first understand that in no document of the very few found on the recruitment of women to comfort stations was there any mention of women consenting to either recruitment or what they were required to do once in the stations. This is important when reflecting on the social situations in which victims encountered post-war. The recruitment of comfort women is used by many “anti-apologists”, people who think Japanese responsibility for comfort stations should be extinguished, believe that accepting the offer by recruiters to leave the village constitutes consent. One of the ways that women were recruited …show more content…
According to the U.S. Office of War Interrogation Report No. 49, many Korean women were informed that comfort service consisted of “visiting wounded soldiers to make them happy” causing ma many Korean women enlisted on the basis of these misrepresentations. It is important to note that many earlier comfort stations employed the use of Japanese professionals (prostitutes) but this slowly transitioned to a point that after 1939, few comfort women were of Japanese descent. Many women were not deceived, but forcibly taken from their homes or internment camps. Women were threatened with the destruction of their villages and violence against the elders and children. Actions were taken against those who resisted, family member who tried to prevent their daughters and wives from being taken away would be murdered. The Japanese military employed various forms of violence with the sole purpose of increasing the number of women for the comfort stations. These women did not receive jobs promised, in many cases did not protect their family by going but were forced to live in harsh conditions without any autonomy over their lives or bodies. The de-humanization and treatment of these women as military supplies …show more content…
During the Second World War there were atrocities so profound, that current vocabulary was not adequate to described them. With this the world was introduced to the terms “genocide” and “holocaust”, but what language should be used when referencing the women affected by comfort station? It is not like wartime brothels were an anomaly of this war, so does the label “prostitute” suffice? Though a small amount of women in comfort stations were professional prostitutes, the majority of women who were recruited into these comfort stations did not have knowledge of what waited for them. Even in recent years, neo-nationalist attempt to claim that comfort women were simply prostitutes following Japan’s Military. Sarah Soh argues that the masculinist representation of the women involved in these sex crimes as prostitutes merely attempts to preclude humanitarian recognition of the violence committed. Prostitution generally involves three elements: (1) some degree of sexual activity or conduct, (2) compensation, and (3) intent to commit prostitution. These women were coerced with
The book Fly Boys written by James Bradley gives us many different stories and viewpoints during WWII. During this time Japan was in the dark compared to china or the U.S. They didn't like outside influences and thought the gaizin were ruining their religious beliefs, but the Japanese reacted to this in a bad way. The Japanese army was at war with china and would not only captured chinese soldiers but would also take the women from china. They would rape the women and spread disease from soldier to soldier. The reason for the spread of disease is that “ 1 women for every 35 soldiers,”(Bradley 61) and they viewed the women as military supplies. They kept the women for months on end and would only give them one day off to be checked by doctors.
The Fifteen-Year War was a time of great turmoil and uncertainty in Japan. Various facets of the country were tested and driven to their limits. During the occupation, race and gender began to evolve in ways that had not exactly be seen before. War had a tremendous impact on every part of the life of a Japanese citizen. Both men and women began to fill roles that were completely novel to them. Race became a part of the definition of who people were. As the war progressed and American troops landed on Japanese soil for occupation, more drastic changes occurred. Economic hardship and rations befell the people of the Land of the Rising Sun. Prostitution began to rear its ugly head and rape transpired. Through memory, research, and vivid
“We were sitting on a bus-stop bench in Long Beach when an old, embittered woman stopped and said, why don’t all you dirty Japs go back to Japan! She spit at us and passed on. We said nothing at the time. After she stalked off down the sidewalk we did not look at each other.”-Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. Experiencing discrimination proved normal for numerous East Asian descendants living in the U.S during World War 2. Author of the book Farewell to Manzanar Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston lived as the victim of an immoral and unfair circumstance forced upon by the “land of the free” back in March 1942. Houston and her family are among the thousand East Asian’s forced into internment camps on March 25th, 1942.
This investigation will be completed by analyzing media sources from the time as primary sources to better understand how society felt about women taking part in the war. First, Knowledge about how woman were essential in war will be gained through biographies and research of women’s war organizations. Then legal documents and books will be used to research woman’s rights after the war. Lastly research from both categories will be synthesized in order to answer the research question.
Many people have never considered what women were doing in WWII when their husbands left to fight. Their lives weren’t easy or normal during the war. Women had to work just as hard as men, sometimes even more so. In this essay, I will discuss the position of American women before World War II, during the war, and at the end of the war.
Tsurumi says that only three options were given to most young women in Japan in the Meiji period: work at a textile mill, weaving house, or a house of prostitution. Tsurumi says that women in all three cases had effectively been “sold” by their parents into the workforce, and were without the ability to choose where they wished to work (Tsurumi, 187). To detail even further, Tsurumi says that girls working in any of these fields were effectively “purchased commodities” to their employers, and were treated as objects (Tsurumi, 188). This continues to support the idea that these women were victims of a society determined to society’s vulnerable populations for their labor and ignore their humanity. Despite this, the women of Japan’s textile mills worked tirelessly in harsh circumstances in an effort to support their families, and, as a result, also supported the larger local and national communities of which they were a part. In conclusion, Tsurimi says that a woman working in Japan’s textile mills “made [her contributions to the industrialized economy] for her family and herself, and not for the country or company” (Tsurumi, 198). Even if their contribution was not intentional, however, the impact the factory girls of Meiji Era Japan had on the industrialization of Japan’s economy is irrefutable, and showcases
Chinese and Filipina women were lured into these sexual schemes by not just deceit, but by force as well. Recruiters used violence and often kidnapping to get these women. While the Japanese forces had occupied China, they used Korean women for their authorized comfort stations for fear of anti-Japanese resentment among Chinese civilians. However, this did not stop some Japanese from setting up comfort stations using Chinese women. These unofficial comfort stations were not given approval from higher Japanese authority. “The Japanese army adopted the tactics called Shodo-Sakusen which meant scorched earth strategy” (p.46). This meant that the army could destroy any village if ordered too which of course included the rape of women. This is an account of a 15 year old Chinese girl who along with other girls, was abducted and separated from her family. “Day after day they were raped by Japanese soldiers in the cave. Each day she was raped by at least two or three soldiers sometimes by 10 soldiers. The cave was guarded by Chinese collaborators, making it impossible to escape. She was often taken to an officer’s room in the fortress and raped there, too” (p.46). The Japanese also occupied the regions of the Philippines and Filipina women were kidnapped and abducted as well by force and were used as comfort women. The Filipino’s had a lot of anti-Japanese guerilla movements
The U.S. internment of people of Japanese descent during the 1940s was a major event in U.S. history, but it is often overlooked by many. It affected hundreds of thousands of people of Japanese descent, whether they were citizens or not. The incarceration of those placed in camps was affected mentally and it caused many of the internees to develop PTSD or otherwise commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder (Potts, 1994, p. 1). The camps affected how the Japanese were viewed in society during the time period of the camps and following the liberation of them. It also changed how the Japanese viewed society. This paper will focus on the cultural and social aspects of the Internal Improvements.
Women served an important role in WWII. They not only took the challenge and stepped up to take the places of the men off fighting in the war to work in factories, but they also fought side by side with those risking their lives and fighting for their country. They were needed everywhere during the war. There were an unbelievable amount of job opportunities for women during the war and many supported the brave acts of voluntary enlistment. “‘A woman’s place is in the home’ was an old adage, but it still held true at the start of World War II. Even though millions of women worked, home and family we considered the focus of their lives” says Brenda Ralf Lewis. Without the help of those women who were brave enough to
During World War II, thousands of women in various nations were deeply involved in volunteer work alongside men. Before World War II, the women’s role was simply to be a wife to her husband, a mother to her children, and a caretaker to the house (Barrow). As World War II raged on, women made enormous sacrifices for their family, and also learnt new jobs and new skills. Women were needed to fill many “male jobs”, while men went off to fight in the war. Women served with distinction in The Soviet Union, Britain, Japan, United States, and Germany and were urged to join armed forces, work in factories, hospitals, and also farms to support the soldiers fighting the war. During this time, women took on the dual
Towards the beginning chapter four, “Cultures of Defeat” (p. 121), Dower portrayed the transformative effects of defeat as Japanese women tried to remake their identity through the world of prostitution. Before the war, traditional Japanese families created a reaction against lust, for it was appropriate for them to embrace an asexual traditional of national loyalty and family piety. However, this mindset changed. Under the Occupation, the world of prostitution became a place of sexual exploitation that allowed for a growth of interracial desire, which deteriorated racial stereotypes. For example, between Japan’s surrender and the arrival of United States forces, the Japanese
Women, regardless of the opposition, were determined to support their armies and their beliefs even on the battlefield. The North and South armies of the country were fighting without proper organization from their respective governments, leading women to volunteer to help their men in whatever manner they could. Contributing to the war effort, women were “responsible for much of the clothing, feeding, and nursing of the soldiers.”18 Women would cook and do the laundry for the soldiers, working in camps away from the battlefield. Other women would provide comfort for the dying soldiers, nurturing the wounded and staying with the men who were dying until their last moments. Their efforts were to offset the fact that the wounded men were separated from their loved ones and “represented domestic tranquility in the midst of armed conflict.”19 Women were not prohibited from nursing injured soldiers because it was “not yet a profession requiring special training…care of the sick and injured was traditionally a female skill”20. Nursing was not the only important contribution that women provided during the war. They also worked within their communities to make up for the men who had left to fight in the war, managing homes and plantations,
In Yamato, even nurses and cooks on the battleship were male soldiers. Women in Japan cheered their male family members when they were selected by the army, and they waited for men until they came back. Some women realized that a war was killing their family and friends, but they could not deny the duties of the army.
One of the most important roles that women played, were the increasing large amount of female soldiers fighting in the war. These roles gave women the right to work and serve in armed forces. The jobs that women took part in during this time period made a huge difference in the war, and in turn, WW2 helped expand women’s
Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined takes place at Mama Nadi’s brothel in the Congo where a civil war is being waged and coltan is the new gold being mined from the earth. Mama Nadi reluctantly takes Sophie and Salima into her establishment to work alongside Josephine as entertainment for miners and soldiers. Before coming to Mama Nadi’s, Sophie, Josephine, Salima all experienced rape. The word rape is so common in our society that it has lost its intensity and heinousness to a person who has not experienced it. Rape is a general term to describe what the women experienced but it does not give any hint to the struggle that comes after the event. For example, what it does to a person’s mind, the lasting scars on someone’s body, and how it can change a person’s personality. Many critics assume that rape is the tragedy in the play, but Nottage’s use of the word “ruined” emphasizes that the real tragedy is the consequences of those soldier’s actions on these women 's lives and how it affected their interactions with society.