U.S. publisher: Japan forcefully recruited comfort women

A high school world history textbook published by McGraw Hill, a large American publisher, described that the Japanese army forcefully recruited comfort women.

According to the Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese right-wing newspaper, on Monday, a chapter titled “Traditions and Exchanges” covered past wars and shared one page for comfort women. It described the forced nature of comfort women that the Japanese army forced about 200,000 women aged between 14 and 20 to become comfort women to send them to military brothels.

In addition, the textbook also included that some comfort women were killed after their failed attempt to escape; a majority of them were from Korea and China; when the war was over, the Japanese army killed many comfort women to hide evidence; the Japanese army sent comfort women to the military saying they are the gifts from the Japanese emperor. The textbook is used in public high schools in Los Angeles and its neighboring areas in California.

The Sankei Shimbun said all of them are "false." The Japanese newspaper said, “As the anti-Japanese activities initiated by Korea and China spread, the perception that is not based on facts is penetrating into U.S. schools as facts. The Japanese government is expected to request a correction to the publisher.”