Chinese document: Japan deceived Korean women into sex slaves

A document which has been kept by the Chinese government confirmed that the Japanese imperial army in the 1940s forcibly took some 2,000 Korean women for the purpose of sex slave. It turned out that back then, Japan lied to Korean women that they were going to work for restaurants.

According to China Internet Information Center, a web portal authorized by the People`s Republic of China, an archive in Heilongjiang revealed that “In October, 1941, Japanese imperial army opened a military comfort station in Mudanjiang Suiyang where they forced dozens of Korean women to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers,” disclosing a document that is related to Manzhouguo, Japanese puppet state.

The documents of No. 890 and No. 1064, which were disclosed by the archive, explain that General Takahashi at border patrol in Suiyang told General Suifenhe that “These women are some of 2,000 who were forcibly mobilized from Korea.” The documents, in particular, have exposed that Japanese army deceived Korean women into working at the comfort station by saying that they would work at “a dedicated restaurant for Japanese soldiers.” The documents had such specific information as establishment process of stations which were disguised as restaurants and its date, comfort women for different military ranks and even “entertainment time” that was allowed.

The documents of “comfort women” disclosed by the archive in Heilongjiang are some of 96 documents, which include the information about “special transportation” and “forced immigration” of people arrested for vivisection. In total, seven documents include information on comfort women.

“The documents were discovered from the ones delivered by Japan to Manzhouguo, Japanese puppet state. The only sexual slave system in the world war history, this is the most cruel and atrocious crime in that it violated female human rights, and physically and mentally plundered Korean women,” Qi Xiujuan, head of the archive in Heilongjiang, pointed out.

bonhong@donga.com