Expert says experiment began well before World War II
By Kang Hyun-kyung
An expert on wartime sex slavery has hit out at the Shinzo Abe administration's revisionist claims regarding the Kono Statement, noting Japan took the initiative in operating comfort stations before World War II.
Yun Chung-ok, a retired professor from Ewha Womans University, characterized the "comfort women" system as "the worst form of wartime crime."
Yun, 89, said many victims were underage and that the Japanese government was heavily involved in coercing and transporting them to overseas comfort stations.
Yun claimed Japan had prepared long before World War II to coerce and mobilize Korean girls to provide sexual services for the military.
"After (the Russo-Japanese) war, Japan remained reluctant to disclose how many Japanese soldiers were actually killed during the war," she told the Korea Times on Sunday.
"This was because they were embarrassed that the number of Japanese soldiers who died of sexually transmitted diseases was greater than those killed on the battlefield.
"There used to be military prostitutes at that time, and many Japanese soldiers were infected with sexually transmitted diseases (because they didn't receive proper medical treatment)."
Yun said she obtained this information in the 1990s from a female Japanese writer familiar with the comfort women system.
The former leader of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan said the woman also told her that a small library near Sapporo, Hokkaido, had documents to support her claims.
Yun claimed that after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), the Japanese government assigned a team to research how many men a woman could sexually service each day.
"And they found that younger, healthier and unmarried women can deal with more men per day than their married, older counterparts," she said.
"If these three conditions were met, they found a woman could deal with up to 27 men a day.
"Based on these results, the Japanese government recruited and mobilized teenage Korean girls and forced them to provide sexual services for the military against their will."
Since the 1990s, Yun has interviewed World War II comfort women survivors in Japan, northeastern China, Palau and Myanmar.
One of her interviewees was the late Bae Bong-gi, who for the first time disclosed what she went through at a comfort station in Okinawa.
Yun gave copies of the interview to the media to raise public awareness of the issue.
Crimes against children
In August 1991, another comfort woman, Kim Hak-sun (1924-1997), said she was forced to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers at a comfort station in China in 1939. She was 15 when she was taken there.
Since then, several comfort women survivors, who were taken to stations overseas when they were teenagers, have told what they went through.
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan said the youngest victim was 12 when she was forced to provide sex for the Japanese military.
In a speech before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1995, Karen Parker, a San Francisco-based human rights lawyer, said the average comfort girl was raped 7,500 times during three years of service at a comfort station.
Parker obtained such results after calculating that each victim was raped an average 10 times a day, five days a week — 2,500 times a year.
"Mr. Chairman, how much compensation do you think ought to be paid to a woman who was raped 7,500 times?" Parker said.
"What would the members of the commission want for their daughters if their daughters had been raped even once?
"China, Korea, Philippines, Netherlands and Burma, these are your daughters."
A diplomatic spat regarding comfort women was reignited recently after the Abe government released details of its investigation into the Kono Statement of 1993, in which the Japanese government admitted its previous role in recruiting women to provide sexual services for the Japanese military.
But the Abe government denied the government's role and the coercive character of the comfort women system. It claimed the Kono Statement was the result of a political compromise with Korea.
Japan posted its report on the foreign ministry website.
This drew heavy criticism from those familiar with the wartime crimes, because there is data to support the Japanese government role in coercing teenage girls.
In 1992, Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a Japanese professor of Chuo University, released documents from the Defense Library proving the government's direct role in maintaining a large network of comfort stations overseas.
One of these documents was classified correspondence between Japanese troops stationed in China in 1938 and the War Ministry regarding the need for comfort stations.
After World War II, the War Ministry directed its officials to destroy all documents related to comfort women.
Most of the records disappeared, but some still remain.
By Kang Hyun-kyung
 |
| Yun Chung-ok, retired professor from Ewha Womans University |
Yun Chung-ok, a retired professor from Ewha Womans University, characterized the "comfort women" system as "the worst form of wartime crime."
Yun, 89, said many victims were underage and that the Japanese government was heavily involved in coercing and transporting them to overseas comfort stations.
Yun claimed Japan had prepared long before World War II to coerce and mobilize Korean girls to provide sexual services for the military.
"After (the Russo-Japanese) war, Japan remained reluctant to disclose how many Japanese soldiers were actually killed during the war," she told the Korea Times on Sunday.
"This was because they were embarrassed that the number of Japanese soldiers who died of sexually transmitted diseases was greater than those killed on the battlefield.
"There used to be military prostitutes at that time, and many Japanese soldiers were infected with sexually transmitted diseases (because they didn't receive proper medical treatment)."
Yun said she obtained this information in the 1990s from a female Japanese writer familiar with the comfort women system.
The former leader of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan said the woman also told her that a small library near Sapporo, Hokkaido, had documents to support her claims.
Yun claimed that after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), the Japanese government assigned a team to research how many men a woman could sexually service each day.
"And they found that younger, healthier and unmarried women can deal with more men per day than their married, older counterparts," she said.
"If these three conditions were met, they found a woman could deal with up to 27 men a day.
"Based on these results, the Japanese government recruited and mobilized teenage Korean girls and forced them to provide sexual services for the military against their will."
Since the 1990s, Yun has interviewed World War II comfort women survivors in Japan, northeastern China, Palau and Myanmar.
One of her interviewees was the late Bae Bong-gi, who for the first time disclosed what she went through at a comfort station in Okinawa.
Yun gave copies of the interview to the media to raise public awareness of the issue.
Crimes against children
In August 1991, another comfort woman, Kim Hak-sun (1924-1997), said she was forced to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers at a comfort station in China in 1939. She was 15 when she was taken there.
Since then, several comfort women survivors, who were taken to stations overseas when they were teenagers, have told what they went through.
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan said the youngest victim was 12 when she was forced to provide sex for the Japanese military.
In a speech before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1995, Karen Parker, a San Francisco-based human rights lawyer, said the average comfort girl was raped 7,500 times during three years of service at a comfort station.
Parker obtained such results after calculating that each victim was raped an average 10 times a day, five days a week — 2,500 times a year.
"Mr. Chairman, how much compensation do you think ought to be paid to a woman who was raped 7,500 times?" Parker said.
"What would the members of the commission want for their daughters if their daughters had been raped even once?
"China, Korea, Philippines, Netherlands and Burma, these are your daughters."
A diplomatic spat regarding comfort women was reignited recently after the Abe government released details of its investigation into the Kono Statement of 1993, in which the Japanese government admitted its previous role in recruiting women to provide sexual services for the Japanese military.
But the Abe government denied the government's role and the coercive character of the comfort women system. It claimed the Kono Statement was the result of a political compromise with Korea.
Japan posted its report on the foreign ministry website.
This drew heavy criticism from those familiar with the wartime crimes, because there is data to support the Japanese government role in coercing teenage girls.
In 1992, Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a Japanese professor of Chuo University, released documents from the Defense Library proving the government's direct role in maintaining a large network of comfort stations overseas.
One of these documents was classified correspondence between Japanese troops stationed in China in 1938 and the War Ministry regarding the need for comfort stations.
After World War II, the War Ministry directed its officials to destroy all documents related to comfort women.
Most of the records disappeared, but some still remain.
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