'Japanese police saw sex slave mobilization as crime'
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Documents drawn up by Japanese police in 1938 indicate they considered the mobilization of sex slaves for the Japanese military as “abductions.” / Courtesy of Kim Moon-gil
By Kim Bo-eun
Kim Moon-gil, Chief of Korea-Japan Cultural Studies Institute
Newly disclosed documents from Japanese police in 1938 indicate the police considered the mobilization of sex slaves before and during World War II as “abductions” and investigated the cases.
Kim Moon-gil, chief of the Korea-Japan Cultural Studies Institute and honorary professor at Busan University of Foreign Studies, unveiled the documents, Sunday. Kim found the documents at a state university in Japan.
The documents were drawn up by police of Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture on Feb. 7, 1938.
Addressed to Japan’s Department of Interior, the documents state that police came across three suspicious men in a commercial district of the prefecture on Jan. 6, 1938.
“You need not be suspicious. We have been ordered by military authorities to send women to brothels for the Imperial Army. We have been ordered to send 3,000 and so far we have put 70 on army ships departing from Nagasaki to Shanghai under the protection of military police,” the documents state the men as telling the police.
The documents state the men “face charges of abduction,” as they “told unsuspecting women they would be paid well, fed, clothed and provided a place to stay as long as they comforted soldiers.”
The three men are referred to as “suspects,” and their names and statuses are recorded.
Documents drawn up by Japanese police in 1938 indicate they considered the mobilization of sex slaves for the Japanese military as “abductions.” / Courtesy of Kim Moon-gil
After the documents were sent to the interior department, the Nagasaki police _ which acted as an agent _ responded to the documents from the Wakayama police.
“The abduction case concerns the mobilization of comfort women for the imperial army,” the response said. “This is happening not only in Japan but also in Joseon (Korea).”
At the time, the military held utmost authority, and police were ordered to follow their orders, Kim told The Korea Times, Sunday. “From these documents we are able to tell that before Japanese police knew about the military’s involvement, they considered the mobilization of comfort women as criminal,” Kim said in a telephone interview.
“Japan has been denying the forceful nature of the mobilization but the documents serve as concrete evidence of the coercion.”
The unveiling comes in time for the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women, which falls today, and Liberation Day, which marks Korea’s independence from Japanese occupation on Aug. 15, 1945.
In December 2015, Korea and Japan signed a deal to put the issue of comfort women to rest, with the latter providing 1 billion yen in state funds for victims. However, it did not clearly state its legal responsibility in mobilizing the women for sex slavery.