Definition of 'comfort women'

By Maija Devine

Say “Comfort Women,” and watch the sparks fly. Inaccurate wordings pour out. For decades, academics and media professionals, among others, have indiscriminately flung around the terms “comfort women,” “camp followers,” “prostitutes,” “sex workers,” and “human trafficking victims.”

Similarities do run through these groups. However, when one analyzes elements, as listed below, the differences between each group may become more clearly distinguishable.

The Comfort Women of WWII: (1) The Japanese government established the use of the women as a systematized, formalized, and large-scale (not matched by any other governments) part of its overall military operation; (2) The Japanese military indirectly and directly forced or coerced recruitment of women and girls, a majority of whom were not already sex workers; (3) The military provided transportation (including military ships and vehicles); (4) The military provided management over housing, security and food and other supplies; (5) The military printed tickets as a means of payment to the women, supposedly to be converted to cash after the war (they were not readily tradable with currency, and, at war’s end, they became worthless); (6) In post-war maneuvers, the military abandoned, relocated or murdered the women (for a limited number, Japanese authorities disguised them as nurses to cover up the government’s involvement with comfort women and assisted with their escape).

Some professional sex workers were mixed in with comfort women. This has caused the general public and media alike to use the terms of prostitutes, sex workers, and comfort women interchangeably.

Since ancient times, “camp followers” in wars were almost always volunteers (including family members of soldiers), who performed services not provided by a government or military, such as nursing, mending, laundry work and cooking. Sexual services, which were not provided by a government or military, were offered by camp-following prostitutes operating on their own or with brokers. These women received pay in currency directly from their clients, unlike comfort women of WWII, who were “paid” in government-printed tickets. Sometimes, government or military provided medical and security supervision to camp followers to minimize health hazards for its soldiers.

Considering the difficulty of distinguishing these groups, it’s almost understandable when in the “Introduction” of U.S. Military Report #49, the U.S. soldiers who interrogated Korean comfort women along the Burma border in 1944 incorrectly categorized them as “camp followers, or professional prostitutes.” Such misnaming has caused pro-Japanese activists to hold up the quote out of context as evidence that the Korean comfort women were prostitutes. The activists send e-blasts (with a photo) propagating how the women followed Japanese military camps with smiles on their faces. However, the rest of the report clearly describes the recruitment and treatment of the women that fit the description of the comfort women of WWII, rather than camp followers or professional prostitutes.

On Vietnamese “comfort women,” reports of extreme abuse by Korean soldiers have made news. However, no documentation to date identifies the Korean government or military as the agent for the establishment of a comfort women system as a formal military policy or as the provider of operational control over recruitment, transportation, housing and supplies, management, payment and the post-war dealings with victims.

Likewise, prostitutes working around U.S. military bases in South Korea and elsewhere do not meet the definition of wartime comfort women.

Victims of ongoing human trafficking have similarities to comfort women of WWII, both being victims of brokers who use force and deception. But, while bribery and corruption exist, no government or military seems systematically and officially involved in the establishment, transportation and operational phases.

Generating a universally agreed-upon dictionary of terms should be the first task for all committed to finding a permanent resolution to comfort women issues.

The author of an autobiographical novel about Korea, "The Voices of Heaven," and a poetry book, "Long Walks on Short Days," She is working on her next books ― a nonfiction book and a novel about comfort women of WWII. Contact: www.MaijaRheeDevine.com or maijadevine@gmail.com.