The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War - Hardcover

Hicks, George L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393038076 ISBN 13: 9780393038071

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1995

Synopsis

Reveals how the Japanese military forced more than one hundred thousand women into involuntary prostitution, the devastating impact on these women's lives, the official Japanese cover-up, and the painful testimonies of how many women survived and found the courage to tell their stories.

About this title

Review:

One of the ravages of war has always been rape, but in the 1930s and '40s the Imperial Japanese Forces made it systematic, forcing thousands of women into sexual slavery for their soldiers at highly organized "comfort stations." Drawn mostly from Korea (which was then ruled by Japan), the "comfort women" who tell their horrific stories in this book were shipped to the front lines and all over the war zones, often arriving in the same shipments with munitions and food. Like those staples, their sexual services were intended to keep an army working and alive; a common superstition among the troops was the belief that sex before battle could magically ward off injury. This searing, painful chapter in history was uncovered in part by a Japanese journalist, who came across photos of the women in classified documents. --Francesca Coltrera

About the Author:

George Hicks is an anthropologist. Much of his work focuses on the experiences of the Japanese during World War II.

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0393038076
• ISBN 13: 9780393038071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 303