Comfort Women

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Comfort women were those who were forced into prostitution and sexual slavery for the Japanese military brothel during WWII. Although a majority were brought in from countries like Korea and China, there were others from Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Indonesia. Lack of documentation makes the estimated women difficult to quantify; also, many of them do not come forward due to the shame and dishonor they felt as a result of having had their dignity and virginity taken away.

I found an interesting website, http://www.sfsu.edu/~soh/cw-links.htm, that serves as a resource site to link you into other comfort women related issues--support groups, information and history about these women.

Clay, any thoughts about this topic?

[Anonymous]

It appears that in a lot of cultures women are always seen as second class citizens. They are usually placed in some demeaning roles and are not appreciated for the great contribution they offer to the wellbeing of their culture.

[Anonymous]

I find the political aspects of the Comfort Women issue to be very interesting. It has always struck me as a bit irronic that some of the governments that complain the most about the issue are themselves guilty of doing little, if anything, to protect their own women and girls from sex trafficing in their own countries. My sense is that these governments only really care about the issue because of the opportunity it gives them to engage in Japan Bashing. Of course its the Japanese who are really at fault for allowing the issue to fester on and on by refusing to fully own up to the extent of their behavior during the war.

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