Comfort Women

Well researched and documented. Bravo to Yoshimi for making the necessary and human move towards truth. The Japanese have failed to acknowledge their many war crimes and this is a step towards balance. I'm stunned by the one star reviews here... so obviously by Japanese nationals who refuse to admit their country's atrocities. Shame on them..Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking is an important work as well. Green earth books - great seller... book arrived in very good condition and quickly.

The seminal work that makes the case for the involvement of the Japanese government and military in the demand, setting up, and "staffing" of the comfort stations. Yoshimi has researched this well and carefully lays out his case. This book is a slam-dunk case and a must read.

Great! Exactly what I wanted!

Thank You. Interesting Book.

I read the original Japanese version of this book, and found it a truly honest study of the facts on military aggression. Everyone should read this book to learn of history, not only about the Japanese military, but of all militaries worldwide because they have either done or are capable of unfolding similar atrocities. In front of the facts uncovered in this book, historical denialists and their arguements are completely debunked.

My father was an intelligence officer in the Navy during WWII and was involved with debriefing a number of fairly senior Japanese officers during the war because he spoke Japanese reasonably well. One of the things that came out time and again is how the military systematically destroyed records because they feared that members of the military would be turned over to Chinese and Korean forces for trial. The true depth of the abuses of the Japanese military vanished with those documents forcing us to use mostly oral sources to discover the truth. However the oral stories from around the Pacific Rim are largely the same: with a few notable exceptions young women were kidnapped and forced in to sex slavery. Unlike the German government the Japanese government has never accepted their crimes. I suppose it's natural to be ashamed of so much cowardice and cruelty but it means that this wound will always blacken the whole nation of Japan, long after the criminals are all dead. Why say all this? Because so much of this book relies on oral histories (even the best Japanese documents are often letters home that describe the brothels rather than official documents). The apologist cling to their desperate plea of "almost no official documents" as if somehow a government letterhead spelling out the crimes is better proof than a thousand tearful stories from a dozen nations that match so well that an organized system of sex slavery is clearly what existed. Reading this is not easy and you may come away with a bias against the Japanese. Remember that many nations have committed dark acts and yet went on to do great and good things. It is not the purpose of this book to condemn a nation, merely to condemn the criminal cowardice of the Japanese Army of that time. One day Japan will embrace that truth, and on that day they will have their honor back.

This book documents through research the direct involvement and approval of Japanese Government in setting up such brutal and abusive system on Asian women. The Japanese invaders lured occupied countries women by force, lies, deceptions and kidnapping into military sex slaves with fancy names as "comfort women". These poor young women suffered repeated gang rapes and violence with physical and psychological damage and carried the shames and scars till now. Japanese soldiers murdered most when Japan lost the war. I had met a few survivors and listened to their nightmare and testimonials. Their lives were in ruin. Now, sixty years after Japan's unconditional surrender, there were survivors in Philippine, Korea and China. They broke their silence to testify in US Congress lately with the help of Congressman Mike Honda. How shameful of the Prime Minister of Japan Abe to deny this large scale of international violation of human right. The Japanese government raped these poor women once more! How can we trust Japan for world peace? Reading this book on Japanese crime against humanity and their shameful denial now would make you join the global campaign to condemn the Japanese now and then!

I found the font difficult to read. Perhaps others might like an electronic version where they might change the font and its size to suite their taste.

But there is nothing comfortable about the way these women from all over Asia were used by the Japanese Military during the war, May I also add that it was not just WW2 but in their war against Korea and China before the war of the world ever came about. A cruel and bitter look into the sordid side of a war, especially where women and children are concerned. Brilliant book though the subject doesn't shine one bit.

A good peep into history