Summary: Comfort Women were NOT sex slaves

(updated on Jan 31, 2016)
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The following inaccurate information about Comfort Women is being spread by news media and the truth is misunderstood by people in the world.

“Comfort Women,” is an euphemism for sexual slaves.  Hundreds of thousands of Korean girls were taken by the Japanese Army before and during World War II. “Comfort Women” is an example of institutionalized sexual slavery, and one of the largest cases of human trafficking in the twentieth century.

However, these are highly distorted history and NOT accurate about Comfort Women.  In this Summary, counterarguments based on EVIDENCES are briefly offered.

EVIDENCE BASED FINDINGS: 

(1) Scholars and researchers have confirmed the most Korean Comfort Women were recruited by Korean civilians (not the Japanese Army), served for defined periods of time, were often paid (or their families paid), and were allowed to return home [please see references].  As such, many scholars explicitly do not use the expression "sexual slavery", as it would be misleading. The expression "sexual slaves" was popularized by, inter alia, lawyers filing lawsuits, activists, politicians, and journalists conveying what others said, and thus now permeates the Internet and media.

(2) The US Office of War Information, Prisoner of War interrogation report, based on interrogation of 20 Korean Comfort Women, described that Comfort Women had plenty of money and were able to buy cloth, shoes, cigarettes, and cosmetics, that they amused themselves by participating in sports events picnics, social dinners, etc, that they were allowed the prerogative of refusing a customer and that there were numerous instances of proposals of marriage from soldiers to Comfort Women and in certain cases marriages actually took place.

(3)  All historians and scholars agree that the exact number of comfort women is uncertain [Profs. Soh and Park in Refs]. However, estimates by scholars who conduct research on this topic range typically in the tens of thousands [Profs. Soh and Hata in Refs, Chapters 1-5, 1-6]. Although "most" activists and politically-based groups claim the number is "hundreds of thousands," reputable scholars generally do not state such a high number.

(4)  As the number of comfort women is uncertain (see above), it would be inappropriate to claim outright that it is "one of the largest cases of human trafficking" of the last century. Again, many neutral scholars explicitly avoid the expression "sexual slavery", as it would be misleading. A small fraction of comfort women in territories Japan occupied during the war (e.g., Indonesia) were forcibly acquired by local military personnel, but this was done by soldiers acting independently [Chapter 1-8]. The women were freed after about two months when a higher ranking officer discovered the situation, and the personnel responsible were later punished.