View source for Comfort women

{{Short description|WWII-era forced prostitutes for Japan}}
{{redirect|Comfort woman||Comfort Woman (disambiguation)}}
{{For-text|the musical|[[Comfort Women: A New Musical]]|their depiction in the arts|[[Comfort women in the arts]]}}

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{{Use mdy dates| date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Comfort women
| image = Captured comfort women in Myitkyina on August 14 in 1944.jpg
| caption = Korean comfort women being questioned by the [[United States Army]] after the [[Siege of Myitkyina]], August 14, 1944<ref name=report49>{{cite report|url=http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html|title=Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49|author=Psychological Warfare Team Attached to U.S. Army Forces India-Burma Theater|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration|via=exordio.com|date=October 1, 1944|access-date=February 21, 2004|archive-date=February 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215001019/http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
| image_alt =
| native_name = Japanese: {{Nihongo2|慰安婦}}, ''ianfu''
| native_name_lang = ja
| date = 1932–1945
| location = [[Asia-Pacific]]
| type = [[Sexual slavery]], [[enforced prostitution]], [[wartime rape]]
| perps = [[Imperial Japanese Armed Forces]]
| also_known_as =
| inquest =
| awards =
}}
'''Comfort women''' were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the [[Imperial Japanese Armed Forces]] in occupied countries and territories before and during [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite web|author=The Asian Women's Fund|title=Who were the Comfort Women?-The Establishment of Comfort Stations|work=Digital Museum The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund|publisher=The Asian Women's Fund|url=http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-01.html|access-date=August 8, 2014|archive-date=August 7, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140807180256/http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-01.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=The Asian Women's Fund|title=Hall I: Japanese Military and Comfort Women|work=Digital Museum The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund|publisher=The Asian Women's Fund|url=http://awf.or.jp/e1/facts-00.html|access-date=August 12, 2014|archive-date=March 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130315032343/http://awf.or.jp/e1/facts-00.html|url-status=live|quote=...'wartime comfort women' were those who were taken to former Japanese military installations, such as comfort stations, for a certain period during wartime in the past and forced to provide sexual services to officers and soldiers.}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Argibay|2003}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Special Issue: The 'Comfort Women' as Public History (Table of Contents)|url=https://apjjf.org/2021/5/ToC.html|access-date=March 8, 2021|website=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus|date=March 2021 |archive-date=March 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305061019/https://apjjf.org/2021/5/ToC.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The term ''comfort women'' is a translation of the Japanese {{Nihongo|2=[[wikt:慰安婦|慰安婦]]|3=ianfu}},<ref>{{harvnb|Soh|2009|loc=p. 69 "It referred to adult female (fu/bu) who provided sexual services to "comfort and entertain" (ian/wian) the warrior...}}</ref> a [[euphemism]] that literally means "comforting, consoling woman".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.e-ir.info/2018/12/14/the-origins-and-implementation-of-the-comfort-women-system/|title=The Origins and Implementation of the Comfort Women System|date=December 14, 2018|access-date=March 7, 2021|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414040000/https://www.e-ir.info/2018/12/14/the-origins-and-implementation-of-the-comfort-women-system/|url-status=live}}</ref> During World War II, Japanese troops forced hundreds of thousands of women from [[Australia]], [[Burma]], [[China]], the [[Netherlands]], the [[Philippines]], [[Japan]], [[Korea]], [[Indonesia]], [[East Timor]], [[New Guinea]] and other countries into sexual enslavement for Japanese soldiers; however, the majority of the women were from Korea.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/icla/22/3/article-p475_004.xml?language=en|last=Ramaj|first=Klea|title=The 2015 South Korean–Japanese Agreement on 'Comfort Women': A Critical Analysis|journal=International Criminal Law Review|doi=10.1163/15718123-bja10127|date=February 2022|volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=475–509 |s2cid=246922197 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Many women died due to brutal mistreatment and sustained physical and emotional distress. After the war, Japan denied the existence of comfort women, refusing to provide an apology or appropriate restitution. After numerous demands for an apology and the revelation of official records showing the Japanese government's culpability, the Japanese government began to offer an official apology and compensation in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24461685 | jstor=24461685 | last1=Kuki | first1=Sonya | title=The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward | journal=Journal of International Affairs | date=2013 | volume=67 | issue=1 | pages=245–256 }}</ref><ref name="The Cornell Diplomat">{{cite web | url=https://journals.library.cornell.edu/index.php/tcd/article/view/579/580 | title=Apology Politics: Japan and South Korea's Dispute over Comfort Women | work=The Cornell Diplomat | date=May 4, 2019 | issue=2 | last1=Chang | first1=Jae }}</ref> However, apologies have been criticized as insincere by victims, advocacy groups, and scholars. Many Japanese government officials have continued to either deny or minimize the existence of comfort women. The Japanese government officially denies that girls and women were coerced into sexual slavery.<ref name=NYT20250306 />

Estimates vary on the number of women, with most historians settling somewhere in the range of 20,000–200,000;<ref name="AWF_CW10">{{Harvnb|Asian Women's Fund|p=10|Ref=AWF-CW}}</ref> the exact numbers are still being researched and debated reflecting differences in archival evidence and post war documentation..<ref name="AWF_CW10-11">{{Harvnb|Asian Women's Fund|pp=10–11|Ref=AWF-CW}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Huang|2012|loc=p. 206 "Although Ianfu came from all regions or countries annexed or occupied by Japan before 1945, most of them were Chinese or Korean. Researchers at the Research Center of the Chinese Comfort Women Issue of Shanghai Normal University estimate that the total number of comfort women at 360,000 to 410,000."}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Rose|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=W2nU1Xu0XdkC&pg=PA88 88]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A Guide to Understanding the History of the 'Comfort Women' Issue |url=https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/09/guide-understanding-history-comfort-women-issue |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220916190537/https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/09/guide-understanding-history-comfort-women-issue |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 16, 2022 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=United States Institute of Peace |language=en}}</ref>

The brothels were originally established with the stated intent of providing soldiers with a controlled sexual outlet to reduce wartime rape and the spread of venereal diseases. However, some historians argue that the comfort stations did not fully achieve these goals and may have contributed to continued sexual violence and the transmission of diseases.<ref name="Explaining wartime rape (page 132)">{{cite journal |last1=Gottschall |first1=Jonathan |title=Explaining wartime rape |journal=Journal of Sex Research |date=May 2004 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=129–36 |doi=10.1080/00224490409552221 |pmid=15326538 |s2cid=22215910 }}</ref> The first victims were Japanese women, some of whom were recruited by conventional means, and others who were recruited through deception or kidnapping. The military later turned to women in Japanese colonies, due to lack of Japanese volunteers and the need to protect Japan's image.<ref name=":5"/><ref name=":6" /> In many cases, women were lured by false job openings for nurses and factory workers.<ref name="deceived"/> Others were also lured by the promises of equity and sponsorship for higher education.<ref>{{Harvnb|Yoshimi|2000|pp=100–101, 105–106, 110–111}};<br />{{Harvnb|Fackler 2007-03-06|Ref=CITEREFNY Times2007-03-06}};<br />{{Harvnb|BBC 2007-03-02}};<br />{{Harvnb|BBC 2007-03-08}};<br />{{Harvnb|Pramoedya|2001}}.</ref> A significant percentage of comfort women were minors.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://apjjf.org/data/2007_press_conference.pdf|title=Press Conference: Latest research on Japan's military sexual slavery ("comfort women") |date=April 17, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200816055134/https://apjjf.org/data/2007_press_conference.pdf|archive-date=August 16, 2020}}</ref>

== Outline of the comfort women system ==
{{Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan|Anti-Korean tropes}}

=== Establishment by Japanese military ===
{{Slavery}}
Given that [[prostitution]] in Japan was pervasive and organized, it was logical to find military prostitution in the Japanese armed forces.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hicks|1997|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qbbpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 28]}}</ref> Military correspondence within the Imperial Japanese Army shows that the aims for facilitating comfort stations were: to reduce or prevent rape crimes by Japanese army personnel in an effort to prevent a worsening of anti-Japanese sentiment, to reduce [[Sexually transmitted infection|venereal diseases]] among Japanese troops, and to prevent leakage of military secrets by civilians who were in contact with Japanese officers.<ref name="AWF_CW51">{{Harvnb|Asian Women's Fund|p=51|Ref=AWF-CW}}</ref> [[Carmen Argibay]], a former member of the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice, states that the Japanese government aimed to prevent atrocities like the [[Nanjing Massacre|Rape of Nanjing]] by confining rape and sexual abuse to military-controlled facilities, or stop incidents from leaking to the international press should they occur.<ref>{{harvnb|Argibay|2003|p=376}}</ref> She also states that the government wanted to minimize medical expenses on treating venereal diseases that the soldiers acquired from frequent and widespread rape, which hindered Japan's military capacity.<ref>{{harvnb|Argibay|2003|p=377}}</ref>  Comfort women lived in sordid conditions, and were called "public toilets" by the Japanese.<ref>Chang, Iris (1997), The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Basic Books. pp 109-110. ISBN 0-465-06835-9.</ref> [[Yuki Tanaka (historian)|Yuki Tanaka]] states that local brothels outside of the military's reach had issues of security, since there were possibilities of spies disguised as workers of such private facilities.<ref name="wender">{{harvnb|Wender|2003|p=144}}</ref> Japanese historian [[Yoshiaki Yoshimi]] further states that the Japanese military used comfort women to satisfy disgruntled soldiers during [[World War II]] and prevent military revolt.<ref name="korea.net2007-11-30">{{Harvnb|korea.net 2007-11-30}}.</ref> He said that, despite the goal of reducing rape and venereal disease, the comfort stations did the opposite—aggravating rape and increasing the spread of venereal disease.<ref name="korea.net2007-11-30"/> Comfort women stations were so prevalent that the Imperial Army offered accountancy classes on how to manage comfort stations, which included how to determine the actuarial "durability or perishability of the women procured."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/comfort-women-and-japans-war-on-truth.html | title=Opinion &#124; the Comfort Women and Japan's War on Truth | newspaper=The New York Times | date=November 14, 2014 | last1=Kotler | first1=Mindy | access-date=February 6, 2017 | archive-date=July 8, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708082857/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/comfort-women-and-japans-war-on-truth.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Outline ====
In the [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904–1905, Japan's military closely regulated privately operated brothels in Manchuria.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Tanaka | first1 = Toshiyuki | author-link1 = Yuki Tanaka (historian) | year = 2002 | title = Japan's Comfort Women | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mV5dymPXNBgC | location = London | publisher = Routledge | publication-date = 2003 | page = 172 | isbn = 9781134650125 | access-date = September 25, 2020 | quote = the brothels that operated in South Manchuria during and immediately after the Russo-Japanese War, despite the close regulation by military authorities, differed from the future 'comfort stations.' They were independently established and managed by civilian brothel keepers. | archive-date = October 30, 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231030060005/https://books.google.com/books?id=mV5dymPXNBgC | url-status = live}}</ref>

Comfort houses were first established in Shanghai after the [[January 28 incident|Shanghai incident]] in 1932 as a response to wholesale rape of Chinese women by Japanese soldiers.<ref name="apjjf.org">{{cite web | url=https://apjjf.org/2020/01/Tanaka.html | title=War, Rape and Patriarchy: The Japanese experience | date=December 31, 2019 | access-date=May 24, 2022 | archive-date=March 6, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306235206/https://apjjf.org/2020/01/Tanaka.html | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Yasuji Okamura]], the chief of staff in Shanghai, ordered the construction of comfort houses to prevent further rape.<ref name="apjjf.org"/> After the rapes of many Chinese women by Japanese troops during the [[Nanjing Massacre]] in 1937, the Japanese forces adopted the general policy of creating comfort stations in various places in Japanese occupied Chinese territory, "not because of their concern for the Chinese victims of rape by Japanese soldiers but because of their fear of creating antagonism among the Chinese civilians."<ref name="apjjf.org"/> To staff the establishments, Japanese prostitutes were imported from Japan.{{sfn|Mitchell|1997}} Japanese women were the first victims to be enslaved in military brothels and trafficked across Japan, Okinawa, Japan's colonies and occupied territories, and overseas battlegrounds.<ref name="Bloomsbury Academic">{{cite book|last1=Norma|first1=Caroline|title=The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars (War, Culture and Society) |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|location=London |isbn=978-1472512475|page=1}}</ref> According to Yoshiaki Yoshimi, comfort stations were established to avoid criticism from China, the United States of America and Europe following the case of massive rapes between battles in Shanghai and Nanjing.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XnKuSxod8wC&q=comfort+women&pg=PT102 | title=The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II | isbn=9780465028252 | last1=Chang | first1=Iris | date=March 11, 2014 | publisher=Basic Books | access-date=May 25, 2022 | archive-date=September 23, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923141914/https://books.google.com/books?id=8XnKuSxod8wC&q=comfort+women&pg=PT102 | url-status=live }}</ref>

As Japan continued military expansion, the military found itself short of Japanese volunteers, and turned to local populations—abducting and coercing women into serving as sex slaves in the comfort stations.<ref name=":5">{{Harvnb|Mitchell|1997}}.</ref> Many women responded to calls to work as factory workers or nurses, and did not know that they were being pressed into [[sexual slavery]].<ref name=deceived>"[...] Pak (her surname) was about 17, living in Hamun, Korea, when local Korean officials, acting on orders from the Japanese, began recruiting women for factory work. Someone from Pak's house had to go. In April 1942, Korean officials turned Pak and other young women over to the Japanese, who took them into China, not into factories. Pak's history is not unusual. A majority of the women who provided sex for Japanese soldiers were forcibly taken from their families, or were recruited deceptively", {{Harvnb|Horn|1997}}.</ref>

In the early stages of World War II, Japanese authorities recruited prostitutes through conventional means. In urban areas, conventional advertising through middlemen was used alongside kidnapping. Middlemen advertised in newspapers circulating in Japan and in the Japanese colonies of [[Korea]], Taiwan, [[Manchukuo]], and China. These sources soon dried up, especially in metropolitan Japan.<ref name=":6">{{Harvnb|Yoshimi|2000|pp= 100–101, 105–106, 110–111}};<br />{{Harvnb|Hicks|1997|pp= 66–67, 119, 131, 142–143}};<br />{{Harvnb|Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken|1994|pp=6–9, 11, 13–14}}</ref> The Ministry of Foreign Affairs resisted further issuance of travel visas for Japanese prostitutes, feeling it tarnished the image of the Japanese Empire.<ref>{{Harvnb|Yoshimi|2000|pp= 82–83}};<br />{{Harvnb|Hicks|1997|pp=223–228}}.</ref> The military turned to acquiring comfort women outside mainland Japan, mostly from Korea and from occupied China. An existing system of licensed prostitution within Korea made it easy for Japan to recruit women in large numbers.<ref name="wender" />

Many women were tricked or defrauded into joining the military brothels.<ref>{{Harvnb|Yoshimi|2000|pp=101–105, 113, 116–117}};<br />{{Harvnb|Hicks|1997|pp= 8–9, 14}};<br />{{Harvnb|Clancey|1948|p= 1021}}.</ref> Based on false characterizations and payments—by Japanese or by local recruitment agents—which could help relieve family debts, many Korean girls enlisted to take the job. Furthermore, the South East Asia Translation and Interrogation Center (SEATIC) Psychological Warfare Interrogation Bulletin No.2 states that a Japanese facility-manager purchased Korean women for 300 to 1000 yen depending on their physical characteristics, who then became his property and were not released even after completing the servitude terms specified in the contract.<ref>{{harvnb|Argibay|2003|p= 378}}</ref> In northern [[Hebei]] province of China, [[Hui people|Hui Muslim]] girls were recruited to "Huimin Girls' school" to be trained as entertainers, but then forced to serve as sex slaves.<ref>{{cite journal |last= LEI |first= Wan |date= February 2010 |title= The Chinese Islamic "Goodwill Mission to the Middle East" During the Anti-Japanese War |url= https://www.academia.edu/4427135 |journal= Dîvân Di̇si̇pli̇nlerarasi Çalişmalar Dergi̇si̇ |volume= 15 |issue= 29 |page= 141 |access-date= June 19, 2014 |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140318035752/http://www.academia.edu/4427135/The_Chinese_Islamic_Goodwill_Mission_to_the_Middle_East_-_Japonyaya_Karsi_Savasta_Cinli_Muslumanlarin_Orta_Dogu_iyi_Niyet_Heyeti_-_Wan_LEI |archive-date= March 18, 2014 }}</ref> The American historian [[Gerhard Weinberg]] wrote that a major issue was that no historian had examined whether the soldiers of the [[Indian National Army]] used comfort women, since there had been no investigation for it. Lebra wrote "None of those who have written on Bose's Indian national army has investigated whether, while they were trained by the Japanese army, they were permitted to share in the 'comfort' provided by thousands of kidnapped Korean young women held as sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army at its camps. This might have provided them with some insight into the nature of Japanese, as opposed to British, colonial rule, as well what might be in store for their sisters and daughters."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWjtDwAAQBAJ|title=A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rWjtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1082 1082]|year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780511252938|access-date=December 8, 2021|archive-date=October 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030060006/https://books.google.com/books?id=rWjtDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} (footnote 155)</ref>

Under the strain of the war effort, the military became unable to provide enough supplies to Japanese units; in response, the units made up the difference by demanding or looting supplies from the locals. The military often directly demanded that local leaders procure women for the brothels along the front lines, especially in the countryside where middlemen were rare. When the locals were considered hostile in China, Japanese soldiers carried out the "[[Three Alls policy]]" ("kill all, burn all, loot all") which included indiscriminately kidnapping and raping local civilians.<ref>
{{Harvnb|Fujiwara|1998}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Himeta|1996}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Bix|2000}}
</ref>

==== Later archives ====
On April 17, 2007, [[Yoshiaki Yoshimi]] and [[Hirofumi Hayashi]] announced the discovery of seven official documents in the archives of the Tokyo Trials, suggesting that Imperial military forces – such as the ''[[Tokubetsu Keisatsutai|Tokkeitai]]'' (Naval military police) – forced women whose fathers attacked the ''[[Kenpeitai]]'' (Japanese Army military police) to work in front-line brothels in China, Indochina, and Indonesia. These documents were initially made public at the [[Japanese war crimes|war crimes]] trial. In one of these, a lieutenant is quoted as confessing to having organized a brothel and having used it himself. Another source refers to ''Tokkeitai'' members having arrested women on the streets and putting them in brothels after enforced medical examinations.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Harvnb|Yoshida 2007-04-18|Ref=JapanTimes2007-04-18}}</ref>

On May 12, 2007, journalist Taichiro Kajimura announced the discovery of 30 Dutch government documents submitted to the [[Tokyo tribunal]] as evidence of a forced mass prostitution incident in 1944 in [[Magelang]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Japan Times 2007-05-12|Ref=CITEREFJapanTimes2007-05-12}}</ref>

The South Korean government designated Bae Jeong-ja as a pro-Japanese collaborator (''[[chinilpa]]'') in September 2007 for recruiting comfort women.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bae 2007-09-17|Ref=KoreaTimes2007-09-17}}</ref><ref>{{in lang|ja}} [http://japanese.joins.com/article/article.php?aid=91235 "宋秉畯ら第2期親日反民族行為者202人を選定"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206101007/http://japanese.joins.com/article/article.php?aid=91235 |date=February 6, 2009 }}, [[JoongAng Ilbo]], 2007.09.17. "日本軍慰安婦を募集したことで悪名高いベ・ジョンジャ"</ref>

In 2014, China produced almost 90 documents from the archives of the [[Kwantung Army]] on the issue. According to China, the documents provide ironclad proof that the Japanese military forced Asian women to work in front-line brothels before and during World War II.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/japan-second-world-war-brothels-papers-china |title=Papers prove Japan forced women into second world war brothels, says China |last1=McCurry |first1=Justin |last2=Kaiman |first2=Jonathan |date=April 28, 2014 |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=April 28, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428131855/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/japan-second-world-war-brothels-papers-china |archive-date=April 28, 2014 }}</ref>

In June 2014, more official documents were made public from the government of Japan's archives, documenting sexual violence and women forced into sexual slavery, committed by Imperial Japanese soldiers in [[French Indochina]] and Indonesia.<ref>Kimura, Kayoko, "[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/03/04/voices/stance-comfort-women-undermines-fight-end-wartime-sexual-violence/#.VPhK640cQ5s Stance on 'comfort women' undermines fight to end wartime sexual violence] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306045858/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/03/04/voices/stance-comfort-women-undermines-fight-end-wartime-sexual-violence/ |date=2015-03-06 }}", ''[[Japan Times]]'', March 5, 2014, p. 8</ref>

A 2015 study examined archival data which was previously difficult to access, partly due to the [[Joint Communiqué of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China|China-Japan Joint Communiqué of 1972]] in which the Chinese government agreed not to seek any restitution for wartime crimes and incidents. New documents discovered in China shed light on facilities inside comfort stations operated within a Japanese army compound, and the conditions of the Korean comfort women. Documents were discovered verifying the Japanese Army as the funding agency for purchasing some comfort women.

Su Zhiliang, a Chinese professor at [[Shanghai Normal University]], examined the Japanese Kwantung Army's records in [[Manchuria]] (now Northeast China), which are housed at the Jilin Archives in China.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Siyi |last2=Su |first2=Zhiliang |last3=Su |first3=Shengjie |date=2024-08-30 |title=Negotiating difficult (in)tangible heritage: the intricate journey of museum making for the “Dai-ichi Saloon” comfort station in Shanghai |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2024.2389718 |journal=Inter-Asia Cultural Studies |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=482–506 |doi=10.1080/14649373.2024.2389718 |issn=1464-9373|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=wang2019>{{cite journal|last=Wang|first=Q. Edward|title=The study of "comfort women": Revealing a hidden past—introduction|journal=Chinese Studies in History|volume=53|issue=1|date=31 Dec 2019|pages=1–5 |doi=10.1080/00094633.2019.1691414 |s2cid=214221542 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The operations of the Japanese Military Police, who were in charge of overseeing the "comfort stations" in various parts of China and Java, were the subject of these records.<ref name=wang2019/> Su concluded that the sources revealed that comfort women stations were ordered, supported, and managed by the Japanese military authorities.<ref name=wang2019/>

Documents were found in Shanghai that showed details of how the Japanese Army went about opening comfort stations for Japanese troops in occupied Shanghai. Documents included the [[Tianjin]] Municipal Archives from the archival files of the Japanese government and the Japanese police during the periods of the occupation in World War II. Municipal archives from [[Shanghai]] and [[Nanjing]] were also examined. One conclusion reached was that the relevant archives in Korea are distorted. A conclusion of the study was that the Japanese Imperial government and the colonial government in Korea tried to avoid recording the illegal mobilization of comfort women. It was concluded that they burned most of the records immediately before the surrender; however, the study confirmed that some documents and records survived.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lee | first1 = SinCheol | last2 = Han | first2 = Hye-in | title = Comfort women: a focus on recent findings from Korea and China | journal = Asian Journal of Women's Studies | volume = 21 | issue = 1 | pages = 40–64 | doi = 10.1080/12259276.2015.1029229 | date = January 2015 | s2cid = 153119328 }}</ref>

=== Number of comfort women ===
Professor Su Jiliang concludes that during the seven-year period from 1938 to 1945, comfort women in the territory occupied by the Japanese numbered 360,000 to 410,000, among whom the Chinese were the largest group, about 200,000.{{sfn|Weianfu yanjiu|p=279}}
Lack of official documentation has made estimating the total number of comfort women difficult. Vast amounts of material pertaining to war crimes, and the responsibility of the nation's highest leaders, were either destroyed or concealed on the orders of the Japanese government at the end of the war.<ref>''Burning of Confidential Documents by Japanese Government'', case no.43, serial 2, International Prosecution Section vol. 8;<br />"When it became apparent that Japan would be forced to surrender, an organized effort was made to burn or otherwise destroy all documents and other evidence of ill-treatment of prisoners of war and civilian internees. The Japanese Minister of War issued an order on 14 August 1945 to all Army headquarters that confidential documents should be destroyed by fire immediately. On the same day, the Commandant of the Kempetai sent out instructions to the various Kempetai Headquarters detailing the methods of burning large quantities of documents efficiently.", {{Harvnb|Clancey|1948|p=1135}};<br />"[...], the actual number of comfort women remains unclear because the Japanese army incinerated many crucial documents right after the defeat for fear of war crimes prosecution, [...]", {{Harvnb|Yoshimi|2000|p=91}};<br />{{Harvnb|Bix|2000|p=528}};<br />"Between the announcement of a ceasefire on August 15, 1945, and the arrival of small advance parties of American troops in Japan on August 28, Japanese military and civil authorities systematically destroyed military, naval, and government archives, much of which was from the period 1942–1945. Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo dispatched enciphered messages to field commands throughout the Pacific and East Asia ordering units to burn incriminating evidence of war crimes, especially offenses against prisoners of war. The director of Japan's Military History Archives of the National Institute for Defense Studies estimated in 2003 that as much as 70 percent of the army's wartime records were burned or otherwise destroyed.", {{Harvnb|Drea|2006|p=9}}.</ref> Historians have arrived at various estimates by looking at surviving documentation, which indicates the ratio of soldiers in a particular area to the number of women and replacement rates of the women.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nakamura 2007-03-20|Ref=JapanTimes2007-03-20}}</ref> Estimates by Japanese historians range from 20,000 to 200,000 comfort women.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-01-13 |title=Definitions of 'comfort women' reveal Japan-S. Korea divide |url=https://apnews.com/article/comfort-women-definition-japan-south-korea-5c8d6ca2a9004f379d4c8a24146e6f44 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref>

Most academic researchers and media typically point to Yoshiaki's estimate as the most probable range of the numbers of women involved. This figure contrasts with the inscriptions on monuments in the United States such as those in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and California, which state the number of comfort women as "more than 200,000".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ward|first=Thomas J.|date=December 14, 2018|title=The Origins and Implementation of the Comfort Women System|url=https://www.e-ir.info/2018/12/14/the-origins-and-implementation-of-the-comfort-women-system/|access-date=March 7, 2021|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414040000/https://www.e-ir.info/2018/12/14/the-origins-and-implementation-of-the-comfort-women-system/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The BBC quotes "200,000 to 300,000", and the [[International Commission of Jurists]] quotes "estimates of historians of 100,000 to 200,000 women."<ref>"An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 women across Asia, predominantly Korean and Chinese, are believed to have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels", {{Harvnb|BBC 2000-12-08|Ref=BBC2000-12-08}};<br />
"Historians say thousands of women; as many as 200,000 by some accounts; mostly from Korea, China and Japan worked in the Japanese military brothels", {{Harvnb|Irish Examiner 2007-03-08|Ref=IE2007-03-08}};<br />
{{Harvnb|AP 2007-03-07|Ref=IHT2007-03-07}};<br />
{{Harvnb|CNN 2001-03-29|Ref=CNN2001-03-29}}.</ref>

=== Countries of origin ===
Most of the women were from occupied countries, including [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea]], [[Republic of China (1912–49)|China]], and the [[Second Philippine Republic|Philippines]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://womenshistory.about.com/od/warwwii/a/comfort_women.htm |title=Women and World War II – Comfort Women |publisher=Womenshistory.about.com |access-date=March 26, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130329200934/http://womenshistory.about.com/od/warwwii/a/comfort_women.htm |archive-date=March 29, 2013 }}</ref> Women who were used for military "comfort stations" also came from [[British Burma|Burma]], [[Thailand]], [[French Indochina]], [[British Malaya|Malaya]], [[Manchukuo]], [[Taiwan under Japanese rule|Taiwan]] (then a Japanese dependency), the [[Dutch East Indies]], [[Portuguese Timor]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Coop |first=Stephanie |date=December 23, 2006 |title=Japan's Wartime Sex Slave Exhibition Exposes Darkness in East Timor |url=http://www.japanfocus.org/-Stephanie-Coop/2300 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326043304/http://www.japanfocus.org/-Stephanie-Coop/2300 |archive-date=March 26, 2009|newspaper=[[The Japan Times]] |access-date=June 29, 2014 }}</ref> [[Papua New Guinea]]<ref name="pireport">{{cite news|url=http://www.pireport.org/articles/1999/09/21/japanese-troops-took-locals-comfort-women-international|title="Japanese Troops Took Locals as Comfort Women": International|website=Pacific Islands Report|date=September 21, 1999|access-date=March 8, 2019|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414024738/http://www.pireport.org/articles/1999/09/21/japanese-troops-took-locals-comfort-women-international}}</ref> (including some mixed race [[Japanese settlement in Papua New Guinea|Japanese-Papuans]]<ref name="auto7">[http://rspas.anu.edu.au/papers/pah/Nelson_COMFORT_WOMEN_RABAUL.pdf The Consolation Unit: Comfort Women at Rabaul] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610042634/http://rspas.anu.edu.au/papers/pah/Nelson_COMFORT_WOMEN_RABAUL.pdf |date=June 10, 2007 }}, [[Hank Nelson]], The Australian National University–Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, retrieved October 26, 2009</ref>) and other Japanese-occupied territories.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> Stations were located in [[Empire of Japan|Japan]], [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|China]], the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya, Thailand, Burma, New Guinea, [[Japanese occupation of Hong Kong|Hong Kong]], [[Portuguese Macau|Macau]], and French Indochina.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reuters 2007-03-05}}.</ref> A smaller number of women of European origin were also involved, mostly from the [[Netherlands]]<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/07/national/documents-detail-how-imperial-military-forced-dutch-females-to-be-comfort-women/#.WLdzKRiZM19|title=Documents detail how Imperial military forced Dutch females to be 'comfort women'|date=October 7, 2013|work=[[The Japan Times]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302193632/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/07/national/documents-detail-how-imperial-military-forced-dutch-females-to-be-comfort-women/#.WLdzKRiZM19|archive-date=March 2, 2017}}</ref> and [[Australia]] with an estimated 200–400 [[Dutch people|Dutch]] women alone,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.janbanning.com/comfort-woman-ellen-van-der-ploeg-passed-away/ |title="Comfort Woman" Ellen van der Ploeg passed away |access-date=January 1, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105033245/http://www.janbanning.com/comfort-woman-ellen-van-der-ploeg-passed-away/ |archive-date=January 5, 2016 }}</ref> with an unknown number of other European women.

[[File:Chinese girl from one of the Japanese Army's 'comfort battalions'.jpg|thumb|An ethnic Chinese comfort woman being interviewed by a [[flying officer]] of the [[Royal Air Force]] at [[Rangoon]], 8 August 1945]]

[[File:The Allied Reoccupation of the Andaman Islands, 1945 SE5226.jpg|thumb|Chinese and Malayan girls forcibly taken from [[Penang]] by the Japanese to work as 'comfort girls' for the troops<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205208397|title=The Allied Reoccupation of the Andaman Islands, 1945|publisher=[[Imperial War Museums]]|access-date=January 7, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504044521/http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205208397|archive-date=May 4, 2015}}</ref>]]
According to [[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York|State University of New York at Buffalo]] professor [[Yoshiko Nozaki]] and other sources, the majority of the women were from [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea]] and [[Republic of China (1912–49)|China]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Nozaki|2005}};<br />
{{Harvnb|Dudden|2006}}.</ref><ref>"An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 women across Asia, predominantly Korean and Chinese, are believed to have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels", {{Harvnb|BBC 2000-12-08|Ref=BBC2000-12-08}};<br />
"Estimates of the number of comfort women range between 50,000 and 200,000. It is believed that most were Korean", {{Harvnb|Soh|2001}};<br />
"A majority of the 80,000 to 200,000 comfort women were from Korea, though others were recruited or recruited from China, the Philippines, Burma, and Indonesia. Some Japanese women who worked as prostitutes before the war also became comfort women.", {{Harvnb|Horn|1997}};<br />
"Approximately 80 percent of the sex slaves were Korean; [...]. By one approximation, 80 percent were between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.", {{Harvnb|Gamble|Watanabe|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gKUUuK0ym_oC&pg=PA309 309]}};<br />
{{Harvnb|Soh|2001}}.</ref> Chuo University professor and historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi discovered an abundance of documentation and testimony proving the existence of 2,000 comfort women stations where approximately 200,000 Korean, Filipina, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Burmese, Dutch, Australian, and Japanese women, many of whom were teenagers, were confined and forced to perform sexual activities with Japanese troops.<ref>{{harvnb|Yoshimi|2000|p={{page needed|date=May 2022}}}}</ref> According to Qiu Peipei of [[Vassar College]], comfort women were replaced with other women at a rapid rate, making her estimates of 200,000-400,000 comfort women plausible, with the majority being Chinese women.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vq.vassar.edu/issues/2014/03/features/cold-comfort.html |title=Cold Comfort: Peipei Qiu Bears Witness |last=Shengold |first=Nina |date=June 17, 2013 |website=Vassar College |publisher=Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly |access-date=June 20, 2021 |archive-date=June 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624203133/https://vq.vassar.edu/issues/2014/03/features/cold-comfort.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Norma|first1=Caroline|title=The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars (War, Culture and Society) |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|location=London |isbn=978-1472512475|page=4}}</ref> [[Ikuhiko Hata]], a professor of [[Nihon University]], estimated the number of women working in the licensed pleasure quarter was fewer than 20,000 and that they were 40% Japanese, 20% Koreans, 10% Chinese, with others making up the remaining 30%. According to Hata, the total number of government-regulated prostitutes in Japan was only 170,000 during World War II.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hata|1999}}<br /> "Hata essentially equates the 'comfort women' system with prostitution and finds similar practices during the war in other countries. He has been criticized by other Japanese scholars for downplaying the hardship of the 'comfort women'.", {{Harvnb|Drea|2006|p=41}}.</ref> Others came from the Philippines, Taiwan, the [[Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies|Dutch East Indies]], and other Japanese-occupied countries and regions.<ref name="workingpaper">{{Harvnb|Soh|2001}}.</ref> Some Dutch women, captured in Dutch colonies in Asia, were also forced into sexual slavery.<ref>{{Harvnb|chosun.com 2007-03-19}};<br />
{{Harvnb|Moynihan 2007-03-03|Ref=TheAge2007-03-03}}</ref>

In further analysis of the Imperial Army medical records for venereal disease treatment from 1940, Yoshimi concluded that if the percentages of women treated reflected the general makeup of the total comfort women population, Korean women made up 51.8 percent, Chinese 36 percent and Japanese 12.2 percent.<ref name="korea.net2007-11-30" />

In 1997, [[Bruce Cumings]], a historian of Korea, wrote that Japan had forced quotas to supply the comfort women program and that Korean men helped recruit the victims. Cumings stated that between 100,000 and 200,000 Korean girls and women were recruited.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cumings|first1=Bruce|title=Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History|url=https://archive.org/details/koreasplaceinsun00bruc|url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|location=New York London|isbn=978-0393316810|page=[https://archive.org/details/koreasplaceinsun00bruc/page/155 155]|edition=First}}</ref> In Korea, the daughters of the gentry and the bureaucracy were spared from being sent into the "comfort women corps" unless they or their families showed signs of pro-independence tendencies, and the overwhelming majority of the Korean girls taken into the "comfort women corps" came from the poor.<ref name="auto1">{{harvnb|Hicks|1996|p=312}}</ref> The Army and Navy often subcontracted the work of taking girls into the "comfort women corps" in Korea to contractors, who were usually associated in some way with organized crime groups that were paid for girls they presented.<ref name="auto1"/> Though a substantial minority of the contractors in Korea were Japanese, the majority were Korean.<ref name="auto1"/>

In the Philippines during the Japanese occupation, around 1,000 Filipino women were made into comfort women.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Cheryl Diaz |author-link=Cheryl Diaz Meyer |date=May 14, 2021 |title=Behind the Story: The Legacy of Comfort Women |url=https://pulitzercenter.org/education/behind-storythe-legacy-comfort-women#:~:text=Cheryl%20Diaz%20Meyer%20tells%20the,brothels%20throughout%20Japanese%2Doccupied%20territories. |website=Pulitzer Center |access-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324191628/https://pulitzercenter.org/education/behind-storythe-legacy-comfort-women#:~:text=Cheryl%20Diaz%20Meyer%20tells%20the,brothels%20throughout%20Japanese%2Doccupied%20territories. |url-status=live }}</ref> The victims were as young as 12 years old at the time of their enslavement. As many of the survivors recall, the garrisons or comfort stations/brothels were spread all over the Philippines. The garrisons were located from the northern region of [[Cagayan Valley]] to the [[Davao Region|Davao region]] in the south.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women made to be Comfort Women – Philippines |url=https://www.awf.or.jp/e1/philippine-00.html |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=www.awf.or.jp |archive-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230218032805/https://www.awf.or.jp/e1/philippine-00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the initial invasion of [[Dutch East Indies]], Japanese soldiers raped many Indonesian and European women and girls. The Kenpeitai established the comfort women program to control the problem. The Kenpeitai forced and coerced many interned women to serve as prostitutes, including several hundred European women. A few of these chose to live in the homes of Japanese officers to serve one man as a sex slave rather than many men in a brothel.<ref>{{cite book |title=Japan's Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem and Torture in Wartime Asia |last=Felton |first=Mark |date=2009 |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |page=104 |isbn=9781844159123}}</ref> One such European woman, [[K'tut Tantri]], of Scottish ancestry, wrote a book describing her ordeal.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Romance of K'tut Tantri and Indonesia |last=Lindsey |first=Timothy |date=2008 |publisher=Equinox Publishing |pages=123–125 |isbn=9789793780634}}</ref> A Dutch government study described the methods used by the Japanese military to seize the women by force.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken|1994|pp=6–9, 11, 13–14}}</ref> It concluded that among the 200 to 300 European women found in the Japanese military brothels, "some sixty five were most certainly forced into prostitution".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/netherlands.html|title=Digital Museum: The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund|access-date=November 24, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181010/http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/netherlands.html|archive-date=September 23, 2015}}</ref> Others, faced with starvation in the refugee camps, agreed to offers of food and payment for work, the nature of which was not completely revealed to them.<ref>{{cite web |title=Japan's 'Comfort Women' |first=Chunghee Sarah |last=Soh |publisher=International Institute for Asian Studies |url=http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/18/regions/e3.html |access-date=November 8, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106001455/http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/18/regions/e3.html |archive-date=November 6, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Soh|2009|p=22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Women made to become comfort women – Netherlands |publisher=Asian Women's Fund |url=http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/netherlands.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923181010/http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/netherlands.html |archive-date=September 23, 2015 }}</ref><ref>Poelgeest. Bart van, 1993, Gedwongen prostitutie van Nederlandse vrouwen in voormalig Nederlands-Indië 's-Gravenhage: Sdu Uitgeverij Plantijnstraat. [Tweede Kamer, vergaderjaar 93-1994, 23 607, nr. 1.]</ref><ref>Poelgeest, Bart van. "[http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0205.pdf Report of a study of Dutch government documents on the forced prostitution of Dutch women in the Dutch East Indies during the Japanese occupation.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140422200849/http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0205.pdf |date=2014-04-22 }}" [Unofficial Translation, January 24, 1994.]</ref> Some of the women also volunteered in hopes of protecting the younger ones. The number of women forced into prostitution may therefore be much higher than the Dutch record indicated. The number of Dutch women that were sexually assaulted or molested was also largely ignored.<ref>Comfort Women: A History of Japanese Forced Prostitution During the Second By Wallace Edwards</ref> It was not until individuals and groups such as the [[Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts]] began advocating for victims of the Japanese occupation that the plight of Dutch comfort women entered the collective conscience.<ref>{{cite news|date=19 November 1997|title=Japans geld voor 'troostmeisjes'|url=https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/1997/11/19/japans-geld-voor-troostmeisjes-7376342-a1189295|language=nl|work=[[NRC (newspaper)|NRC]]|location=[[The Hague]]|access-date=28 August 2022|archive-date=August 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828015743/https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/1997/11/19/japans-geld-voor-troostmeisjes-7376342-a1189295|url-status=live}}</ref> As well as being raped and sexually assaulted every day and night, the Dutch girls lived in constant fear of beatings and other physical violence.<ref name=Felton>{{cite book|title=The Real Tenko: Extraordinary True Stories of Women Prisoners of the Japanese|first=Mark|last=Felton|publisher=Pen & Sword Military|year=2010|isbn=9781848840485}}</ref>

J.F. van Wagtendonk and the Dutch Broadcast Foundation estimated a total number of 400 Dutch girls were taken from the camps to become comfort women.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/19/c_135021500.htm |title=Interview: Dutch foundation urges Japan to pay honorary debts |access-date=September 26, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119011454/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/19/c_135021500.htm |archive-date=January 19, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/12/30/Taiwan-seeking-redress-over-comfort-women-from-Japan/6921451491615/ |title=Taiwan seeking redress over 'comfort women' from Japan |access-date=September 26, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926144419/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/12/30/Taiwan-seeking-redress-over-comfort-women-from-Japan/6921451491615/ |archive-date=September 26, 2017 }}</ref>

Besides Dutch women, many Javanese were also recruited from Indonesia as comfort women, including around 1000 East Timorese women and girls who also used as sexual slaves.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etan.org/et2001c/november/01-3/03thaunt.htm|title=Timor's Haunted Women|author=Jill Jolliffe Dili|date=November 3, 2001|website=East Timor & Indonesia Action Network|access-date=March 8, 2019|archive-date=September 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905031553/http://www.etan.org/et2001c/november/01-3/03thaunt.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Most were adolescent girls aged 14–19 who had completed some education and were deceived through promises of higher education in Tokyo or Singapore. Common destinations of comfort women from Java included Burma, Thailand, and Eastern Indonesia. Interviews conducted with former comfort women also suggest that some women came from the island of [[Flores]]. After the war, many Javanese comfort women who survived stayed in the locations where they had been trafficked to and became integrated into local populations.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pramoedya|2001}}
</ref>

Melanesian women from [[New Guinea]] were also used as comfort women. Local women were recruited from [[Rabaul]] as comfort women, along with some number of mixed [[Japanese settlement in Papua New Guinea|Japanese-Papuan]] women born to Japanese fathers and Papuan mothers.<ref name=pireport/> One Australian Captain, David Hutchinson-Smith, also mentioned mixed-race, young Japanese-Papuan girls conscripted as comfort women.<ref name="auto7"/> A Papuan activist from Western New Guinea claimed an estimated 16,161 Papuan New Guinean comfort women were used by Japanese male soldiers during their occupation of New Guinea.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=34BqDwAAQBAJ&dq=Papuan+comfort+women+16,161&pg=PA96 Comfort Women and Sex in the Battle Zone, By Ikuhiko Hata, 2018]</ref>

In 1985, Japanese comfort woman survivor&nbsp;Shirota Suzuko (1921–1993) released her autobiography,&nbsp;detailing the sufferings she and other women endured as comfort women.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1080/00094633.2019.1691414 | title=The study of "comfort women": Revealing a hidden past—introduction | date=2020 | last1=Wang | first1=Q. Edward | journal=Chinese Studies in History | volume=53 | pages=1–5 | s2cid=214221542 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

More than 2,000 Taiwanese women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military; as of 2020, only two were still believed to be alive.<ref>{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |title=Group urges update to textbooks' WWII terminology |url=https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/08/16/2003741772 |work=Taipei Times |date=August 16, 2020 |access-date=August 18, 2020 |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029071203/https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/08/16/2003741772 |url-status=live }}</ref> Yoshiaki Yoshimi notes that more than half of Taiwanese comfort women were minors.<ref name="Thomas Ward">{{cite journal|last1=Ward|first1=Thomas J.|title=The Comfort Women Controversy – Lessons from Taiwan|journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal|date=April 2018|volume=16|issue=8|url=https://apjjf.org/-Thomas-J--Ward/5137/article.pdf|access-date=July 7, 2021|archive-date=March 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324160436/https://apjjf.org/-Thomas-J--Ward/5137/article.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Yoshiaki Yoshimi|title=Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0CC7smC5xoC|year=2000|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-12033-3|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w0CC7smC5xoC&dq=minors&pg=PA116 116]|access-date=July 14, 2021|archive-date=October 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030060007/https://books.google.com/books?id=w0CC7smC5xoC|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2023 the last surviving Taiwanese comfort woman died.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Everington |first1=Keoni |title=Taiwan's last 'comfort woman' survivor dies at age 92 |url=https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4899516 |website=taiwannews.com.tw |date=May 23, 2023 |publisher=Taiwan News |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-date=May 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523225503/https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4899516 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Japanese academic Nakahara Michiko from [[Waseda University]] wrote a paper on comfort women in Malaysia who were forced to serve the Japanese military. She wrote that the Japanese targeted their comfort women recruitment from all ethnic groups and not just one in the occupied regions. The Malay Mustapha Yaakub, who was Youth International Bureau secretary for the UMNO called for Malaysians who were victimized by Japanese soldiers such as comfort women to go out in public and talk about what happened in 1993. He received multiple letters including one known by the pseudonym P who was interviewed by Nakahara. However, [[Najib Tun Razak]], the head of UMNOF Youth and Defence Minister banned Mustapha Yaakub from talking about the Malay rape victims at the 1993 Austria United Nations Human Rights Conference. Nakahara wrote about an ethnic Malay comfort woman who was raped and forced into sex slavery at a comfort woman station by Japanese soldiers. The Malay rape victim said "''I worked like an animal, they did to me just as they liked. I had to obey their orders until the surrender''". Nakahara said "''Her daughter told me her mother has nightmares and cries in her sleep. She used to wander aimlessly after the bad dreams ... She told me herself that she begged God for pardon for the sins she had committed. She still suffers from her memory and her feeling of having sinned. It seems nobody in her village ever told her that it was not her sin at all ... She had asked her daughter to write a letter for her. However, her long suffering was left unremedied''. The Malay woman thought that the UMNO party would demand the Japanese government apologize and pay reparations since she was a member of the UMNO but the UMNOF leadership refused to press the case.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Loone |first1=Susan |date=11 Aug 2001 |title=Researcher details shattered lives of local comfort women |url=https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/4269 |work=malaysiakini}}</ref>

The Japanese forced ethnic Malay Muslim girls into becoming comfort women to be raped by Japanese soldiers. One of these Malay girls had her experience made into a historical play drama called "Hayatie's life (Hayat Hayatie) when she was raped by the Japanese in Singapore. Another play called Wild Rice was also based on another Malay comfort woman who didn't tell her family in the 1980s how she was raped by the Japanese in the 1940s and sought to hide her humiliation from them.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nanda |first1=Akshita |date=January 23, 2017 |title=Stirring look at comfort women in Singapore |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/stirring-look-at-comfort-women-in-singapore |agency=The Straits Times}}</ref>

On 16–17 October 1992, in Nepal, Kathmandu, the "Conference of International  Investigation Committee on the Crimes of War of Japan" took place with members attending from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Japan, Algeria and France. The UMNO (United Malays National Organization) Youth secretary Musapha Yakuub was a Malay delegate at the meeting and comfort women were one of the topics there. Mustapha then started his own investigation and documentation of all Japanese crimes committed from 1942 to 1945 when they occupied Malaysia against its people. Mustapha urged all victims to report to him the atrocities that the Japanese had done in Malaysia and wanted to force the Japanese government to pay reparations and apologize by bringing up comfort women and forced labor which he called "Cruel deeds" at the UN Human Rights Commission. Mustapha wanted to attend the May 1993 Austria, Vienna UN World Human Rights Conference and submit his report so that countries attacked by Japan could testify to the commission for the reparations and apologies. 3,500 Malaysians sent letters to Mustapha Yaakub in the span of 4 months. The victims thought the UMNO Malaysian government was going to demand reparations and an apology from Japan so they had turned up en masse since a UMNO official was behind the push. Their hopes were dashed when the UMNO heads led by Najiz Razak forced Mustapha Yaakub to back down so Japan did not apologize or pay reparations to Malay rape victims.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Michiko |first1=Nakahara |date=21 Oct 2010 |title="Comfort Women" in Malaysia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/146727101760107442?journalCode=rcra20 |journal=Critical Asian Studies |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=581–589 |doi=10.1080/146727101760107442|pmid=21046839 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
[[File:Malnutrition_Malay_and_Javanese_(AWM_115185).JPG|left|thumb|9 of the 300 [[Indigenous peoples|Indigenous people]], [[Ethnic Malays|Malays]] and [[Javanese people|Javanese]] who survived starvation while in Japanese detention in [[Miri]]. UMNO Malay officials attempted to hide Japanese atrocities against ethnic Malays.]]

Indigenous Indonesian Muslim Javanese girls and women were taken as comfort women by Japanese soldiers and raped. One Indonesian seaman named Sukarno Martodiharjo (unrelated to the Indonesian President Sukarno) witnessed Indonesian Muslim Javanese girls trafficked as comfort women by Japanese soldiers. Indonesian writer [[Pramudya Ananta Tur]] wrote about how Javanese Muslim Indonesian girls were taken as sex slaves by the Japanese and the fact that they were from high class prominent families and their fathers were tricked into sending them into prostitution since the Japanese lied to them and told them their daughters would study in Japan. Javanese collaborators included public servants, school headmasters, policemen, village heads, subdistrict heads and other local chiefs. A Javanese Indonesian Muslim girl, Siti Fatimah recalled being raped as a comfort women by the Japanese after she was tricked into becoming a comfort woman. She was lied to and told she was being taken to Tokyo to study there and instead sent to a Japanese military brothel in Flores to be raped. Over 20,000 Indonesian women reported they were raped by Japanese soldiers since 1993 after the Indonesian government asked Indonesian women to report if they were victims of Japanese rape. Each Javanese Indonesian comfort woman trafficked to a station in Flores was raped by 23 Japanese men daily, 1 officer, 2 NCOs and 20 soldiers. They were expected to be raped by 100 men each week and received a ticket showing it from every one of them. The mass rapes committed by the Japanese against indigenous Javanese Indonesian Muslim women largely went unpunished since the Allied powers like the Dutch and Australians showed no interest in investigation or pressing charges against the Japanese for raping Indonesian women. The Dutch had sexually abused and raped indigenous Javanese Indonesian women for centuries, including using them as military prostitutes for Dutch soldiers; so the Dutch did not view what the Japanese did to Indonesians as a crime, but rather as a norm. The Japanese also destroyed tons of records related to Indonesian comfort women as they were losing the war so the true number of Indonesian comfort women is unknown.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stetz |first1=Margaret D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RW2mBgAAQBAJ&dq=%22since+1993%2C+in+response+to+the+indonesian+government%27s+request%2C+more+than+twenty+thousand+indonesian+women+have+come+forward+and+claimed%22&pg=PA63 |title=Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II |last2=Oh |first2=Bonnie B. C. |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |edition=illustrated |pages=58–63 |isbn=978-1-317-46625-3 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tanaka |first1=Toshiyuki |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4qdLb-LKtpgC&dq=vd+result+indo+dutch+racial+discrimination+unable+serious+criminal+postwar+attitudes+pursue+ample&pg=PA83 |title=Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the US Occupation |last2=Tanaka |first2=Yuki |date=2002 |publisher=Psychology Press |pages=77–83|isbn=978-0-415-19401-3 }}</ref> Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, collaborated with the Japanese and recruited Indonesian girls as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Penders |first1=Christian Lambert Maria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WswLAAAAIAAJ&q=%22This+impression+is+reinforced+by+Sukarno+%27+s+own+glowing+reports26+of+how+he+was+successful+in+regulating+rice+supplies+in+Padang+and+in+procuring+prostitutes+for+the+Japanese+soldiers+%2C+activities+which+cannot+exactly+be+described+as%22 |title=The Life and Times of Sukarno |date=1974 |publisher=Sidgwick & Jackson |isbn=0283484144 |edition=illustrated |page=64}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FFtYAAAAMAAJ&q=%22During+World+War+II+the+Japanese+made+Sukarno+their+chief+adviser+and+propagandist+and+their+recruiter+for+labourers+%2C+soldiers+%2C+and+prostitutes%22 |title=The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 11 |date=1998 |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |isbn=0852296630 |edition=15 |page=361}}</ref>{{Verify source|date=November 2025}}

=== Treatment of comfort women ===
It is estimated that most of the survivors became infertile because of the multiple rapes or venereal diseases contracted following the rapes.<ref name="de Brouwer 2005 8">{{Citation |last=de Brouwer |first=Anne-Marie |title=Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence |orig-year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhY8ROsA39kC&q=war+rape+in+ancient+times |publisher=Intersentia |isbn=978-90-5095-533-1 |page=8 |year=2005 |access-date=October 30, 2020 |archive-date=October 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030060008/https://books.google.com/books?id=JhY8ROsA39kC&q=war+rape+in+ancient+times#v=snippet&q=war%20rape%20in%20ancient%20times&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

Women and girls were stripped of their agency and dehumanized as "'female ammunition', 'public toilets', or 'military supplies'". In order to help injured Japanese soldiers receive treatment, some of them were even forced to donate blood. Even though every victim's testimony was unique, they all shared commonalities: they all experienced severe and brutal physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. They were repeatedly beaten and  forced to perform sexual service with 10 men on normal days and up to 40 men on days after combat.<ref name =Ramaj>{{cite journal | url=https://brill.com/view/journals/icla/22/3/article-p475_004.xml?language=en | doi=10.1163/15718123-bja10127 | title=The 2015 South Korean–Japanese Agreement on 'Comfort Women': A Critical Analysis | date=2022 | last1=Ramaj | first1=Klea | journal=International Criminal Law Review | volume=22 | issue=3 | pages=475–509 | s2cid=246922197 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

Sufficient food, water, proper housing, toilets, and washing facilities were not provided to the women, and the extent of medical care was restricted to treating sexually transmitted diseases, sterilization, and terminating pregnancies. Torture was used against women who attempted to flee or refused to comply with the troops' demands. In addition, threats were made to the families of girls who attempted suicide.<ref name =Ramaj/>

Since comfort women were forced to travel to the battlefields with the Japanese Imperial Army, many comfort women perished as Allied forces overwhelmed Japan's Pacific defense and annihilated Japanese encampments.{{sfn|Hicks|1997|pp=153–155}} In certain cases, the Japanese military executed Korean comfort women when they fled from losing battles with the Allied Forces.{{sfn|Hicks|1997|p=154}} During the last stand of Japanese forces in 1944–45, comfort women were often forced to commit suicide or were killed.<ref name="auto4">{{harvnb|Hicks|1996|p=320}}</ref> During World war II, at [[Chuuk Island|Chuuk]] Lagoon, 70 comfort women were killed prior to the expected American assault, when the Navy mistook the American air raid as the prelude to an American landing. During the [[Battle of Saipan]] comfort women were among those who committed suicide by jumping off cliffs.<ref name="auto4"/> In Burma, there were cases of Korean comfort women committing suicide by swallowing cyanide pills or being killed by hand grenades tossed into their dug-outs.<ref name="auto4"/> During the [[Battle of Manila (1945)|Battle of Manila]], when Japanese sailors ran amok and killed civilians indiscriminately, there were cases of comfort women being killed, though this does not seem to have been a systematic policy.<ref name="auto4"/> The Japanese government had told the Japanese colonists on Saipan that the Americans were cannibals, and so the Japanese population preferred suicide to falling into the hands of the Americans. Many of the Asian comfort women may also have believed this. British soldiers fighting in Burma often reported that the Korean comfort women whom they captured were astonished to learn that the British were not going to eat them.<ref name="auto4"/> Ironically, given this claim, there were cases of starving Japanese troops cut off on remote Pacific islands or trapped in the jungles of Burma turning towards cannibalism, and there were at least several cases where comfort women in Burma and on Pacific islands were killed to provide food for the Imperial Japanese Army.<ref name="auto4"/>

According to an account by a survivor, she was beaten when she attempted to resist being raped.<ref name="statement" /> The women who were not prostitutes prior to joining the "comfort women corps", especially those taken in by force, were normally "broken in" by being raped.<ref>{{harvnb|Hicks|1996|p=315}}</ref> One Korean woman, [[Kim Hak-sun]], stated in a 1991 interview about how she was drafted into the "comfort women corps" in 1941: "When I was 17 years old, the Japanese soldiers came along in a truck, beat us [her and a friend], and then dragged us into the back. I was told if I were drafted, I could earn lots of money in a textile factory&nbsp;... The first day I was raped and the rapes never stopped&nbsp;... I was born a woman but never lived as a woman&nbsp;... I feel sick when I come close to a man. Not just Japanese men, but all men-even my own husband who saved me from the brothel. I shiver whenever I see a Japanese flag&nbsp;... Why should I feel ashamed? I don't have to feel ashamed."<ref name="auto2">{{harvnb|Watanabe|1999|pp=19–20}}</ref> Kim stated that she was raped 30–40 times a day, every day of the year during her time as a "comfort woman".<ref name="auto3">{{harvnb|Watanabe|1999|p=20}}</ref> Reflecting their dehumanized status, Army and Navy records where referring to the movement of comfort women always used the term "units of war supplies".<ref>{{harvnb|Hicks|1996|p=316}}</ref>

In the Philippines according to the recounts of Filipino survivors Narcisa Claveria, who was enslaved for 18 months at the age of 13, during the day the women were forced to cook, clean, and do laundry. At night the Japanese soldiers raped and abused the women.<ref>{{Citation |title=Filipino comfort women fight to seek justice {{!}} Iba 'Yan | date=March 28, 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97xeI4wj2KI |access-date=2023-03-24 |language=en |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324191630/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97xeI4wj2KI |url-status=live }}</ref> The story of the comfort women doing household chores during the day and being sexually abused at night was also recounted by another Filipino Survivor Fedencia David, who was kidnapped by Japanese soldiers at age 14, who also remembered being forced to wash clothes and cook for the Japanese soldiers. At night, she was raped by as many as 5 to 10 Japanese soldiers.<ref>{{Citation |title=Fedencia narrates her hardships as a comfort woman {{!}} Iba 'Yan | date=March 28, 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koVTIAplBXc |access-date=2023-03-24 |language=en |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324191629/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koVTIAplBXc |url-status=live }}</ref> Along with being raped multiple times a day the women were subjected to separation from their families, often watching their families being murdered by Japanese soldiers. One survivor recounts that when the Japanese soldiers took her, "soldiers began to skin her father alive."<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=Julie |date=December 4, 2020 |title=Photos: Why These World War II Sex Slaves Are Still Demanding Justice |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/12/04/940819094/photos-there-still-is-no-comfort-for-the-comfort-women-of-the-philippines. |website=NPR |access-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324191626/https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/12/04/940819094/photos-there-still-is-no-comfort-for-the-comfort-women-of-the-philippines. |url-status=live }}</ref> This maltreatment left physical and emotional scars.

Military doctors and medical workers frequently raped the women during medical examinations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-110hhrg33317/pdf/CHRG-110hhrg33317.pdf|title=S Congress, House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hearing on Protecting the Human Rights of "Comfort Women," Statement by Jan Ruff O'Herne AO Friends of "Comfort Women" in Australia|pages=25|access-date=July 13, 2021|archive-date=July 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713132312/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-110hhrg33317/pdf/CHRG-110hhrg33317.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> One Japanese Army doctor, Asō Tetsuo, testified that the comfort women were seen as "female ammunition" and as "public toilets"—as literally just things to be used and abused—with some comfort women being forced to donate blood for the treatment of wounded soldiers.<ref name="auto3"/> At least 80% of the comfort women were Korean, who were assigned to the lower ranks, while Japanese and European women went to the officers. For example, Dutch women captured in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) were reserved exclusively for the officers.<ref>{{harvnb|Watanabe|1999|pp=20–21}}</ref> Korea is a Confucian country where premarital sex was widely disapproved of, and since the Korean teenagers taken into the "comfort women corps" were almost always virgins, it was felt that this was the best way to limit the spread of venereal diseases that would otherwise incapacitate soldiers and sailors.<ref>{{harvnb|Watanabe|1999|p=21}}</ref>

[[File:Jan O'Herne.jpg|thumb|upright|Studio portrait of [[Jan Ruff O'Herne]], taken shortly before she, her mother and sisters, and thousands of other [[Dutch people|Dutch]] women and children were interned by the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] in [[Ambarawa]]. Over the following months, O'Herne and six other Dutch women were repeatedly raped and beaten, day and night, by IJA personnel.<ref name="AlliesAdversity">{{cite web|title=Allies in adversity, Australia and the Dutch in the Pacific War: Comfort women|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/alliesinadversity/prisoners/women|publisher=[[Australian War Memorial]]|access-date=December 12, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213143616/https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/alliesinadversity/prisoners/women|archive-date=December 13, 2017}}</ref>]]
Ten Dutch women were taken by force from prison camps in Java by officers of the Imperial Japanese Army to become forced sex slaves in February 1944. They were systematically beaten and raped day and night.<ref name="statement" /><ref name="denial">{{Harvnb|Onishi 2007-03-08|Ref=CITEREFNY Times2007-03-08}}</ref> As a victim of the incident, in 1990, [[Jan Ruff-O'Herne]] testified to a U.S. House of Representatives committee:
{{blockquote|Many stories have been told about the horrors, brutalities, suffering and starvation of Dutch women in Japanese prison camps. But one story was never told, the most shameful story of the worst human rights abuse committed by the Japanese during World War II: The story of the "Comfort Women", the jugun ianfu, and how these women were forcibly seized against their will, to provide sexual services for the Japanese Imperial Army. In the "comfort station" I was systematically beaten and raped day and night. Even the Japanese doctor raped me each time he visited the brothel to examine us for venereal disease.<ref name="statement">{{Harvnb|O'Herne|2007}}.</ref><ref name="denial" />}}

In their first morning at the brothel, photographs of Ruff-O'Herne and the others were taken and placed on the veranda which was used as a reception area for the Japanese personnel who would choose from these photographs. Over the following four months the girls were raped and beaten day and night, with those who became pregnant forced to have abortions. After four harrowing months, the girls were moved to a camp at [[Bogor]], in West Java, where they were reunited with their families. This camp was exclusively for women who had been put into military brothels, and the Japanese warned the inmates that if anyone told what had happened to them, they and their family members would be killed. Several months later the O'Hernes were transferred to a camp at Batavia, which was liberated on August 15, 1945.<ref name=AlliesAdversity/><ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/tv/talkingheads/txt/s2492804.htm Jan Ruff-O'Herne] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120410193631/http://www.abc.net.au/tv/talkingheads/txt/s2492804.htm |date=April 10, 2012 }}, ''"Talking Heads"'' transcriptabc.net.au</ref><ref>[https://www.smh.com.au/news/national/australian-sex-slave-seeks-apology/2007/02/13/1171128950424.html "Australian sex slave seeks apology"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213063315/http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/australian-sex-slave-seeks-apology/2007/02/13/1171128950424.html |date=December 13, 2011 }}, February 13, 2007, The Sydney Morning Herald</ref>

Suki Falconberg, a comfort women survivor, shared her experiences:
{{blockquote|Serial penetration by many men is not a mild form of torture. Just the tears at the vaginal opening feel like fire applied to a cut. Your genitals swell and bruise. Damage to the womb and other internal organs can also be tremendous ... [B]eing used as a public dumping ground by those men left me with deep shame that I still feel in the pit of my stomach – it's like a hard, heavy, sick feeling that never entirely goes away. They saw not just my completely helpless, naked body, but they heard me beg, and cry. They reduced me to something low and disgusting that suffered miserably in front of them ... Even years later, it has taken tremendous courage for me to put these words on the page, so deep is the cultural shame ...<ref name="Bloomsbury Academic">{{cite book|last1=Norma|first1=Caroline|title=The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars (War, Culture and Society) |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|location=London |isbn=978-1472512475|page=1}}</ref>}}

At [[Blora, Blora|Blora]], twenty European women and girls were imprisoned in two houses. Over a period of three weeks, as Japanese units passed by the houses, the women and their daughters were brutally and repeatedly raped.<ref name=Felton/>

In the [[Bangka Island]], most of the Australian nurses captured were raped before they were murdered.<ref name="Bangka Island: The WW2 massacre and a 'truth too awful to speak'">{{citation|title = Bangka Island: The WW2 massacre and a 'truth too awful to speak'|url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47796046|work = BBC News|author = Gary Nunn|date = April 18, 2019|access-date = October 5, 2020|archive-date = March 15, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220315060449/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47796046|url-status = live}}</ref>

The Japanese officers involved received some punishment by Japanese authorities at the end of the war.<ref name="awf">{{cite web|url=http://www.awf.or.jp/program/pdf/p107_141.pdf |script-title=ja:日本占領下インドネシアにおける慰安婦 |access-date=March 23, 2007 |language=ja |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070628152203/http://www.awf.or.jp/program/pdf/p107_141.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date = June 28, 2007}}</ref> After the end of the war, 11 Japanese officers were found guilty, with one soldier being sentenced to death by the Batavia War Criminal Court.<ref name="awf" /> The court decision found that the charge violated was the Army's order to hire only voluntary women.<ref name="awf" /> Victims from [[East Timor]] testified they were forced into slavery even when they were not old enough to have started menstruating. The court testimonies state that these prepubescent girls were repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers<ref>{{Harvnb|Hirano 2007-04-28|Ref=JapanTimes2007-04-28}}</ref> while those who refused to comply were killed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Coop 2006-12-23|Ref=JapanTimes2006-12-23}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">[http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/kbsspecial/vod/1383556_11686.html 일본군 위안부 세계가 껴안다-1년간의 기록] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609222113/http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/kbsspecial/vod/1383556_11686.html |date=June 9, 2007 }}, February 25, 2006</ref>

[[Hank Nelson]], emeritus professor at the [[Australian National University]]'s Asia Pacific Research Division, has written about the brothels run by the Japanese military in [[Rabaul]], in what is now [[Papua New Guinea]] during WWII. He quotes from the diary of Gordon Thomas, a POW in Rabaul. Thomas writes that the women working at the brothels "most likely served 25 to 35 men a day" and that they were "victims of the yellow slave trade".<ref name="Nelson_rabaul">{{Harvnb|Nelson|2007}}.</ref> Nelson also quotes from Kentaro Igusa, a Japanese naval surgeon who was stationed in Rabaul. Igusa wrote in his memoirs that the women had to wash their genitals after each contact, but since some were unable to wash theirs effectively some due to inexperience, may have been a reason why they became infected with venereal disease, of which some of their genitalia became so badly swollen that they "cried and begged for help". the women continued to work through infection and severe discomfort, using the newly released sulpha drugs which Igusa claims brought about quick cures.<ref name="Nelson_rabaul" />

Contrarily, a report based on interrogation of 20 Korean comfort women and two Japanese civilians captured after the [[Siege of Myitkyina]] in Burma indicated that the comfort women lived comparatively well, received many gifts, and were paid wages while they were in Burma.<ref name=report49 /> The label '[[homecoming women]]', originally referring to comfort women who returned to Korea, has remained as a pejorative term for sexually active women in South Korea.<ref>Choi, Chungmoo (1998), 'Nationalism and Construction of Gender in Korea', ''Dangerous Women'' ed. Kim & Choi. Routledge, New York.</ref>

=== Sterility, abortion and reproduction ===
The Japanese Army and Navy went to great lengths to avoid venereal diseases with large numbers of condoms being handed out for free.<ref name="auto5">{{harvnb|Hicks|1996|p=319}}</ref> Japanese soldiers were required to use these "Attack No. 1"-branded condoms during sex.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Rodriguez |first=Sarah Mellors |title=Reproductive realities in modern China : birth control and abortion, 1911-2021 |date=2023 |isbn=978-1-009-02733-5 |publisher= Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |oclc=1366057905}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=65–66}} For example, documents show that in July 1943 the Army handed out 1,000 condoms for soldiers in Negri Sembilan and another 10,000 for soldiers in Perak.<ref name="auto5"/> However, the women had no ability to resist or object when Japanese soldiers refused to wear condoms.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=66}}

Comfort women were usually injected with [[Arsphenamine|salvarsan]], which together with damage to the vagina caused by rape were the causes of unusually high rates of [[Sterility (physiology)|sterility]] among the comfort women.<ref name="auto5" /><ref>Cal State J Med. 1914 Sep; 12(9): p373–375. The Dose of Salvarsan, Douglass W. Montgomery</ref>

As the war went on and as the shortages caused by the sinking of almost the entire Japanese merchant marine by American submarines kicked in, medical care for the comfort women declined as dwindling medical supplies were reserved for the servicemen.<ref name="auto5"/> As Japanese logistics broke down as the American submarines sank one Japanese ship after another, condoms had to be washed and reused, reducing their effectiveness.<ref name="auto5"/> Comfort women themselves and local laborers were required to wash and recycle the used condoms.<ref name=":2"/>{{Rp|page=66}} In the Philippines, comfort women were billed by Japanese doctors if they required medical treatment.<ref name="auto4"/> In many cases, comfort women who were seriously ill were abandoned to die alone.<ref name="auto4"/>

The Survey of Korean Comfort Women Used by Japanese Soldiers said that 30% of the interviewed former Korean comfort women produced biological children and 20% adopted children after World War II.<!--The preceding information is in the second sentence of the second paragraph.--><ref>Rhee Devine, Maija. (2017). Children of 'comfort women'. [[The Korea Times]]. February 27, 2018, from [https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2017/08/162_235364.html link to article.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228162955/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2017/08/162_235364.html |date=February 28, 2018 }}</ref>

== History of the issue ==
In 1944, [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] forces captured twenty Korean comfort women and two Japanese comfort station owners in Burma and issued a report, Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report 49. According to the report, Korean women were deceived into being used as comfort women by the Japanese; in 1942, there were about 800 women trafficked from Korea to Burma for this purpose, under the pretence of being recruited for work such as visiting the wounded in hospitals or rolling bandages.<ref name="css4">{{harvnb|Soh|2009|p=34}}</ref><ref name="Clough164">{{cite book |last= Clough |first= Patricia |title= The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DEIIYoYEyD8C&q=Wianbu&pg=PA164 |publisher= [[Duke University Press]] |year= 2007 |isbn= 978-0-8223-3925-0 |page= 164 |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180305024103/https://books.google.com/books?id=DEIIYoYEyD8C&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=Wianbu&source=bl&ots=yadI9vfzKu&sig=ydugIrQgbFbAHWXipK9OX2jl9Yk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_uxsUeLxJ4WQiAea-IG4AQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=Wianbu&f=false |archive-date= March 5, 2018 }}</ref>

In [[Confucianism|Confucian]] cultures such as those of China and Korea, where [[premarital sex]] is considered shameful, the subject of the comfort women was ignored for decades after 1945 as the victims were considered pariahs.<ref>{{harvnb|Watanabe|1999|pp=23–24}}</ref> In Confucian cultures, traditionally an unmarried woman must value her chastity above her own life, and any women who loses her virginity before marriage for whatever reason is expected to commit suicide; by choosing to live, the survivors made themselves into outcasts.<ref>{{harvnb|Watanabe|1999|p=24}}</ref> Moreover, documents such as the 1952 [[Treaty of San Francisco]], as well as the 1965 [[Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea|treaty which normalised relations between Japan and South Korea]], had been interpreted by the Japanese government as having their issues related to war crimes settled, despite the fact that none of them specifically mentioned the comfort women system.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=CHANG|first=MINA|date=2009|title=The Politics of an Apology: Japan and Resolving the "Comfort Women" Issue|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42763319|journal=Harvard International Review|volume=31|issue=3|pages=34–37|jstor=42763319|issn=0739-1854|access-date=October 19, 2021|archive-date=March 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306235115/https://www.jstor.org/stable/42763319|url-status=live}}</ref>

The issue has been discussed in Korean newspapers since the war's end, with the number of articles jumping in the 1960s, when negotiations towards the [[Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea|normalization of Japan-Korea relations]] were underway, and further spiking in the 1980s, after the discovery of living former comfort women.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 August 2015 |title=우리가 잊은 할머니들...국내 첫 커밍아웃 이남님, 타이에서 가족 찾은 노수복 |url=https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/international/japan/703616.html |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=[[Hankyoreh]] |language=ko}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Higashi |first1=Julie |last2=Field |first2=Norma |last3=Yamaguchi |first3=Tomomi |last4=Veki |first4=Yoshikata |date=2015 |title='Comfort Women' Denial and the Japanese Right |url=https://apjjf.org/2015/13/30/yoshikata-veki/4350 |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |language=en-US}}</ref>

An early figure in comfort women research was the writer [[Kakou Senda]], who first encountered photographs of comfort women in 1962, but was unable to find adequate information explaining who the women in the photographs were. Senda, through a long process of investigation, published the first book on the subject, entitled ''Military Comfort Women'', in 1973.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Soh|first=Chunghee Sarah|title=The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan|date=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-76776-5|location=Chicago|oclc=225875908}}</ref> Nonetheless, the book did not garner widespread publicity,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Stetz|first1=Margaret D.|title=Legacies of the comfort women of World War II|last2=Oh|first2=Bonnie B. C.|date=2001|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=0-7656-0543-0|location=Armonk, N.Y.|oclc=45861973}}</ref> and his book has been widely criticized as distorting the facts by both Japanese and South Korean historians.<ref>韓国挺身隊問題対策協議会・挺身隊研究会 (編)「証言・強制連行された朝鮮人軍慰安婦たち」 明石書店 1993年</ref> In any event, this book did become an important source for 1990s activism on the issue.<ref>{{harvnb|Soh|2009|p=148}}</ref> The first book written by a Korean on the subject of comfort women appeared in 1981. However, it was a [[plagiarism]] of a 1976 Japanese book by the [[Koreans in Japan|zainichi]] author Kim Il-Myeon.<ref>{{harvnb|Soh|2009|p=160}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/md_basic.asp?nation=K&p_dataid=02808|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070519103834/http://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/md_basic.asp?nation=K&p_dataid=02808|title=KMDb|archive-date=May 19, 2007}}</ref>

In 1982, a dispute over [[Japanese history textbook controversies|history textbooks]] sprang up after the [[Ministry of Education (Japan)|Ministry of Education]] ordered a number of deletions in history textbooks related to Japanese wartime aggression and atrocities. This ignited protest from neighbouring countries such as China and also sparked interest in the subject among some Japanese, including a number of wartime veterans who began to speak more openly about their past actions. However, the comfort women issue was not a central topic and instead most of this resurgence in historical interest went towards other themes such as the [[Nanjing Massacre]] and [[Unit 731]]. Nevertheless, historians who had studied Japan's wartime activities in-depth were already aware of the existence of comfort women in general.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Hayashi|first=Hirofumi|date=2008|title=Disputes in Japan over the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" System and Its Perception in History|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25098017|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=617|pages=123–132|doi=10.1177/0002716208314191|jstor=25098017|s2cid=145678875|issn=0002-7162|access-date=October 19, 2021|archive-date=February 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209101413/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25098017|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In August 2014, the Japanese newspaper [[Asahi Shimbun]] retracted articles that were published based on or including information from Seiji Yoshida, who claimed that he was responsible for the forced abduction of comfort women. The paper clarified that this does not weaken the evidence supporting the existence of comfort women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asahi.com/topics/ianfumondaiwokangaeru/en/|title=Thinking about the comfort women issueに関するトピックス: 朝日新聞デジタル|work=[[The Asahi Shimbun]]|access-date=November 24, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018024342/http://www.asahi.com/topics/ianfumondaiwokangaeru/en/|archive-date=October 18, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asahi.com/articles/SDI201408213563.html|title=Testimony about 'forcible taking away of women on Jeju Island': Judged to be fabrication because supporting evidence not found|work=[[The Asahi Shimbun]]|date=August 22, 2014 |access-date=November 24, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119084705/http://www.asahi.com/articles/SDI201408213563.html|archive-date=November 19, 2015}}</ref> Following the retraction, attacks from conservatives increased. [[Takashi Uemura (academic)|Takashi Uemura]], a journalist who published an article in 1991 but was forced to retract it years later, faced threats and attacks from conservatives, with his employer, [[Hokusei Gakuen University]], also receiving bomb threats from the same group. Ultranationalists further targeted his children, posting online messages encouraging people to drive his teenage daughter to suicide.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/world/asia/japanese-right-attacks-newspaper-on-the-left-emboldening-war-revisionists.html|title = Rewriting the War, Japanese Right Attacks a Newspaper|last = Fackler|first = Martin|date = December 2, 2014|work = The New York Times|access-date = December 6, 2014|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141207083446/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/world/asia/japanese-right-attacks-newspaper-on-the-left-emboldening-war-revisionists.html|archive-date = December 7, 2014}}</ref> Uemura sued for libel but lost his case against Professor [[Tsutomu Nishioka]] and Japanese news magazine ''[[Shūkan Bunshun]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title = 元朝日記者の敗訴確定 慰安婦報道訴訟―最高裁 |url = https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2021031200973 |publisher = 時事ドットコムニュース |date = March 12, 2021 |access-date = April 11, 2021 |archive-date = April 11, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210411182926/https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2021031200973 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

The existence of comfort women in South Korea and activism in their favour began to build momentum following democratisation in 1987, but no former comfort woman had yet come forward publicly. After the Japanese government denied that the state was involved and rejected calls for apologies and compensation in a June 1991 Diet session, [[Kim Hak-sun]] came forward in August 1991 as the first to tell her story.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Kuki|first=Sonya|title=The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward|date=2013|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24461685|journal=Journal of International Affairs|volume=67|issue=1|pages=245–256|jstor=24461685|issn=0022-197X|access-date=October 19, 2021|archive-date=October 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019190730/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24461685|url-status=live}}</ref> She was followed by others in several different countries demanding an apology from the Japanese government through lawsuits being filed. The Japanese government initially denied any responsibility, but, in January 1992, historian [[Yoshiaki Yoshimi]] discovered official documents from the archives of the [[Ministry of Defense (Japan)|Defense Agency]]'s National Institute of Defense Studies which indicated Japanese military involvement in establishing and running "comfort stations." Following this, Prime Minister [[Kiichi Miyazawa]] became the first Japanese leader to issue a statement specifically apologising for the comfort women issue.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1992-01-18 |title=JAPAN APOLOGIZES ON KOREA SEX ISSUE (Published 1992) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/18/world/japan-apologizes-on-korea-sex-issue.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20231124092317/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/18/world/japan-apologizes-on-korea-sex-issue.html |archive-date=2023-11-24 |access-date=2025-10-08 |language=en}}</ref> This led to an intense increase of public interest in the topic as well. In 1993, following multiple testimonies, the [[Kono Statement of 1993|Kono Statement]] (named after then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono) was issued by Japanese Government confirming that coercion was involved in seizing the comfort women.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="konostate">{{Harvnb|Kono|1993}}.</ref>

All of this has since triggered a counterreaction from Japanese right-wing forces since the mid-1990s, with disputes over history textbooks being a common example. In 1999, the Japanese historian Kazuko Watanabe complained about a lack of sisterhood among Japanese women, citing a survey showing 50% of Japanese women did not believe in the stories of the comfort women, charging that many Japanese simply regard other Asians as "others" whose feelings do not count.<ref name="auto2" /> In 2004, Minister of Education [[Nariaki Nakayama]] made known his desire to remove references to comfort women from history textbooks, and textbooks approved in 2005 contained no mentions of comfort women at all.<ref name=":0" /> In 2007, the Japanese government issued a response to questions which had been posed to Prime Minister Abe about his position on the issue, concluding that "No evidence was found that the Japanese army or the military officials seized the women by force."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shugiin.go.jp/itdb_shitsumon.nsf/html/shitsumon/b166110.htm |title=衆議院議員辻元清美君提出安倍首相の「慰安婦」問題への認識に関する質問に対する答弁書 |trans-title=Answer to the question by the House of Representatives member Kiyomi Tsujimoto regarding the prime minister Abe's recognition of Comfort women issue |publisher=House of Representatives |date=March 16, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516051306/http://www.shugiin.go.jp/itdb_shitsumon.nsf/html/shitsumon/b166110.htm |archive-date=May 16, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.47news.jp/CN/200703/CN2007031601000285.html |date=March 16, 2007 |script-title=ja:軍の強制連行の証拠ない 河野談話で政府答弁書 |trans-title=No evidence of the forced seizures. A cabinet decision on Kono statement. |agency=Kyodo News |publisher=47News |language=ja |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902225651/http://www.47news.jp/CN/200703/CN2007031601000285.html |archive-date=September 2, 2012 }}</ref> In 2014, Chief Cabinet Secretary [[Yoshihide Suga]] formed a team to reexamine the background of the report.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26379645 |title=Japan to review lead-up to WW2 comfort women statement |date=February 28, 2014 |newspaper=BBC News |publisher=The BBC |access-date=February 28, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228164538/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26379645 |archive-date=February 28, 2014 }}</ref> The review brought to light coordination between Japan and South Korea in the process of composing the [[Kono Statement]] and concluded that, at the request of Seoul, Tokyo stipulated coercion was involved in recruiting the women.<ref>{{cite web |date=June 20, 2014 |title=Japan, S Korea coordinated on wording of Kono statement |url=http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Japan-S-Korea-coordinated-on-wording-of-Kono-statement |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140802065017/http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Japan-S-Korea-coordinated-on-wording-of-Kono-statement |publisher=Nikkei Inc |archive-date=August 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=August 12, 2014 }}</ref> After the review, Suga and Prime Minister [[Shinzō Abe|Shinzo Abe]] stated that Japan continues to uphold the Kono Statement.

In 2014, China released documents it said were "ironclad proof" that the comfort women were forced to work as [[prostitutes]] against their will, including documents from the Japanese Kwantung Army military police corps archives and documents from the national bank of Japan's puppet regime in [[Manchuria]].<ref>{{Cite news |author1=Justin McCurry in Tokyo |author2=Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/japan-second-world-war-brothels-papers-china |title=Papers prove Japan forced women into second world war brothels, says China |access-date=June 8, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140604031510/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/japan-second-world-war-brothels-papers-china |archive-date=June 4, 2014 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=April 28, 2014 }}</ref>

In 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan asserted officially the view that the expression "sex slaves" contradicts the facts and should not be used, noting that this point had been confirmed with South Korea in a Japan-South Korea agreement.<ref name="mofa_2019">{{cite web |url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/other/bluebook/2019/html/references/r0101.html |date=2019 |title=Diplomatic Bluebook 2019 / The Issue of Comfort Women |website=Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan) |access-date=February 1, 2021 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414015720/https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/other/bluebook/2019/html/references/r0101.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Apologies and compensation 1951–2009 ===
{{Main|List of war apology statements issued by Japan}}

The governments of South Korea and Japan maintained a cold relationship during the [[First Republic of Korea|first republic]] under President [[Syngman Rhee]]. After several failed normalisation talks, no formal diplomatic relations were ever established by Rhee's ousting in 1960. The [[Second Republic of Korea|second republic]] under Prime Minister [[Chang Myon|Jang Myeon]] made some progress on these talks, but this government was overthrown only a year later in the 1961 [[May 16 coup]], and normalisation was once again delayed. The [[Third Republic of Korea|third republic]] was led by [[Park Chung Hee|Park Chung-hee]], a military strongman who served in the Japanese-aligned [[Manchukuo Imperial Army|Manchukuo army]] during World War II. His administration placed high priority on normalising ties between the two states in order to facilitate [[Miracle on the Han River|his plans]] for economic modernisation and industrialisation. In talks between the two sides around 1964, Park's side initially demanded $364 million in compensation for Koreans forced into labor and military service during the Japanese occupation: $200 per survivor, $1,650 per death and $2,000 per injured person.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060209042342/http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200501/200501170044.html "Seoul Demanded $364 Million for Japan's Victims Updated"], ''[[The Chosun Ilbo]]'' January 17, 2005 (archived from [http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200501/200501170044.html the original] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20060209042342/http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200501/200501170044.html |date=February 9, 2006 }} on February 9, 2006)</ref> Tokyo offered to compensate the victims directly, but Seoul insisted that Japan simply give the South Korean government financial aid instead. In the final agreement reached in the 1965 treaty, Japan provided an $800 million aid and low-interest loan package over 10 years. Park's government "spent most of the money on economic development, focusing on infrastructure and the promotion of heavy industry".{{attribution needed|date=December 2017}}<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131122092945/http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KOR-01-221113.html Korea-Japan ties burdened by baggage], November 23, 2013</ref>

Initially, the Japanese government denied any involvement in the comfort women system, until Yoshimi Yoshiaki discovered and published documents from the Japanese Self-Defense Agency's library that suggested direct military involvement.{{sfn|Drea|2006|p=40}} In 1994, under public pressure, the Japanese government admitted its complicity and created the public-private [[Asian Women's Fund]] (AWF) to compensate former comfort women.{{sfn|Drea|2006|p=40}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.awf.or.jp/e2/foundation.html|title=Establishment of the AW Fund, and the basic nature of its projects|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120526140924/http://www.awf.or.jp/e2/foundation.html|archive-date=May 26, 2012}}</ref> The fund was also used to present an official Japanese narrative about the issue.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0170.pdf|title=The "Comfort Women" Issue and the Asian Women's Fund|website=The Asian Women's Fund|access-date=July 13, 2021|archive-date=January 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109152657/https://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0170.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Sixty one Korean, 13 Taiwanese, 211 Filipino, and 79 Dutch former comfort women were provided with a signed apology from the then prime minister [[Tomiichi Murayama]], stating "As Prime Minister of Japan, I thus extend anew my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women."<ref>{{Harvnb|Asian Women's Fund|1996}}.</ref><ref name="Mainichi20140322">{{cite web |publisher=The Mainichi Newspapers |date=February 27, 2014 |title=Atonement money for Comfort women: 30% lower Koreans accepted |language=ja |url=http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20140227k0000m040138000c.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227121314/http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20140227k0000m040138000c.html |archive-date=February 27, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Many former Korean comfort women rejected the compensations on principle – although the Asian Women's Fund was set up by the Japanese government, its money came not from the government but from private donations, hence the compensation was not "official". Eventually, 61 former Korean comfort women accepted 5 million yen (approx. $42,000{{refn|Estimated at January 1, 2007, exchange rate of .0084JPY/USD.<ref>[http://www.oanda.com/currency/historical-rates/ Historical currency exchange rates] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004000103/http://www.oanda.com/currency/historical-rates/ |date=October 4, 2013 }}, Oanda.com.</ref>}}) per person from the AWF along with the signed apology, while 142 others received funds from the government of Korea.<ref>{{cite web |title=Details of Exchanges Between Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Regarding the Comfort Women Issue |publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs |page=29 |url=http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000042171.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008013725/http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000042171.pdf |archive-date=October 8, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Atonement Project of the Asian Women's Fund, Projects by country or region-South Korea |publisher=Asian Women's Fund |url=http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/korea.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029191237/http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/korea.html |archive-date=October 29, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Hogg|first=Chris|title=Japan's divisive 'comfort women' fund|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6530197.stm|access-date=October 22, 2013|newspaper=BBC|date=April 10, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131027002205/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6530197.stm|archive-date=October 27, 2013}}</ref> The fund was dissolved on March 31, 2007.<ref name="Mainichi20140322" /><ref>Asian Women's Fund Online Museum [http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/dissolution.html Closing of the Asian Women's Fund] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030052205/http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/dissolution.html |date=October 30, 2012 }} Retrieved on August 17, 2012</ref> However, the establishment of the AWF was criticized as a way for the Japanese government to evade state responsibility; the establishment of the fund also prompted protests from various Asian countries.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Su|first1=Zhiliang|last2=Vickers|first2=Edward|url=https://apjjf.org/2021/5/Su.html|title=Reconstructing the History of the 'Comfort Women' System: The Fruits of 28 years of Investigation into the 'Comfort Women' Issue in China|journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal|volume=19|issue=5, No. 7|year=2021|access-date=May 23, 2022|archive-date=May 21, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521051001/https://apjjf.org/2021/5/Su.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Some recipients of compensation expressed gratitude, with statements such as, "I know they express the feelings of goodwill of the Japanese people. Thank you very much."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Projects by country or region-South Korea |url=https://www.awf.or.jp/e3/korea.html |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=www.awf.or.jp}}</ref>

Three South Korean women filed suit in Japan in December 1991, around the time of the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, demanding compensation for forced prostitution. In 1992, documents which had been stored since 1958 when they were returned by United States troops and which indicated that the military had played a large role in operating what were euphemistically called "comfort stations" were found in the library of Japan's Self-Defense Agency. The Japanese Government admitted that the Imperial Japanese Army had forced tens of thousands of Korean women to have sex with Japanese soldiers during World War II.<ref name="NY Times 1992-01-14">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/14/world/japan-admits-army-forced-koreans-to-work-in-brothels.html?scp=1&sq=Jan%2014,%201992%20comfort%20woment&st=cse | title=Japan Admits Army Forced Koreans to Work in Brothels | work=The New York Times | date=January 14, 1992 | access-date=January 27, 2012 | author=Sanger, David E. | location=Tokyo | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113063131/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/14/world/japan-admits-army-forced-koreans-to-work-in-brothels.html?scp=1&sq=Jan%2014,%201992%20comfort%20woment&st=cse | archive-date=November 13, 2013 }}</ref> On January 14, 1992, Japanese Chief Government Spokesman Koichi Kato issued an official apology saying, "We cannot deny that the former Japanese army played a role" in abducting and detaining the "comfort girls," and "We would like to express our apologies and contrition".<ref name="NY Times 1992-01-14" /><ref name="LA Times">{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-01-14-mn-254-story.html | title=Japan Apologizes for Prostitution of Koreans in WWII | work=Los Angeles Times | date=January 14, 1992 | agency=Associated Press | access-date=January 27, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720080925/http://articles.latimes.com/1992-01-14/news/mn-254_1_south-korea | archive-date=July 20, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DBFZAAAAIBAJ&dq=japan%20statement%20comfort%20women&pg=6923%2C1348837 | title=Japan makes apology to comfort women | work=New Straits Times | date=January 14, 1992 | agency=Reuters | access-date=January 27, 2012 | archive-date=October 20, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020132452/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DBFZAAAAIBAJ&dq=japan%20statement%20comfort%20women&pg=6923%2C1348837 | url-status=live }}</ref> Three days later on January 17, 1992, at a dinner given by South Korean President Roh Tae Woo, the Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told his host: "We Japanese should first and foremost recall the truth of that tragic period when Japanese actions inflicted suffering and sorrow upon your people. We should never forget our feelings of remorse over this. As Prime Minister of Japan, I would like to declare anew my remorse at these deeds and tender my apology to the people of the Republic of Korea." He apologized again the following day in a speech before South Korea's National Assembly.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/17/world/japanese-premier-begins-seoul-visit.html?src=pm | title=Japanese Premier Begins Seoul Visit | work=The New York Times | date=January 17, 1992 | access-date=January 27, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209071512/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/17/world/japanese-premier-begins-seoul-visit.html?src=pm | archive-date=February 9, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/18/world/japan-apologizes-on-korea-sex-issue.html?src=pm | title=Japan Apologizes on Korea Sex Issue | work=The New York Times | date=January 18, 1992 | access-date=January 27, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124072151/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/18/world/japan-apologizes-on-korea-sex-issue.html?src=pm | archive-date=January 24, 2011 }}</ref> On April 28, 1998, the Japanese court ruled that the Government must compensate the women and awarded them {{US$|2300|1998|link=yes}} each.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/28/world/japan-court-backs-3-brothel-victims.html?src=pm | title=Japan Court Backs 3 Brothel Victims | work=The New York Times | date=April 28, 1998 | access-date=January 27, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124072258/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/28/world/japan-court-backs-3-brothel-victims.html?src=pm | archive-date=January 24, 2011 }}</ref>

In 2007, the surviving women wanted an apology from the Japanese government. Shinzō Abe, the prime minister at the time, stated on March 1, 2007, that there was no evidence that the Japanese government had kept sex slaves, even though the Japanese government had already admitted the use of coercion in 1993. On March 27 the Japanese parliament issued an official apology.<ref name="Time2010">{{cite news|last=Fastenberg|first=Dan|title=Top 10 National Apologies: Japanese Sex Slavery|url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1997272_1997273_1997286,00.html|access-date=December 29, 2011|newspaper=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=June 17, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107224836/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1997272_1997273_1997286,00.html|archive-date=January 7, 2012}}</ref>

=== Apologies and compensation since 2010 ===
{{Main|Japan–South Korea Comfort Women Agreement}}

[[File:台湾妇援会举行“慰安妇”纪念日抗议活动 要求日本政府道歉.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Protesters from the [[Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation]] protested outside the [[Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association]], demanding that the Japanese government apologize to Taiwanese "comfort women", 2019.]]
On February 20, 2014, Chief Cabinet Secretary [[Yoshihide Suga]] said the Japanese government may reconsider the study and the apology.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.stripes.com/japan-may-review-probe-on-wwii-sex-slavery-1.268811 |title=Japan may review probe on WWII sex slavery |date=February 20, 2014 |website=Stars and Stripes |agency=Associated Press |access-date=February 22, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226072406/http://www.stripes.com/japan-may-review-probe-on-wwii-sex-slavery-1.268811 |archive-date=February 26, 2014 }}</ref> However, Prime Minister Abe clarified on March 14, 2014, that he had no intention of renouncing or altering it.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/106893.php? |title=Abe says won't alter 1993 apology on 'comfort women' |date=March 14, 2014 |agency=Reuters |website=NewsOnJapan |access-date=March 14, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314085619/http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/106893.php |archive-date=March 14, 2014 }}</ref>

On December 28, 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President [[Park Geun-hye]] formally agreed to settle the dispute. Abe again expressed his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women. He acknowledged that they had undergone immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.<ref name="Mofo" /> He stated that Japan continued to hold the position that issues relating to property and claims between Japan and the ROK, including the issue of comfort women, had been settled completely and finally by the Japan-ROK Claims Settlement and Economic Cooperation Agreement of 1965 and welcomed the fact that the issue of comfort women is resolved "finally and irreversibly" with this agreement.<ref name="Mofo">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/na/kr/page4e_000366.html|date=December 28, 2015|title=Japan-ROK summit telephone call|publisher=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan]]|access-date=February 18, 2019|archive-date=February 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220002807/https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/na/kr/page4e_000366.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="記者発表">{{Cite web|date=December 28, 2015|title=Announcement by Foreign Ministers of Japan and the Republic of Korea at the Joint Press Occasion|url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/na/kr/page4e_000364.html|publisher=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan]]|access-date=February 18, 2019|archive-date=November 29, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129143815/https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/na/kr/page4e_000364.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=December 28, 2015|title=한·일 외교장관회담 결과(일본군위안부 피해자 문제 관련 합의 내용)|url=http://www.mofa.go.kr/www/brd/m_4076/view.do?seq=357655&srchFr=&srchTo=&srchWord=%ED%95%9C%C2%B7%EC%9D%BC%C2%A0%EC%99%B8%EA%B5%90%EC%9E%A5%EA%B4%80%ED%9A%8C%EB%8B%B4%C2%A0%EA%B2%B0%EA%B3%BC&srchTp=0&multi_itm_seq=0&itm_seq_1=0&itm_seq_2=0&company_cd=&company_nm=&page=1&titleNm|publisher=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (South Korea)]]|access-date=September 9, 2019|archive-date=July 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728180207/http://www.mofa.go.kr/www/brd/m_4076/view.do?seq=357655&srchFr=&srchTo=&srchWord=%ED%95%9C%C2%B7%EC%9D%BC%C2%A0%EC%99%B8%EA%B5%90%EC%9E%A5%EA%B4%80%ED%9A%8C%EB%8B%B4%C2%A0%EA%B2%B0%EA%B3%BC&srchTp=0&multi_itm_seq=0&itm_seq_1=0&itm_seq_2=0&company_cd=&company_nm=&page=1&titleNm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=December 29, 2015|title=日韓合意のポイント – 日本経済新聞|url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASFS28H55_Y5A221C1MM8000/|newspaper=[[The Nikkei]]|access-date=September 27, 2018|archive-date=September 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928121501/https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASFS28H55_Y5A221C1MM8000/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/01/06/japan-rok-comfort-women-agreement-a-key-step-to-reconciliation/|title=Japan–ROK comfort women agreement a key step to reconciliation|author=Lionel Babicz|date=January 5, 2016|website=East Asia Forum|access-date=March 8, 2019|archive-date=March 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190318082655/http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/01/06/japan-rok-comfort-women-agreement-a-key-step-to-reconciliation/|url-status=live}}</ref>
Japan agreed to pay [[Japanese yen|¥]]1 billion ([[South Korean won|₩]]9.7 billion; [[US dollar|$]]8.3 million) to a fund supporting surviving victims while South Korea agreed to refrain from criticizing Japan regarding the issue and to work to remove a statue memorializing the victims from in front of the Japanese embassy in [[Seoul]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Adelstein|first1=Jake|last2=Kubo|first2=Angela|title=South Korea and Japan 'finally and irreversibly' reconcile on World War II sex slaves|url=https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-korean-sex-slaves-20151228-story.html|access-date=December 28, 2015|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=December 28, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228100740/http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-korean-sex-slaves-20151228-story.html|archive-date=December 28, 2015}}</ref> The announcement came after Japan's Foreign Minister [[Fumio Kishida]] met his counterpart [[Yun Byung-se]] in Seoul, and later Prime Minister Shinzo Abe phoned President Park Geun-hye to repeat an apology already offered by Kishida. The Korean government will administer the fund for the forty-six remaining elderly comfort women and will consider the matter "finally and irreversibly resolved".<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35188135 |title=Japan and South Korea agree WW2 'comfort women' deal |date=December 28, 2015 |newspaper=BBC News |publisher=BBC |access-date=December 28, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228052703/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35188135 |archive-date=December 28, 2015 }}</ref> However, one Korean news organization, [[Hankyoreh]], said that it fails to include the request from the survivals of sexual slavery to state the Japanese government's legal responsibility for the state-level crime of enforcing a system of sexual slavery. The South Korean government did not attempt to collect the viewpoints on the issues from the women most directly affected by it—the survivors themselves.<ref name="english.hani.co.kr">english.hani.co.kr – December 29, 2015:[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/723940.html ''&#91;Editorial&#93; No final resolution without legal responsibility on comfort women issue ' | english.hani.co.kr''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819114359/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/723940.html |date=August 19, 2018 }}</ref> Concerning the deal between two countries,<ref name="english.hani.co.kr" /> literally, Seoul and Tokyo failed to reach a breakthrough on the comfort women issue during the 11th round of Foreign Ministry director-general level talks on December 15, 2015.<ref name="english.hani.co.kr-15 Dec 2015">english.hani.co.kr – December 15, 2015:[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/722175.html "South Korea and Japan fail to reach breakthrough on comfort women issue" | english.hani.co.kr] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819114503/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/722175.html |date=August 19, 2018 }}</ref> Several comfort women protested the agreement as they claim they did not want money, but to see a  sincere acknowledgement of the legal responsibility by the Japanese government.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4164990/korean-comfort-woman-video/|title=South Korea: Watch 'Comfort' Woman Yell At Foreign Minister|author=Tessa Berenson|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=January 2, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102045841/http://time.com/4164990/korean-comfort-woman-video/|archive-date=January 2, 2016}}</ref><ref name="english.hani.co.kr-30 Dec 2015"/><ref name="english.hani.co.kr--29 Dec 2015" /> The co-representative of a support group of the surviving women expressed that the settlement with Japan does not reflect the will of the comfort women, and they vowed to seek its invalidation by reviewing legal options.<ref name="english.hani.co.kr-30 Dec 2015">english.hani.co.kr – December 30, 2015: [http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/724114.html "25 years of progress on comfort women issue 'wiped out' by new agreement" | english.hani.co.kr] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819182059/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/724114.html |date=August 19, 2018 }}</ref><ref name="english.hani.co.kr--29 Dec 2015">english.hani.co.kr – December 29, 2015:[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/723942.html "Diverse interests paved the way for historic comfort women agreement" | english.hani.co.kr] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819182143/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/723942.html |date=August 19, 2018 }}</ref>

On February 16, 2016, the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Seventh and Eighth Periodic Reports, was held, with Shinsuke Sugiyama, Deputy Minister for [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)]], reiterating the official and final agreement between Japan and South Korea to pay ¥1 billion.<ref>{{cite web |title=Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women |url=http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/human/conv_women/index.html |publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan |access-date=September 9, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909233658/http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/human/conv_women/index.html |archive-date=September 9, 2017 }}</ref><ref name="auto6">{{cite web|title= Summary of remarks by Mr. Shinsuke Sugiyama, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Question and Answer session|url= http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000140100.pdf|publisher= Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan|access-date= September 9, 2017|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170910040018/http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000140100.pdf|archive-date= September 10, 2017}}</ref> Sugiyama also restated the Japanese Government apology of that agreement: "The issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of large numbers of women, and the Government of Japan is painfully aware of responsibilities."<ref name="auto6"/>

In August 2016, twelve comfort women filed suit against the government of South Korea, declaring that the government had nullified the victims' individual rights to claim damages from Japan by signing an agreement not to demand further legal responsibility without consulting with the victims themselves. The suit claimed the 2015 deal  violated a 2011 Constitutional Court ruling that the South Korean government must "offer its cooperation and protection so that citizens whose human dignity and values have been violated through illegal actions perpetrated by Japan can invoke their rights to demand damages from Japan."<ref name="http://english.hani.co.kr- 17 June 2018">{{cite web |title=Court dismisses comfort women's suit against government for signing 2015 agreement with Japan |url=http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/849403.html |website=Hank Yoreh |access-date=October 13, 2018 |date=June 17, 2018 |archive-date=August 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819182158/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/849403.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In January 2018, South Korea's president [[Moon Jae-in]] called the 2015 agreement "undeniable" and said that it "finally and irreversibly" was an official agreement between the two countries; however, when referring to aspects of the agreement he found flawed, he said: "A knot wrongly tied should be untied." These remarks came a day after the government announced it would not seek to renew the 2015 agreement, but that it wanted Japan to do more to settle the issue. Moon said: "A real settlement would come if the victims can forgive, after Japan makes a sincere apology and takes other actions".<ref>{{Cite web|title=New apology from Japan needed over "comfort women": S. Korea's Moon|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2018/01/2c11442fe4bc-s-korea-leader-says-japan-needs-to-apologize-to-comfort-women.html|access-date=January 16, 2021|website=Kyodo News+|archive-date=April 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414015630/https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2018/01/2c11442fe4bc-s-korea-leader-says-japan-needs-to-apologize-to-comfort-women.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
In March 2018, the Japanese government argued that the 2015 Japan-South Korea agreement confirmed that this issue was finally and irreversibly resolved and lodged a strong protest to South Korea through diplomatic channels, stating that "such a statement goes against the agreement and is therefore completely unacceptable and extremely regrettable".<ref name="kantei_2018-03-01">{{cite web |date=March 1, 2018 |title=Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary |url=https://japan.kantei.go.jp/tyoukanpress/201803/1_a.html |publisher=[[Prime Minister's Official Residence (Japan)]] |access-date=January 12, 2021 |archive-date=September 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930023923/https://japan.kantei.go.jp/tyoukanpress/201803/1_a.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="kantei_2018-03-18">{{cite web |date=March 18, 2018 |title=Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary |url=https://japan.kantei.go.jp/tyoukanpress/201805/18_p.html |publisher=[[Prime Minister's Official Residence (Japan)]] |access-date=January 12, 2021 |archive-date=September 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925045907/https://japan.kantei.go.jp/tyoukanpress/201805/18_p.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

On June 15, 2018, The 20th civil division of Seoul Central District Court dismissed the comfort women's suit seeking damages against the South Korean government for signing the 2015 agreement with Japan. The court announced that the intergovernmental comfort women agreement "certainly lacked transparency or was deficient in recognizing 'legal responsibility' and on the nature of the one billion yen provided by the Japanese government". However, "an examination of the process and content leading up to the agreement cannot be seen as discharging the plaintiffs' right to claim damages." An attorney for the survivors said they would be appealing the decision on the basis that it recognizes the lawfulness of the 2015 Japan-South Korean agreement.<ref name="http://english.hani.co.kr- 17 June 2018" />

On January 8, 2021, Seoul Central District Court ordered the government of Japan to pay reparations of 100 million won ($91,300) each to the families of the twelve women.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/comfort-women-korea-japan-court-order-wwii-sex-slave-reparations/|title=South Korean court orders Japan to pay "comfort women," WWII sex slaves, reparations|website=CBS News|date=January 8, 2021|access-date=January 9, 2021|archive-date=January 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109121026/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/comfort-women-korea-japan-court-order-wwii-sex-slave-reparations/|url-status=live}}</ref>
On the court case, referring to the principle of [[Sovereign immunity]] guaranteed by [[International law]], the Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said that "a sovereign state should not be put under the jurisdiction of foreign courts", claiming that the lawsuit should be rejected. And Suga stressed that the issue is already settled completely and finally, through [[s:Agreement Between Japan and the Republic of Korea Concerning the Settlement of Problems in Regard to Property and Claims and Economic Cooperation|the 1965 Agreement on the Settlement of Problems concerning Property and Claims and on Economic Cooperation]]".<ref name="kantei_2021-01-08">{{cite web |date=January 8, 2021 |title=Press Conference by the Prime Minister on the court case brought by a group of former comfort women |url=https://japan.kantei.go.jp/99_suga/statement/202101/_00004.html |publisher=[[Prime Minister's Official Residence (Japan)]] |access-date=January 17, 2021 |archive-date=January 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114082053/https://japan.kantei.go.jp/99_suga/statement/202101/_00004.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
On the same day, Foreign Minister [[Toshimitsu Motegi]] also spoke about the lawsuit of a claim for damages against Japanese government consistently in Extraordinary Press Conference from Brazil.<ref name="mofa_2021-01-08">{{cite web |date=January 8, 2021 |title=Extraordinary Press Conference by Foreign Minister MOTEGI Toshimitsu, Friday, January 8, 2021, 8:43 p.m. Brazil |url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/press/kaiken/kaiken24e_000039.html |publisher=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan]] |access-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119133809/https://www.mofa.go.jp/press/kaiken/kaiken24e_000039.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In April 2021, in a separate case, a judge at Seoul Central District Court rejected an effort to order Japan to compensate 20 comfort women and their relatives, citing [[state immunity]] and "an inevitable diplomatic clash" between Japan and South Korea governments should the lawsuit proceeded. [[Lee Yong-soo (activist)|Lee Yong-soo]], a former comfort woman and one of the plaintiffs, said she would seek international litigation.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-04-21 |title=South Korea court dismisses 'comfort women' case against Japan |language=en |work=The Straits Times |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/south-korea-court-dismisses-comfort-women-case-against-japan#:~:text=Apr%2021,%202021,%2011:02%20AM%20SGT%20SEOUL%20(AFP),earlier%20case%20that%20ordered%20Tokyo%20to%20compensate%20victims. |access-date=2023-11-25 |issn=0585-3923}}</ref>

On June 25, 2021, the Japanese government announced that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stands by statements made by past administrations apologizing for Japan's aggression in World War II and admitting the military had a role in coercing comfort women, "largely from the Korean Peninsula", to work in brothels.<ref>{{Cite news|date=June 26, 2021|title=Suga upholds Japan's apologies for wartime aggression, comfort women|language=en|work=Mainichi Daily News|url=https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210626/p2g/00m/0na/016000c|access-date=June 28, 2021|archive-date=June 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628003534/https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210626/p2g/00m/0na/016000c|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|author=KYODO|title=PM Suga upholds Japan's apologies for wartime aggression, comfort women|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/06/bec60f317595-suga-upholds-japans-apologies-for-wartime-aggression-comfort-women.html|access-date=June 28, 2021|website=Kyodo News+|archive-date=June 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628003540/https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/06/bec60f317595-suga-upholds-japans-apologies-for-wartime-aggression-comfort-women.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In November 2023, Seoul High Court overturned the April 2021 ruling saying state immunity was not applicable to the case because Japan violated international treaties to which it was a party (as well as Japan's own criminal law) that banned [[sexual slavery]] and other crimes by the time of [[World War II]]. Additionally, the court ordered Japan's government to pay 200 million [[South Korean won]]s (US$154,000) in damages to a group of comfort women, most of whom had already died and were represented by their families. Japan condemned the ruling as "extremely regrettable and absolutely unacceptable", and summoned South Korean ambassador [[Yun Duk-min|Yun Duk Min]] to Japan to protest it.<ref>{{Cite web |title=South Korea court overturns Japan's immunity from 'comfort women' suit |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japan-South-Korea-ties/South-Korea-court-overturns-Japan-s-immunity-from-comfort-women-suit |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=[[Nikkei Asia]] |language=en-GB}}</ref>

While acknowledging that women and girls suffered during the war, the Japanese government denies any evidence that they were taken by force.<ref name=NYT20250306>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/world/asia/women-japan-comfort-women.html | title=A Plea for Justice for Japan's So-Called Comfort Women | newspaper=The New York Times | last1=Morelli | first1=Vivian | date=March 6, 2025 | url-access=subscription}}</ref>

=== Concerns and controversies regarding apologies ===
Apologies from Japanese officials have faced scrutiny for their lack of sincerity.<ref name="tandfonline.com">{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Hyunsuk |date=2022-01-02 |title=Themes of the "comfort women" and "we" in K. Min's Herstory |journal=Asian Journal of Women's Studies |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=131–142 |doi=10.1080/12259276.2021.2025324 |issn=1225-9276|doi-access=free }}</ref> For instance, in the Kono Statement, while acknowledging the Japanese military's role in the comfort women system, officials denied coercion and forced transportation of women, and declined to provide compensation to the victims.<ref name="tandfonline.com"/>  Kono's apology was meticulous in distinguishing the actions of the Japanese army from those of the Japanese government, ensuring that the Japanese government bore no legal liability or responsibility for its treatment of the comfort women.<ref name="The Cornell Diplomat"/> Also, many victims viewed the apology as insufficient because it was delivered by the Cabinet Secretary of Japan and never officially adopted by the Japanese Parliament.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.nytimes.com/thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/the-politics-of-apology-for-japans-comfort-women/ | title=The Politics of Apology for Japan's 'Comfort Women' | date=March 5, 2007 }}</ref> Subsequent apologies were also criticized as insincere because they were delivered by the current prime minister of Japan rather than the [[National Diet]], which would have signified an apology backed by the Japanese government.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kuki |first=Sonya |date=2013|title=The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24461685 |journal=Journal of International Affairs |language=en |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=248|jstor=24461685 }}</ref> Subsequent apologies written and signed by the standing prime minister of Japan were distributed by the Asian Women's Fund, which is a [[non-governmental organization]], rendering these apologies unofficial.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kuki |first=Sonya |date=2013 |title=The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24461685 |journal=Journal of International Affairs |language=en |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=248|jstor=24461685 }}</ref>

Japan has largely disregarded recommendations from the [[United Nations Human Rights Council]], as well as the rulings from the [[Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery|Women's International War Crimes Tribunal]] concerning Japan's military sexual slavery.<ref name="Kuki 2013 249">{{Cite journal |last=Kuki |first=Sonya |date=2013 |title=The Burden of History: The Issue of "Comfort Women" and What Japan Must do to Move Forward |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24461685 |journal=Journal of International Affairs |language=en |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=249|jstor=24461685 }}</ref> Japan has resisted pressure from other countries, including the United States and the European Union, who have passed resolutions urging the Japanese government to respond.<ref name="Kuki 2013 249"/> Instead, Japan has indicated that it does not consider these statements legally binding and therefore does not feel obligated to act upon them.<ref name="Kuki 2013 249"/>

=== Controversies<!--Controversies over memorials should generally go in the memorial section. This is about main issue controversies.--> ===
A 2001 comic book, ''[[Neo Gomanism Manifesto Special – On Taiwan]]'' by Japanese author [[Yoshinori Kobayashi]], depicts kimono-clad women lining up to sign up for duty before a Japanese soldier. Kobayashi's book contains an interview with Taiwanese industrialist [[Shi Wen-long]], who stated that no women were forced to serve and that the women worked in more hygienic conditions compared to regular prostitutes because the use of [[condom]]s was mandatory.<ref name=nyt>{{Harvnb|Landler 2001-03-02|Ref=NY Times2001-03-02}}</ref>

Moreover, 'patriotic' emerging faiths like "Kofuku no Kagaku" ('Science of Happiness') and certain Christian factions advocating for the merging of religion and state have initiated a concerted effort domestically and internationally to deny the existence of the comfort women system. They've gathered extensive support from Japanese citizens who refute the existence of the comfort women issue, alleging it as a concoction by left-leaning factions. Several leaders of these groups are women.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Japanese Religions and the Issue of 'Comfort Women' – The University of Chicago Divinity School |url=https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/japanese-religions-and-issue-comfort-women |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=divinity.uchicago.edu |language=en}}</ref>

In early 2001, in a controversy involving national public broadcaster [[NHK]], what was supposed to be coverage of the [[Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery]] was heavily edited to reflect revisionist views.<ref>"However, the second night's programming on January 30 was heavily censored through deletion, interpolations, alterations, dismemberment and even fabrication. This segment was originally supposed to cover the 'Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery' that had been held in Tokyo in December 2000." {{Harvnb|Yoneyama|2002}}.</ref> In 2014, the new president of NHK compared the wartime Japanese comfort women program to Asian brothels frequented by American troops, which western historians countered by pointing out the difference between the Japanese comfort stations, which forced women to have sex with Japanese troops, and Asian brothels, where women chose to be prostitutes for American troops.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/world/asia/nationalistic-remarks-from-japan-lead-to-warnings-of-chill-with-us.html |title=Nationalistic Remarks From Japan Lead to Warnings of Chill With U.S. |last1=Fackler |first1=Martin |date=February 19, 2014 |website=The New York Times |access-date=February 20, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220080749/http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/world/asia/nationalistic-remarks-from-japan-lead-to-warnings-of-chill-with-us.html |archive-date=February 20, 2014 }}</ref>

In publications around 2007, Japanese historian and Nihon University professor [[Ikuhiko Hata]] estimates the number of comfort women to have been more likely between 10,000 and 20,000.<ref name="AWF_CW10-11" /> Hata claims that "none of the comfort women were forcibly recruited".<ref>"None of them was forcibly recruited." {{Harvnb|Hata undated|p=18}}.</ref> Historian [[Chunghee Sarah Soh]] noted that Hata's initial estimate was at approximately 90,000, but he reduced that figure to 20,000 for political reasons.<ref>C. Sarah Soh, ''The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 23–24.</ref> He has been criticized by other Japanese scholars for minimizing the hardship of comfort women.{{sfn|Drea|2006|p=41}}

In 2012, the former mayor of Osaka and co-leader of the [[Japan Restoration Party]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://inside.org.au/japans-paradoxical-shift-to-the-right/|title=Japan's paradoxical shift to the right • Inside Story|access-date=November 24, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810140902/http://inside.org.au/japans-paradoxical-shift-to-the-right/|archive-date=August 10, 2014|date=December 6, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.worldtribune.com/japans-new-drift-neo-conservative-or-neo-imperialist/ |title=Japan's new drift: Neo-conservative or neo-imperialist? |author=Donald Kirk |date=May 31, 2013 |newspaper=World Tribune |access-date=January 3, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105183300/http://www.worldtribune.com/japans-new-drift-neo-conservative-or-neo-imperialist/ |archive-date= January 5, 2016 }}</ref> [[Tōru Hashimoto#Views on prostitution and "comfort women"|Tōru Hashimoto]] initially maintained that "there is no evidence that people called comfort women were taken away by violence or threat by the [Japanese] military".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120823a6.html |title=No evidence sex slaves were taken by military: Hashimoto |last1=Johnston |first1=Eric |date=August 23, 2012 |newspaper=[[The Japan Times]] |access-date=May 14, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025141008/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120823a6.html |archive-date=October 25, 2012 }}</ref> He later modified his position, asserting that they became comfort women "against their will by any circumstances around them",<ref name="HashimotoMay2013">{{cite web
 |url=http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201305130131
 |title=Hashimoto says 'comfort women' were a necessary part of war
 |date=May 13, 2013
|website=[[Asahi Shimbun|The Asahi Shimbun]]
 |access-date=May 14, 2013
|url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609070505/http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201305130131
 |archive-date=June 9, 2013
}}</ref> still justifying their role during World War II as "necessary", so that soldiers could "have a rest".<ref name=HashimotoMay2013 />

In 2013, Yuzuru Nishida, who was member of House of Representatives in Japan, said that the women voluntarily engaged in prostitution and that the estimated number of comfort women was significantly exaggerated.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://cornellilj.org/2014/02/24/world-war-ii-in-glendale-a-look-back-at-hwang-v-japan/ | title=World War II in Glendale: A Look Back at Hwang v. Japan, Vol. 2 – Cornell International Law Journal }}</ref>

In 2014, Foreign Minister [[Hirofumi Nakasone]] chaired a commission established to consider "concrete measures to restore Japan's honor with regard to the comfort women issue", despite his own father [[Yasuhiro Nakasone]], having organized a "comfort station" in 1942 when he was a lieutenant paymaster in Japan's Imperial Navy.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/comfort-women-and-japans-war-on-truth.html "Comfort women and Japan's war on truth"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141115080504/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/comfort-women-and-japans-war-on-truth.html |date=November 15, 2014 }} – ''The New York Times'' – November 15–16, 2014</ref>

In 2014, the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Japanese Foreign Ministry]] attempted to pressure [[McGraw Hill]] into erasing several paragraphs on comfort women from one of their textbooks. The attempt was unsuccessful, and American academics criticized Japanese attempts to revise the history of comfort women.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Fifield|first=Anna|date=February 9, 2015|title=U.S. academics condemn Japanese efforts to revise history of 'comfort women'|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/american-academics-condemn-japanese-efforts-to-revise-history-of-comfort-women/2015/02/09/e795fc1c-38f0-408f-954a-7f989779770a_story.html|access-date=July 5, 2021|newspaper=Washington Post|archive-date=March 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306235416/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/american-academics-condemn-japanese-efforts-to-revise-history-of-comfort-women/2015/02/09/e795fc1c-38f0-408f-954a-7f989779770a_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2018, the ''Japan Times'' changed its description of the terms "comfort woman" and "forced labourer" causing a controversy among staff and readers.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/30/japanese-paper-sparks-anger-as-it-ditches-ww2-forced-labour-term 'Comfort women': anger as Japan paper alters description of WWII terms] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130121936/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/30/japanese-paper-sparks-anger-as-it-ditches-ww2-forced-labour-term |date=November 30, 2018 }} The Guardian, 2018</ref>

On August 18, 2018, United Nations rights experts and UN [[Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination]] expressed that Japan should do more for sufferers of wartime sexual slavery. Japan responded by stating it has already made numerous apologies and offered compensation to the victims.<ref name="www.sbs.com.au">{{cite news|work=SBS News|date=August 17, 2018|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/japan-must-do-more-for-wwii-comfort-women-un|title=Japan must do more for WWII 'comfort women': UN|access-date=August 19, 2018|archive-date=August 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819155842/https://www.sbs.com.au/news/japan-must-do-more-for-wwii-comfort-women-un|url-status=live}}</ref>

Japanese politicians have demanded the removal of comfort women monuments located in other countries.<ref>{{cite web|last=Semple|first=Kirk|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/nyregion/monument-in-palisades-park-nj-irritates-japanese-officials.html|title=In New Jersey, Memorial for 'Comfort Women' Deepens Old Animosity|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 4, 2012|access-date=June 17, 2021|archive-date=May 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529231015/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/nyregion/monument-in-palisades-park-nj-irritates-japanese-officials.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=McCurry |first=Justin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/04/osaka-drops-san-francisco-as-sister-city-over-comfort-women-statue |title=Osaka drops San Francisco as sister city over 'comfort women' statue |work=The Guardian |date=October 4, 2018 |access-date=June 19, 2021 |archive-date=October 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004122749/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/04/osaka-drops-san-francisco-as-sister-city-over-comfort-women-statue |url-status=live }}</ref> They have demanded the removal of comfort women statues in Palisades Park, New Jersey, United States; San Francisco, California, United States; and Berlin, Germany, with each demand rejected by the relevant authorities.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hauser|first=Christine|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/us/osaka-sf-comfort-women-statue.html|title='It Is Not Coming Down': San Francisco Defends 'Comfort Women' Statue as Japan Protests|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 4, 2018|access-date=June 17, 2021|archive-date=April 25, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425172507/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/us/osaka-sf-comfort-women-statue.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Shin |first=Mitch |url=https://thediplomat.com/2020/12/south-koreans-welcome-decision-to-maintain-comfort-women-statue-in-berlin/ |title=South Koreans Welcome Decision to Maintain 'Comfort Women' Statue in Berlin |work=The Diplomat |date=December 7, 2020 |access-date=June 17, 2021 |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306235352/https://thediplomat.com/2020/12/south-koreans-welcome-decision-to-maintain-comfort-women-statue-in-berlin/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, about 24 members of [[Malaya Lolas]], an organization that supports Filipina survivors of sexual slavery during World War II, filed a complaint at UN's [[Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women|Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)]] regarding the Philippine government's failure to fight for their cause, which resulted in ongoing discrimination against comfort women, that continues to this day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Philippines failed to redress continuous discrimination and suffering of sexual slavery victims perpetrated by Imperial Japanese Army, UN committee finds |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/03/philippines-failed-redress-continuous-discrimination-and-suffering-sexual |access-date=2023-03-09 |website=OHCHR |language=en |archive-date=March 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310154740/https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/03/philippines-failed-redress-continuous-discrimination-and-suffering-sexual |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2023, CEDAW came up with a decision and recommended the government to provide the complainants with full reparation, including material compensation and an official apology for the continuing discrimination.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Subingsubing |first=Krixia |date=2023-03-09 |title=PH failed to aid World War II 'comfort women' – UN body |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1740233/ph-failed-to-aid-world-war-ii-comfort-women-un-body |access-date=2023-03-09 |website=INQUIRER.net |language=en |archive-date=March 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309082741/https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1740233/ph-failed-to-aid-world-war-ii-comfort-women-un-body |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{Wikisourcelang|en|Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report 49}}
Based on a statement made by Representative [[Seijuro Arahune]] of the Japanese Diet in 1975 in which he claimed to cite numbers provided by Korean authorities during the [[1965 Korea-Japan Treaty]] negotiations,<ref>{{Citation |last1=Parker |first1=Karen |last2=Chew |first2=Jennifer |title=Compensation for Japan's World War II War-Rape Victims |url=https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1379&context=hastings_international_comparative_law_review |publisher=Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. |page=499, supra note 6 |year=1994 |access-date=September 9, 2020 |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028035040/https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1379&context=hastings_international_comparative_law_review |url-status=live }}</ref> as many as three-fourths of Korean comfort women may have died during the war. However, according to the Japanese government, the validity of this statement has since been brought into question as the number does not seem to be based on an actual investigation on the matter.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html|title=Number of Comfort Stations and Comfort Women|website=www.awf.or.jp|access-date=September 9, 2020|archive-date=July 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729004757/https://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Mio Sugita]], who is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and served as a member of the [[House of Representatives (Japan)|House of Representatives]], dismissed the comfort women issue as a fabrication.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13765698 | title=LDP's Sugita quoted as saying women 'lie' about sexual violence &#124; the Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis | work=The Asahi Shimbun }}</ref>

The Japanese government denies evidence that women were coerced into sexual slavery but acknowledges that girls and women suffered.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/world/asia/women-japan-comfort-women.html</ref>

==== Asahi Shimbun Third-Party Investigative Committee ====
In August 2014, the ''[[Asahi Shimbun]]'', Japan's second largest newspaper in circulation, retracted 16 articles published between 1982 and 1997. The articles were concerned with former imperial army officer [[Seiji Yoshida]], who claimed he had forcibly taken Korean women to wartime Japanese military brothels from the [[Jeju Island]] region in South Korea. Following the retraction of the articles, the newspaper also refused to publish an op-ed on the matter by Japanese journalist [[Akira Ikegami]]. The public response and criticism that ensued pushed the newspaper to nominate a third-party investigative committee headed by seven leading scholars, journalists and legal experts. The committee report dealt with the circumstances leading to the publication of Yoshida's false testimony and to the effect these publications had on Japan's image abroad and diplomatic relations with various countries. It found that the Asahi was negligent in publishing Yoshida's testimony, but that the reports on the testimony had "limited" effect on foreign media outlets and reports. On the other hand, the report found that Japanese officials' comments on the issue had a far more detrimental effect on Japan's image and its diplomatic relations.<ref>The Asahi Shimbun Co. Third-Party Committee report (abridged). December 22, 2014. [https://www.asahi.com/shimbun/3rd/report20150728e.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118115534/http://www.asahi.com/shimbun/3rd/report20150728e.pdf|date=November 18, 2017}}</ref>

==== Fraud accusations against support groups ====
In 2004, 13 former comfort women filed a complaint against the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery and the House of Sharing with the Seoul Western District Court to prevent these two organizations from profiting and exploiting the victims' past experiences to collect donations. The victims accused Shin Hye-Soo, head of the Korean Council at the time, and Song Hyun-Seob, Head of the House of Sharing, of using the women's past experiences in videos and leaflets without their permission to solicit donations and then keeping the money instead of using it to help the victims. The complaint further stated that a significant number of victims did not receive compensation through the citizen-funded Asian Women's Fund established in 1995 by Japan due to the opposition from the organizations in 1998. In addition, they accused the institutions of recruiting six former comfort women survivors from China and paying them to get them to partake in weekly rallies. The complaint was dismissed by the court in May 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|date=May 19, 2020|title=House of Sharing faces whistleblower complaints|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/05/19/socialAffairs/comfort-women-victims-Korean-Council-House-of-Sharing/20200519194707695.html|access-date=January 25, 2021|archive-date=January 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131141651/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/05/19/socialAffairs/comfort-women-victims-Korean-Council-House-of-Sharing/20200519194707695.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Again, in May 2020, [[Lee Yong-soo (activist)|Lee Yong-soo]], a comfort woman survivor and longtime activist for the victims, held a press conference and accused the Korean Council and its former head, Yoon Mee-hyang, of exploiting her and other survivors, politically and financially for decades, to obtain government funds and public donations through the protests while spending little money aiding them.<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 20, 2020|title=Victims absent from South Korea's 'comfort women' rally amid graft allegations over ex-leader|newspaper=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-comfortwomen-idUSKBN22W112|access-date=January 25, 2021|archive-date=January 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129230149/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-comfortwomen-idUSKBN22W112|url-status=live}}</ref>

Consequently, a civic group filed a complaint against Yoon Mee-hyang, a lawmaker-elect and former head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. After an investigation, the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office indicted Yoon, on eight charges including fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust.

Among the charges, Yoon was indicted for is a count of quasi-fraud against [[Gil Won-ok]], a 92-year-old survivor. The prosecution said Gil suffers from dementia and that Yoon had exploited her reduced physical and mental capacities and pressed her to donate a total of 79.2 million won ($67,102) to the Korean Council between November 2017 and January 2020.

Additionally, she was accused of fraud and embezzlement of almost half a million dollars from governmental organizations and private donors, which were used to buy properties and even pay tuition for her daughter's education at the University of California.

In a forensic audit of the comfort women's shelter controlled by Yoon's group, it was found that barely 2.3% of its massive $7.5 million budget raised since 2015 was actually spent on supporting the living needs of surviving comfort women, many of whom live in cramped quarters, with substandard care, with few luxuries.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Carmona-Borjas|first=Robert|date=November 4, 2020|title=Korea's 'Comfort Women' Movement Enriches the Activists but Ignores the Victims|url=https://intpolicydigest.org/2020/11/04/korea-s-comfort-women-movement-enriches-the-activists-but-ignores-the-victims/|access-date=January 25, 2021|archive-date=February 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201190702/https://intpolicydigest.org/2020/11/04/korea-s-comfort-women-movement-enriches-the-activists-but-ignores-the-victims/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=May 21, 2020|title=Civic group raided over 'comfort women' scandal|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/05/21/socialAffairs/Korean-Council-comfort-women-Yoon-Meehyang/20200521183500719.html|access-date=January 25, 2021|archive-date=January 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129230116/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/05/21/socialAffairs/Korean-Council-comfort-women-Yoon-Meehyang/20200521183500719.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In September 2020, the Democratic Party (DP) suspended Yoon's party membership due to the charges that she was facing.<ref>{{Cite web|date=September 16, 2020|title=Yoon Mee-hyang suspended from Democratic Party|url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/09/16/national/politics/Yoon-Meehyang-DP-Korean-Council/20200916172700417.html|access-date=January 25, 2021|archive-date=February 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204113433/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/09/16/national/politics/Yoon-Meehyang-DP-Korean-Council/20200916172700417.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=September 14, 2020|title=South Korea charges former 'comfort women' activist with fraud, embezzlement|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/southkorea-comfortwomen-idINKBN2651KG|website=[[Reuters]]|access-date=November 18, 2021|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118075004/https://www.reuters.com/article/southkorea-comfortwomen-idINKBN2651KG|url-status=live}}</ref>

On November 14, 2024, South Korea's Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Yoon Mee-hyang, on charges of embezzlement. Yoon was sentenced to 18 months in prison, with the sentence suspended for three years. The court found her guilty of misappropriating funds intended for supporting victims.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Arlo |first=Tia |date=2024-12-23 |title=South Korean Supreme Court Convicts Ex-Comfort Women Advocate |url=https://www.europe-wsj.com/south-korean-supreme-court-convicts-ex-comfort-women-advocate/ |access-date=2025-01-08 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-13 |first=Hyonhee |last=Shin|title=South Korea top court upholds conviction of 'comfort women' activist over embezzlement |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-top-court-upholds-conviction-comfort-women-activist-over-2024-11-14/ |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=Reuters|language=en}}</ref>

==== International Court of Justice ====
The Comfort Women survivors have asked the Korean government multiple times to bring their case in front of the International Court of Justice, but South Korea has yet to respond.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Survivor of wartime sexual slavery calls on S. Korean government to pursue UN action|url=https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1016889.html|access-date=November 17, 2021|website=[[The Hankyoreh]]|archive-date=March 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306235408/https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1016889.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== International court cases ====
[[File:世界“慰安妇”纪念日：菲律宾民众吁正义与和平.jpg|thumb|Members of the Malaya Lolas held a demonstration with families of Philippine "comfort women" on International Memorial Day for "Comfort Women" (August 14) 2024 in [[Manila]], Philippines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chinanews.com.cn/tp/hd2011/2024/08-14/1118845.shtml|date=2024-08-14|work=[[China News Service]]|title=菲律宾"慰安妇"受害者家属游行示威敦促日本道歉赔偿|language=zh-cn}}</ref>]]
Members of the group "Malaya Lolas" in the Philippines have attempted to go to Tokyo to file a suit in the Japanese courts. The lolas were unable to file the lawsuit because, according to the Japanese government, international law required them to be represented by the Philippine government. The lolas filed a case in the Philippine courts, Vinuya et al. v. Executive Secretary et al. The case was directed at the Executive Secretary at the time, Alberto G. Romulo, and the main plaintiff was the leader of Malaya Lolas, Isabelita Vinuya. The lolas filed this case to get the Philippine government to support them in pursuing a petition for compensation in the Japanese courts. The Philippine government won the case with the court stating that the Philippine government "is not under any international obligation to espouse petitioners' claims."<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=ICD – Vinuya v. Philippines – Asser Institute |url=https://www.internationalcrimesdatabase.org/Case/1198/Vinuya-v-Philippines/ |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=www.internationalcrimesdatabase.org |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324191637/https://www.internationalcrimesdatabase.org/Case/1198/Vinuya-v-Philippines/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== International support ===
The cause has long been supported beyond the victim nations, and associations like [[Amnesty International]] are campaigning in countries where governments have yet to support the cause, like in Australia,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org.au/svaw/comments/21574/ |title=Justice for comfort women – our achievements |work=Amnesty Australia |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329015834/http://www.amnesty.org.au/svaw/comments/21574/ |archive-date=March 29, 2014 }}</ref> or New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org.nz/files/Comfort-Women-factsheet.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627073739/http://www.amnesty.org.nz/files/Comfort-Women-factsheet.pdf|url-status=dead|title="Stop violence against women: "Comfort Women"|archive-date=June 27, 2014}}</ref>

Support in the United States continues to grow, particularly after the passage of [[United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121]] on July 30, 2007. The resolution expresses that the government of Japan should formally redress the situation by acknowledging, apologizing and accepting historical responsibility for the use of comfort women by its armed forces; have the Prime Minister of Japan give a public apology; and educate their people using internationally accepted historical facts about the crime while refuting any claims that deny the crime.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-resolution/121#:~:text=121%20%2D%20A%20resolution%20expressing%20the,to%20the%20world%20as%20%22comfort|title=H.Res.121 – A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces' coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as comfort women, during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II.|website=United States Congress|date=July 30, 2007 |access-date=March 8, 2022|archive-date=March 8, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308052439/https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-resolution/121#:~:text=121%20%2D%20A%20resolution%20expressing%20the,to%20the%20world%20as%20%22comfort|url-status=live}}</ref> In July 2012, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a strong advocate of the cause, denounced the use of the euphemism 'comfort women' for what should be referred to as 'enforced sex slaves'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://japantoday.com/category/politics/clinton-says-comfort-women-should-be-referred-to-as-enforced-sex-slaves|title=Clinton says 'comfort women' should be referred to as 'enforced sex slaves'|website=Japan Today|date=July 11, 2012|access-date=July 25, 2019|archive-date=July 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725164941/https://japantoday.com/category/politics/clinton-says-comfort-women-should-be-referred-to-as-enforced-sex-slaves|url-status=live}}</ref> The Obama Administration also addressed the need for Japan to do more to address the issue.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/02/21/white_house_japan_should_do_more_to_address_comfort_women_issue|title=White House: Japan should do more to address 'comfort women' issue|work=Foreign Policy|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330062418/http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/02/21/white_house_japan_should_do_more_to_address_comfort_women_issue|archive-date=March 30, 2014}}</ref> In addition to calling attention to the issue, the American memorial statues erected in New Jersey in 2010 and California in 2013 show support for what has become an international cause.<ref name="latimes1" />

On November 28, 2007, the [[Parliament of Canada]] unanimously passed a motion that recognized Japan's use of women as sex slaves during the Second World War, demanding Japan to make a formal sincere apology to all victims.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-11-29 |title=House of Commons passes motion recognizing Japanese 'comfort women' |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/house-of-commons-passes-motion-recognizing-japanese-comfort-women-1.638239 |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=[[CBC.ca]]}}</ref>

In 2007, the Netherlands' [[House of Representatives (Netherlands)|House of Representatives]] passed a resolution that urged Japan to apologize for its wartime sex slavery, and to pay compensations to former comfort women.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-11-11 |title=Call for Apology {{!}} Netherlands Adopts Resolution on 'Comfort Women'|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2024/06/202_13505.html |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=koreatimes |language=en}}</ref>

On December 13, 2007, the [[European Parliament]] adopted a resolution on "Justice for the 'Comfort Women' (sex slaves in Asia before and during World War II)" calling on the Japanese government to apologise and accept legal responsibility for the coercion of young women into sexual slavery before and during WWII.<ref>{{cite web|title=European Parliament resolution of 13 December 2007 on Justice for the 'Comfort Women' (sex slaves in Asia before and during World War II)|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2007-0632+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN|website=European Parliament|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105173013/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2F%2FEP%2F%2FTEXT+TA+P6-TA-2007-0632+0+DOC+XML+V0%2F%2FEN|archive-date=January 5, 2016}}</ref>

In 2014, [[Pope Francis]] met with seven former comfort women in South Korea.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thediplomat.com/2014/08/pope-francis-meets-korean-comfort-women/|title=Pope Francis Meets Korean 'Comfort Women'|author1=Shannon Tiezzi|work=The Diplomat|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140902235437/https://thediplomat.com/2014/08/pope-francis-meets-korean-comfort-women/|archive-date=September 2, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-popes-verdict-japans-comfort-women-11168|title=The Pope's Verdict on Japan's Comfort Women|work=The National Interest|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903213605/http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-popes-verdict-japans-comfort-women-11168|archive-date=September 3, 2014|date=August 31, 2014}}</ref> Also in 2014, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called for Japan to, as the committee's deputy head Anastasia Crickley puts it, "conclude investigations into the violations of the rights of 'comfort women' by the military and to bring to justice those responsible and to pursue a comprehensive and lasting resolution to these issues".<ref name="japantimes.co.jp">{{cite web|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/30/national/u-n-issues-fresh-call-japan-world-war-ii-comfort-women/|title=U.N. issues fresh call to Japan over World War II 'comfort women'|work=[[The Japan Times]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904020620/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/30/national/u-n-issues-fresh-call-japan-world-war-ii-comfort-women/|archive-date=September 4, 2014|date=May 10, 2013}}</ref> U.N. Human Rights Commissioner [[Navi Pillay]] had also spoken out in support of comfort women several times.<ref name="japantimes.co.jp" />

=== Health-related issues ===
In the aftermath of the war, the women recalled bouts of physical and mental abuse that they had experienced while working in military brothels. In the [[Rorschach test]], the women showed distorted perceptions, difficulty in managing emotional reactions and internalized anger.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Min SK, Lee CH, Kim JY, Shim EJ |title=Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of Former Comfort Women for Japanese Army during World War II.|journal=Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association|date=Nov 2004|pages=740–748|language=ko}}</ref> A 2011 clinical study found that comfort women are more prone to showing symptoms of [[post-traumatic stress disorder]] (PTSD), even 60 years after the end of the war.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Min|first=SK|author2=Lee, CH |author3=Kim, JY |author4= Sim, EJ |title=Posttraumatic stress disorder in former 'comfort women'.|journal=The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences|year=2011|volume=48|issue=3|pages=161–9|pmid=22141139}}</ref>

=== Survivors ===
The last surviving victims have become public figures in Korea, where they are referred to as "halmoni", the affectionate term for "grandmother". There is a nursing home, called [[House of Sharing]], for former comfort women in South Korea. China remains more at the testimony collection stage, particularly through the China "Comfort Women" Issue Research Center at [[Shanghai Normal University]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/216168.htm|title=Shanghai Opens Comfort Women Archives – china.org.cn|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923230745/http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/216168.htm|archive-date=September 23, 2015}}</ref> sometimes in collaboration with Korean researchers. For other nations, the research and the interaction with victims is less advanced.

Despite the efforts at assigning responsibility and victims compensation, in the years after World War II, many former Korean comfort women were afraid to reveal their past, because they are afraid of being disowned or ostracized further.<!--The preceding information is in the third sentence of the second paragraph of page 8.--><ref name="Pilzer2012">Pilzer, Joshua D. (2012). Hearts of Pine: Songs in the Lives of Three Korean Survivors of the Japanese "Comfort Women". New York: [[Oxford University Press]]. Page 8. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from [https://books.google.com/books?id=F9WPCYmVWZwC link to Google Books] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305024103/https://books.google.com/books?id=F9WPCYmVWZwC&printsec=frontcover |date=March 5, 2018 }}.</ref>

== Memorials and organizations ==

=== China ===
On December 1, 2015, the first memorial hall dedicated to Chinese comfort women was opened in [[Nanjing]]. It was built on the site of a former comfort station run by the invading Japanese troops during World War II.<ref>{{cite news|title=Memorial hall for 'comfort women' opens to public in Nanjing|url=http://www.china.org.cn/travel/2015-12/02/content_37215372_2.htm|agency=China.org.cn|date=December 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202125504/http://china.org.cn/travel/2015-12/02/content_37215372_2.htm|archive-date=December 2, 2015}}</ref>
The memorial hall stands next to the [[Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders]].

In June 2016, the Research Center for Chinese Comfort Women was established at [[Shanghai Normal University]].<ref>{{cite news|title='Comfort women' museum opens in Shanghai|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/80thendoflongmarch/2016-10/22/content_27142999.htm|newspaper=China Daily|date=October 22, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023183751/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/80thendoflongmarch/2016-10/22/content_27142999.htm|archive-date=October 23, 2016}}</ref> It is a museum that exhibits photographs and various items related to comfort women in China.

=== Taiwan ===
[[File:Ama Museum 20160723.jpg|thumb|The [[Ama Museum]] in [[Taipei]] dedicated to Taiwanese comfort women]]
Since the 1990s, Taiwanese survivors have been bringing to light the comfort woman issue in Taiwanese society, and gaining support from women's rights activists and civil groups. Their testimony and memories have been documented by newspapers, books, and documentary films.

Survivors' claims against the Japan government have been backed by the [[Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation]] (TWRF) a non-profit organization helping women against violence, and sexual violence. This organization gives legal and psychological support to Taiwanese comfort women, and also helps in the recording of testimony and doing scholarly research. In 2007, this organization was responsible for promoting awareness in society, by creating meetings in universities and high schools where survivors gave their testimonies to students and the general public.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Logan|first1=William|last2=Reeves|first2=Keir|title=Places of Pain and Shame: Dealing with 'Difficult Heritage'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zX58AgAAQBAJ|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-05149-6|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zX58AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA114|chapter=7. A Cave in Taiwan|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208114623/https://books.google.com/books?id=zX58AgAAQBAJ|archive-date=February 8, 2016}}</ref> TWRF has produced exhibitions that give survivors the opportunity to be heard in Taipei, and also in the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace, based in [[Tokyo]].<ref>{{cite web|title=New exhibition on Taiwanese 'comfort women' to open in Taipei |url=http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20141124000010&cid=1103 |access-date=May 2, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528201219/http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20141124000010&cid=1103 |archive-date=May 28, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=John Hofilena|title=Taiwanese 'comfort woman' speaks out in Tokyo exhibition to raise WWII awareness|url=http://japandailypress.com/taiwanese-comfort-woman-speaks-out-in-tokyo-exhibition-to-raise-wwii-awareness-0931944/|access-date=May 2, 2015|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503023843/http://japandailypress.com/taiwanese-comfort-woman-speaks-out-in-tokyo-exhibition-to-raise-wwii-awareness-0931944/|archive-date=May 3, 2015}}</ref>

Thanks to this increasing awareness in society, and with the help of TWRF, Taiwanese comfort women have gained the support their government, which on many occasions has asked the Japanese government for apologies and compensation.<ref>{{cite web|title=Taiwan demands Japan's apology over comfort women issue|date=January 10, 2015 |url=http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201501100019.aspx|access-date=May 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418153734/http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201501100019.aspx|archive-date=April 18, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Taiwan urges Japan to apologize over comfort women issue|date=April 30, 2015 |url=http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201504300027.aspx|access-date=May 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502022156/http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201504300027.aspx|archive-date=May 2, 2015}}</ref>

In November 2014, "Song of the Reed", a documentary film directed by Wu Hsiu-ching and produced by TWRF, won the International Gold Panda documentary award.<ref>{{cite web|title=Film on Taiwanese comfort women wins Gold Panda award |url=http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1104&MainCatID=&id=20141129000001 |access-date=May 2, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528201216/http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1104&MainCatID=&id=20141129000001 |archive-date=May 28, 2015 }}</ref>

In December 2016, a museum dedicated to comfort women opened in [[Taipei]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Museum on comfort women opens in Taipei|date=December 13, 2016|newspaper=[[The Straits Times]]}}</ref>

On August 14, 2018, the first 'comfort women' statue in Taiwan was unveiled in the city of [[Tainan]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Katz|first=Brigit|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/taiwan-unveils-its-first-statue-honoring-comfort-women-180970053/|title=Taiwan Unveils Its First Statue Honoring 'Comfort Women'|date=August 17, 2018|magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|access-date=January 22, 2022|archive-date=January 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122140054/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/taiwan-unveils-its-first-statue-honoring-comfort-women-180970053/|url-status=live}}</ref> The statue symbolizes women forced to work in wartime brothels for the Japanese military. The bronze statue portrays a girl raising both hands to the sky to express her helpless resistance to suppression and silent protest, according to its creator.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://japantoday.com/category/politics/1st-comfort-women-statue-installed-in-taiwan|title=1st 'comfort women' statue installed in Taiwan|website=[[Japan Today]]|date=August 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220530202812/https://japantoday.com/category/politics/1st-comfort-women-statue-installed-in-taiwan|archive-date=May 30, 2022}}</ref>
In September 2018, Japanese right-wing activist {{ill|Mitsuhiko Fujii|lt=|ja|藤井実彦}} kicked the statue and caused outrage in Taiwan, with the Taiwanese government branding his behavior as unacceptable.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.recordchina.co.jp/b642902-s0-c10-d45.html|title=日本人が台湾の慰安婦像を蹴る、安倍首相のフェイスブックに謝罪要求コメント殺到―台湾紙|first=Record|last=china|website=Record China|access-date=July 25, 2019|archive-date=July 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725164944/https://www.recordchina.co.jp/b642902-s0-c10-d45.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2163737/taipei-says-japanese-activist-kicking-comfort-woman-memorial|title=Taipei says activist kicking 'comfort woman' memorial was unacceptable|date=September 11, 2018|access-date=September 13, 2018|archive-date=September 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913112127/https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2163737/taipei-says-japanese-activist-kicking-comfort-woman-memorial|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2018/09/12/2003700263|title=KMT caucus criticizes 'inaction' over statue case|website=Taipei Times|date=September 12, 2018|access-date=September 13, 2018|archive-date=September 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913073726/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2018/09/12/2003700263|url-status=live}}</ref> A Japanese right-wing group with affiliations to him apologized for his behavior and said he resigned from his group position.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sg.news.yahoo.com/japanese-nationalist-group-apologises-member-062020844.html|title=Japanese nationalist group apologises for member who kicked Taiwan comfort woman statue|website=sg.news.yahoo.com|access-date=March 8, 2022|archive-date=March 8, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308110640/https://sg.news.yahoo.com/japanese-nationalist-group-apologises-member-062020844.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2024, the land that the statue was on was sold at auction and the statue was put into a warehouse.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-09-20 |title=Taiwan's 'comfort women' memorial taken to warehouse as land sold at auction |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3279286/taiwan-loses-only-comfort-women-memorial-land-sold-auction |access-date=2024-12-13 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}</ref>

=== South Korea ===

==== Wednesday demonstrations ====
{{Main|Wednesday demonstration}}

Every Wednesday, living comfort women, women's organizations, socio-civic groups, religious groups, and a number of individuals participate in the Wednesday Demonstrations in front of the Japanese Embassy in [[Seoul]], sponsored by "The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (KCWDMSS)". It was first held on January 8, 1992, when Japan's Prime Minister [[Kiichi Miyazawa]] visited South Korea. In December 2011, a [[Statue of peace|statue of a young woman]] was erected in front of the Japanese Embassy to honor the comfort women on the 1,000th Wednesday Demonstration. The Japanese government has repeatedly asked the South Korean government to have the statue taken down, but it has not been removed.

On December 28, 2015, the Japanese government claimed that the Korean government agreed to the removal of the statue. As of September 3, 2016, the statue was still in place due to a majority of the South Korean population being opposed to the agreement. On December 30, 2016,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/12/30/national/comfort-woman-statue-installed-near-japanese-consulate-busan/|title='Comfort women' statue installed near Japanese consulate in Busan|date=December 30, 2016|newspaper=[[The Japan Times Online]]|access-date=November 21, 2018|archive-date=November 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122005358/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/12/30/national/comfort-woman-statue-installed-near-japanese-consulate-busan/|url-status=live}}</ref> another comfort woman statue identical to the one in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul was erected in front of the Japanese consulate in [[Busan]], South Korea.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/05/asia/south-korea-comfort-women-statue/|title=Why this statue of a young girl caused a diplomatic incident|author1=Sol Han|author2=James Griffiths|date=February 6, 2017|publisher=CNN|access-date=November 21, 2018|archive-date=October 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020111955/https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/05/asia/south-korea-comfort-women-statue/|url-status=live}}</ref> As of January 6, 2017, the Japanese government is attempting to negotiate for the removal of the statue. On May 11, 2017, newly elected South Korean President [[Moon Jae-in]] announced the agreement would not be enacted in its current stage and that negotiations for a deal between Japan and South Korea over the comfort women dispute had to start over.<ref name="may112017">{{cite news|title=South Korea's new president questions Japan 'comfort women' deal|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/asia/south-korea-japan-comfort-women/|publisher=CNN|date=May 11, 2017|author=James Griffiths|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511111804/http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/asia/south-korea-japan-comfort-women/|archive-date=May 11, 2017}}</ref>

On June 30, 2017, the local government of Busan enacted the legal foundation to protect the Statue of Peace by passing the relative ordinance.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hankookilbo.com/v/db0cd7a3eb2d452c892a75de115a6f40|title=부산 소녀상 보호, 법적 근거 마련됐다|website=[[Hankook Ilbo]]|date=June 30, 2017|access-date=November 21, 2018|archive-date=October 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030060013/https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/201706301232893193|url-status=live}}</ref> By reason of this, it has become difficult to shift the site or demolish the statue.

On August 14, 2018, South Korea held an unveiling ceremony for a monument memorializing Korean women forced to work in wartime brothels for the Japanese military, as the nation observed its first official comfort women memorial day.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180814/p2g/00m/0in/093000c|title=S. Korea unveils 'comfort women' monument on national memorial day|date=August 14, 2018|newspaper=Mainichi Daily News|access-date=August 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815090946/https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180814/p2g/00m/0in/093000c|archive-date=August 15, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On November 21, 2018, South Korea officially cancelled the 2015 agreement and shut down the Japan-funded comfort women foundation which was launched in July 2016 to finance the agreement's settlement to the victims.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://time.com/5460954/seoul-close-japan-sex-slavery-foundation/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121053050/http://time.com/5460954/seoul-close-japan-sex-slavery-foundation/|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 21, 2018|title=South Korea Shuts Japanese-Funded 'Comfort Women' Foundation|author=Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press|magazine=Time|date=November 21, 2018|access-date=November 21, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/world/asia/south-korea-japan-sex-slaves.html|title=South Korea Signals End to 'Final' Deal With Japan Over Wartime Sex Slaves|author=Choe Sang-Hun|work=The New York Times|date=November 21, 2018|access-date=November 21, 2018|archive-date=September 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190919143127/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/world/asia/south-korea-japan-sex-slaves.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The settlement had received criticism from victims' groups.<ref name=may112017 />

==== House of Sharing ====
{{Main|House of Sharing}}

The [[House of Sharing]] is a nursing home for living comfort women. The House of Sharing was founded in June 1992 through funds raised by [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] organizations and various socio-civic groups and it moved to [[Gyeonggi-do]], South Korea in 1998. The House of Sharing includes "The Museum of Sexual Slavery by Japanese Military" to spread the truth about the Japanese military's brutal abuse of comfort women and to educate descendants and the public.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nanum.org/eng/index.html|title=Welcom Nanum House!|access-date=November 24, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018024343/http://nanum.org/eng/index.html|archive-date=October 18, 2015}}</ref>

==== Archives by comfort women ====
Some of the survivors, Kang Duk-kyung, Kim Soon-duk and Lee Yong-Nyeo, preserved their personal history through their drawings as a visual archive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.womenandwar.net/contents/board/gallery/galleryList.nx?page_str_menu=2403|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329094315/http://www.womenandwar.net/contents/board/gallery/galleryList.nx?page_str_menu=2403|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 29, 2014|title=한국정신대문제대책협의회|date=March 29, 2014}}</ref> Also, the director of the [[Center for Asian American Media]], Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, made a comfort women video archive, a documentary film for K–12 through college level students. Feminist visual and video archives have promoted a place for solidarity between the victims and the public. It has served as a living site for the teaching and learning of women's dignity and human rights by bringing people together despite age, gender, borders, nationality, and ideologies.<ref>[https://www.womenandwar.net/contents/home/home.nx 한국정신대문제대책협의회<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103011609/https://www.womenandwar.net/contents/home/home.nx |date=January 3, 2016 }}</ref>

=== Philippines ===
[[File:Manilajf0388 32.JPG|thumb|upright|Historical Marker, Plaza Lawton, Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila]]
[[File:Sanildefonso29jf.JPG|thumb|''[[Bahay na Pula]]'' in [[San Ildefonso, Bulacan]] used as barracks by Japanese soldiers in World War II where young Filipino comfort women were imprisoned and used as sex slaves]]

Comfort women in the Philippines, called "Lolas" (grandmothers), formed different groups similar to the Korean survivors. One group, named "Lila Pilipina" (League of Filipino Women), started in 1992 and is member of [[GABRIELA]], a feminist organization.<ref name=gabriela /> In their brochure they list their demands in two categories, ones to the Japanese government and those for the Philippine government. From the Japanese government Lila Pilipina has five demands:<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Lila-Pilipina Brochure |url=https://worldhistorycommons.org/lila-pilipina-brochure |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=World History Commons |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324191630/https://worldhistorycommons.org/lila-pilipina-brochure |url-status=live }}</ref>

# "that Japan fulfills its responsibility in the full disclosure of all information in its war archives concerning the operation of the "comfort stations" and the "comfort women" system
# "adequate compensation for the women victims and their families from the Japanese government,"
# "for the Japanese government to include as reference in its textbooks and history books the reality of military sexual slavery through "comfort women" during World War II as a crime,"
# "for the Japanese government to admit the use of force and violence in the conscription and treatment of the "comfort women" as military sex slaves, contrary to Japanese government report,"
# "a formal apology to the Filipino people and specifically to the women victims and their families for having a direct hand in the conscription of Asian women for military sexual slavery."

From the Philippine government Lila Pilipina also has five demands:<ref name=":4" />

# "to issue an official position declaring the comfort women system as a war crime, condemning the Japanese government in its direct involvement for institutionalized sexual slavery and demanding formal apology and compensation for the victims and their families,"
# "to conduct an official investigation and documentation of the comfort women issue,"
# "to include the reality of the "comfort women" and "comfort stations" during World War II in Philippine history. These include the curriculum, textbooks and other instructional materials used both in public and private educational institutions in all levels,"
# "to build historical markers and shrines around the country for the comfort women and war victims of World War II as a reminder to the present generation of the sad realities behind wars of aggression,"
# "to provide material support for the victims, survivors, and their families."

Lila Pilipina together with the [[Malaya Lolas]] (Free grandmothers) took legal actions against Japan. These groups also ask the Philippine government to back their claims against the Japanese government.<ref name="embassy">{{cite web|title=Filipino comfort women stage protest outside Japanese embassy |url=http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/140212/filipino-comfort-women-stage-protest-outside-japanese- |publisher=Kyodo News International |access-date=May 2, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528200847/http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/140212/filipino-comfort-women-stage-protest-outside-japanese- |archive-date=May 28, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title='Comfort Women' Are Old Now, But Still Fighting|newspaper=Women's Enews |date=June 15, 2013|url=http://womensenews.org/story/prostitution-and-trafficking/130615/comfort-women-are-old-now-still-fighting|access-date=May 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505223817/http://womensenews.org/story/prostitution-and-trafficking/130615/comfort-women-are-old-now-still-fighting|archive-date=May 5, 2015|last1=Gonzales |first1=Iris C. }}</ref> These groups have taken legal actions against Japan.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Etsuro Totsuka|title=Commentary on a Victgory for "Comfort Women": Japan's Judicial Recognition of Military Sexual Slavery|url=https://digital.law.washington.edu/dspace-law/bitstream/handle/1773.1/825/8PacRimLPolyJ047.pdf?sequence=1|access-date=May 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528220809/https://digital.law.washington.edu/dspace-law/bitstream/handle/1773.1/825/8PacRimLPolyJ047.pdf?sequence=1|archive-date=May 28, 2015}}</ref> Malaya Lolas had attempted to go to Tokyo to file a suit in the Japanese courts. Still, according to the Japanese government, the lolas themselves could not file a lawsuit due to international law stating that the lolas need to be represented by the Philippine government. In 2004 the Malaya Lolas filed a cause, Vinuya et al. v. Executive Secretary et al., asking for the support of the Philippine government in pursuing a petition for compensation in the Japanese courts. A decision was made on April 28, 2010, supporting the Philippine government.<ref name=":3" /> {{as of|2014|8}}, after failing in legal action against their own government to back their claims, they planned to take the case the UN [[Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women|Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and Children]] (CEDAW).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Virgil B. Lopez|title=Lawyer to take case of Filipino 'comfort women' to UN|url=http://archive.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2014/08/17/lawyer-take-case-filipino-comfort-women-un-360187|access-date=May 2, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018024342/http://archive.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2014/08/17/lawyer-take-case-filipino-comfort-women-un-360187|archive-date=October 18, 2015}}</ref>
[[File:Exterior_of_the_Baclaran_Church_10.jpg|thumb|200px|left| [[Malaya Lolas|Flower-for-Lolas Campaign Monument]]]]
These groups have made demonstrations in front of the Japanese embassy in [[Manila]] on many occasions,<ref name="embassy" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Philippines' Former Comfort Women Push For Compnsation|url=http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/galleries/events/53343134?asset=53343397|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528200937/http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/galleries/events/53343134?asset=53343397|archive-date=May 28, 2015}}</ref> and have given testimonies to Japanese tourists in Manila.<ref name="gabriela">{{cite web|last1=Mina Roces|title=Filipino Comfort Women|url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/d/198/wwh.html|publisher=University of New South Wales|access-date=May 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528200504/http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/d/198/wwh.html|archive-date=May 28, 2015}}</ref> The Filipino news channel [[ABS-CBN]] has done interviews with the surviving lolas to bring awareness to the experience of lolas under the Japanese occupation and to remind people that Japan's crimes were not committed that long ago and should not be forgotten.

Similar to the Korean grandmothers, Filipino "Lolas" have their own Grandmother house with a collection of their testimonies. Also two of them have published two autobiographic books: ''Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny'' by [[Rosa Henson]] and ''The Hidden Battle of Leyte: The Picture Diary of a Girl Taken by the Japanese Military'' by Remedios Felias. This second book was written in the 1990s, after Lila Filipina was formed.

In [[Bulacan]], there is an empty villa house [[Bahay na Pula]] (meaning Red House in English) which was seized by Japanese soldiers during WWII and had been used as a comfort station where Filipino women were raped and held as comfort women.<ref>{{cite news|title=The house where the Philippines' forgotten 'comfort women' were held|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36537605|agency=BBC|date=June 17, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801192440/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36537605|archive-date=August 1, 2016}}</ref> The Bahay na Pula is seen as a memorial to the forgotten Filipino comfort women in the Philippines.

On December 8, 2017, the '[[Filipina Comfort Women]]' statue by artist Jonas Roces was installed in [[Baywalk]], [[Roxas Boulevard]] in Manila. About four months later, the statue was removed by government officials due to a "drainage improvement project" along the Baywalk.<ref>{{cite news |title='Comfort woman' statue not an insult vs Japan |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/955174/comfort-woman-statue-not-an-insult-vs-japan |newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |date=December 26, 2017 |access-date=September 13, 2019 |archive-date=April 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409112524/https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/955174/comfort-woman-statue-not-an-insult-vs-japan |url-status=live }}</ref> It was later declared missing in 2019 when the statue artist Jonas Roces failed to deliver the statue for its reinstallation at the [[Baclaran Church]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-21 |title=Flowers for Lolas: Accurate historical inclusion while the comfort women's voices can still be heard |url=https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/494310/flowers-for-lolas-accurate-historical-inclusion-while-the-comfort-womens-voices-can-still-be-heard |access-date=2023-03-27 |website=INQUIRER.net |language=en |archive-date=April 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412005300/https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/494310/flowers-for-lolas-accurate-historical-inclusion-while-the-comfort-womens-voices-can-still-be-heard |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, a similar memorial statue in a Catholic-run shelter for the elderly and the homeless in San Pedro, Laguna was removed only two days after it was unveiled to the public. The bronze statue of a young woman with fists resting on her lap was removed without explanation and notice. The move came after the Japanese embassy complained.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-01-04 |title='Comfort woman' statue removed in Philippines |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/03/120_261460.html |access-date=2023-03-27 |website=[[The Korea Times]] |language=en |archive-date=March 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327033755/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/03/120_261460.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== United States ===
In 2010, the first American monument dedicated to the comfort women was established in [[Palisades Park, New Jersey]].<ref>{{cite news|title=In New Jersey, Memorial for 'Comfort Women' Deepens Old Animosity|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/nyregion/monument-in-palisades-park-nj-irritates-japanese-officials.html|first=Kirk|last=Semple|date=May 18, 2012|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 18, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220003606/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/nyregion/monument-in-palisades-park-nj-irritates-japanese-officials.html|archive-date=February 20, 2016}}</ref>

On March 8, 2013, Bergen County erected a comfort women memorial on the lawn of the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack, NJ.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nj.com/bergen/2013/03/bergen_county_marks_international_womens_day_with_korean_comfort_women_memorial.html|title=Bergen County marks International Women's Day with Korean 'comfort women' memorial|last=Sullivan|first=S. P.|date=March 9, 2013|website=nj.com|language=en-US|access-date=March 16, 2019|archive-date=August 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817063252/https://www.nj.com/bergen/2013/03/bergen_county_marks_international_womens_day_with_korean_comfort_women_memorial.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2013, a memorial statue to comfort women called ''[[Peace Monument of Glendale]]'' was established in [[Glendale, California]].<ref name="latimes1">{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-glendale-comfort-women-20130730,0,4823318.story | newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] | first1=Brittany | last1=Levine | first2=Jason | last2=Wells | title=Glendale unveils 'comfort women' statue, honors 'innocent victims' | date=July 30, 2013 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217204031/http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-glendale-comfort-women-20130730,0,4823318.story | archive-date=December 17, 2013 }}</ref> The statue has been subject to multiple legal attempts to remove it.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-glendale-comfort-women-statue-sparks-lawsuit-20140222-story.html | newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] | first1=Brittany | last1=Levine | title=Lawsuit seeks removal of Glendale 'comfort women' statue | date=February 22, 2014 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502004002/http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/22/local/la-me-ln-glendale-comfort-women-statue-sparks-lawsuit-20140222 | archive-date=May 2, 2014 }}</ref> A 2014 lawsuit seeking the statue's removal was dismissed.<ref>Hamilton, Valerie. [http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-29/california-statue-stirs-pride-south-korea-and-protest-japan "A California statue stirs passions in South Korea and ire in Japan"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329213557/http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-29/california-statue-stirs-pride-south-korea-and-protest-japan |date=March 29, 2016 }}. [[Public Radio International|PRI]]. January 29, 2014. Retrieved on February 1, 2014.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2014/08/11/17131/glendale-monument-comfort-women/|title=Glendale wins legal battle over monument to WW II 'comfort women'|first=Josie|last=Huang|work=[[KPCC (radio station)|Southern California Public Radio]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924095551/http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2014/08/11/17131/glendale-monument-comfort-women/|archive-date=September 24, 2015|date=August 11, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-comfort-women-20140812-story.html|title=Federal judge upholds 'comfort women' statue in Glendale park|date=August 11, 2014|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|first1=Brittany|last1=Levine|access-date=March 18, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312062121/http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-comfort-women-20140812-story.html|archive-date=March 12, 2016}}</ref>

In 2013, Mio Sugita, Yuzuru Nishida and Hiromu Nakamaru, three members of the Japanese House of Representatives, urged Glendale to take down the statue.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-comfort-women-20131219-story.html | title=Japanese politicians want Glendale's 'comfort women' statue removed | website=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date=December 19, 2013 }}</ref>

On May 30, 2014, a memorial was dedicated behind the Fairfax County Government Center in Virginia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kore.am/comfort-women-memorial-peace-garden-unveiled-in-northern-virginia/|title=Comfort Women Memorial Peace Garden Unveiled in Northern Virginia|date=June 2, 2014|website=Kore Asian Media|language=en-US|access-date=April 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404072452/http://kore.am/comfort-women-memorial-peace-garden-unveiled-in-northern-virginia/|archive-date=April 4, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On August 16, 2014, a new memorial statue honoring the comfort women was unveiled in [[Southfield, Michigan]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.koreatimesus.com/michigan-gets-a-comfort-woman-statue-also/|title=Michigan latest to install comfort woman statue|work=[[The Korea Times]]|language=en-US|access-date=April 4, 2019|archive-date=August 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816222234/http://www.koreatimesus.com/michigan-gets-a-comfort-woman-statue-also/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=comfort women statue unveiled in Michigan|url=http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=166831|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819090140/http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=166831|archive-date=August 19, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://asamnews.com/2014/08/21/korea-times-michigan-city-installs-comfort-women-memorial/|title=Korea Times: Michigan City Installs Comfort Women Memorial|date=August 21, 2014|website=AsAm News|language=en-US|access-date=April 4, 2019|archive-date=April 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404072515/https://asamnews.com/2014/08/21/korea-times-michigan-city-installs-comfort-women-memorial/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In June 2017, [[Brookhaven, Georgia]] unveiled a statue memorializing the Comfort Women of World War II.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wabe.org/brookhaven-unveil-comfort-women-statue-despite-japanese-opposition/|title=Brookhaven To Unveil 'Comfort Women' Statue, Despite Japanese Opposition|last=Hagen|first=Lisa|date=June 28, 2017|website=WABE|access-date=January 18, 2019|archive-date=January 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119174358/https://www.wabe.org/brookhaven-unveil-comfort-women-statue-despite-japanese-opposition/|url-status=live}}</ref>

On September 22, 2017, in an initiative led by the local Chinese-American community, San Francisco erected a privately funded [[San Francisco Comfort Women Memorial]] to the comfort women of World War II.<ref>{{cite web|title = SF Chinese American-led comfort women memorial to undergo vote |url = http://www.koreatimesus.com/sf-chinese-american-led-comfort-women-memorial-to-undergo-vote/|website=[[The Korea Times]] |access-date = December 11, 2015|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160105183300/http://www.koreatimesus.com/sf-chinese-american-led-comfort-women-memorial-to-undergo-vote/|archive-date = January 5, 2016}}</ref><ref name="nytimes sf osaka cut ties">{{cite news|last1=Fortin|first1=Jacey|title='Comfort Women' Statue in San Francisco Leads a Japanese City to Cut Ties|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/world/asia/comfort-women-statue.html|access-date=January 20, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=November 25, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123150744/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/world/asia/comfort-women-statue.html|archive-date=January 23, 2018}}</ref> Some Japanese and Japanese-American opponents of the initiative argue the statue would promote hatred and anti-Japanese sentiment throughout the community and object to the statue singling out Japan.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|title = Plans for SF 'comfort women' memorial move closer to reality – The San Francisco Examiner|url = http://www.sfexaminer.com/plans-for-sf-comfort-women-memorial-move-closer-to-reality/|website = The San Francisco Examiner|access-date = December 11, 2015|language = en-US|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151223122153/http://www.sfexaminer.com/plans-for-sf-comfort-women-memorial-move-closer-to-reality/|archive-date = December 23, 2015|date = September 18, 2015}}</ref> [[Tōru Hashimoto]], the mayor of [[Osaka]], [[Japan]], objected that the memorial should be "broadened to memorialize all the women who have been sexually assaulted and abused by soldiers of countries in the world".<ref>{{cite web|title = Supervisors' support of a 'comfort women' memorial in San Francisco sparks debate – The San Francisco Examiner|url = http://www.sfexaminer.com/supervisors-support-of-a-comfort-women-memorial-in-san-francisco-sparks-debate/|website = The San Francisco Examiner|access-date = December 11, 2015|language = en-US|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151223121430/http://www.sfexaminer.com/supervisors-support-of-a-comfort-women-memorial-in-san-francisco-sparks-debate/|archive-date = December 23, 2015|date = September 15, 2015}}</ref> Supporting the statue, Heather Knight of the [[San Francisco Chronicle]] pointed to the [[Holocaust Memorial at California Palace of the Legion of Honor|San Francisco Holocaust Memorial]] and the landmarked [[Internment of Japanese Americans|Japanese internment]] camps in California as evidence that Japan is "not being singled out".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Memorialize-wartime-sex-slaves-known-as-12189721.php|title=Memorialize wartime sex slaves known as 'comfort women,' or just move on?|newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|first=Heather|last=Knight|date=September 12, 2017|access-date=November 26, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201033958/http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Memorialize-wartime-sex-slaves-known-as-12189721.php|archive-date=December 1, 2017}}</ref> In protest over the statue, Osaka ended the [[sister city]] relationship with San Francisco that had been established since 1957.<ref name="nytimes sf osaka cut ties"/> When the city accepted the statue as public property in 2018, the mayor of Osaka sent a 10-page letter to the mayor of San Francisco, complaining of inaccuracies and unfairly singling out Japan for criticism.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Osaka drops San Francisco as sister city over 'comfort women' statue
|first=Justin
|last=McKurry
|date=October 4, 2018
|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/04/osaka-drops-san-francisco-as-sister-city-over-comfort-women-statue
|access-date=October 4, 2018
|archive-date=October 4, 2018
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004122749/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/04/osaka-drops-san-francisco-as-sister-city-over-comfort-women-statue
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

A 2010 proposal to create a memorial in [[Koreatown, Fort Lee|Koreatown, Fort Lee, New Jersey]] has been controversial and was undecided {{As of|2017|lc=yes}}.<ref>{{cite news|title=Fort Lee to revisit 'comfort women' memorial|work=[[USA Today]]|first=Svetlana|last=Shkolnikova|date=August 21, 2017|access-date=November 27, 2017|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/bergen/fort-lee/2017/08/21/fort-lee-revisit-comfort-women-memorial/559687001/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201093826/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/bergen/fort-lee/2017/08/21/fort-lee-revisit-comfort-women-memorial/559687001/|archive-date=December 1, 2017}}</ref>

On May 23, 2018, a comfort women memorial was installed in Constitution Park in Fort Lee, NJ.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/fort-lee/2018/05/23/fort-lee-nj-students-give-voice-comfort-women-abused-during-wwii/634547002/|title=Fort Lee students give voice to 'comfort women' abused during World War II|website=North Jersey|language=en|access-date=March 16, 2019|archive-date=May 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514112056/https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/fort-lee/2018/05/23/fort-lee-nj-students-give-voice-comfort-women-abused-during-wwii/634547002/|url-status=live}}</ref> Youth Council of Fort Lee, a student organization led by Korean American high school students in Fort Lee designed the memorial.

=== Germany ===
In March 2017, the first comfort women statue in Europe was elected in [[Wiesent, Bavaria]], Germany. The statue was a replica of the bronze statue installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Another German city, [[Freiburg]], had planned to set up a comfort woman statue there but it was scrapped due to "strong obstruction and pressure" by Japan.<ref>{{cite news |title=First 'comfort women' statue in Europe is unveiled in Germany |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2077424/first-comfort-women-statue-europe-unveiled-germany |publisher=SCMP |date=March 9, 2017 |access-date=September 13, 2019 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803052102/https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2077424/first-comfort-women-statue-europe-unveiled-germany |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Canada ===

In 2016, the first statue in Canada devoted to comfort women was placed in [[Toronto]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Longley |first=Richard |date=2021-04-25 |title=Hidden Toronto: the Comfort Woman Statue |url=https://nowtoronto.com/news/hidden-toronto-the-comfort-woman-statue |access-date=2022-12-12 |newspaper=NOW Magazine |language=en-US |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212223727/https://nowtoronto.com/news/hidden-toronto-the-comfort-woman-statue |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Australia===
[[File:Statue of Peace - Comfort Women 01.jpg|thumb|Statue of Peace at Ashfield Uniting Church]]
A comfort women statue was unveiled in [[Sydney]] in August 2016. The 1.5-metre statue imported from Korea was originally meant for a public park in [[Strathfield]], but local council rejected it. [[Bill Crews (minister)|Reverend Bill Crews]] then agreed to install the statue outside his church, [[Ashfield, New South Wales|Ashfield]] [[Uniting Church in Australia|Uniting Church]]. He said, "It's finally found a home."<ref>{{cite news |title=The big row over a small Australian statue |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38362304 |access-date=November 4, 2019 |publisher=BBC |archive-date=December 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210103958/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-38362304 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Notable former comfort women ==
A number of former comfort women had come forward and spoken out about their plight of being a comfort woman:
* Dutch East Indies – [[Jan Ruff O'Herne]] (1923–2019);<ref name="AAP">{{cite news |title='Comfort woman' who was repeatedly raped by Japanese troops dies at 96 |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/comfort-woman-who-was-repeatedly-raped-by-japanese-troops-dies-at-96-20190820-p52j0v.html |access-date=August 21, 2019 |work=The Age |agency=Australian Associated Press |date=August 21, 2019 |archive-date=August 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820215501/https://www.theage.com.au/national/comfort-woman-who-was-repeatedly-raped-by-japanese-troops-dies-at-96-20190820-p52j0v.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Ellen van der Ploeg (1923–2013)<ref>{{cite web|last1=Jan|first1=Banning|title='Comfort Woman' Ellen van der Ploeg passed away|url=http://www.janbanning.com/comfort-woman-ellen-van-der-ploeg-passed-away/|website=Jan Banning|quote=Ellen van der Ploeg, 84, from the Netherlands. During World War II, she lived with her family in the former Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Between 1943 and 1946, date at which she was liberated, Ellen lived in five different internment camps. When she was working in one of the camps, she was turned over to a comfort station by the Imperial Japanese forces. Soldiers would cut her food rationing if she did not work hard enough. They also ignored orders to use condoms, which led to her contracting a venereal disease.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105033245/http://www.janbanning.com/comfort-woman-ellen-van-der-ploeg-passed-away/|archive-date=January 5, 2016}}</ref>
* Korea – [[Gil Won-ok]] (1928–2025); [[Kim Hak-sun]] (1924–1997);<ref>{{cite news|title=Former 'Comfort Women' Hold 1,000th Protest at Japanese Embassy|url=http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/14/2011121401645.html|newspaper=[[The Chosun Ilbo]]|access-date=September 12, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401094118/http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/14/2011121401645.html|archive-date=April 1, 2012}}</ref> [[Lee Yong-soo (activist)|Lee Yong-soo]] (1928–);<ref name="vday">{{cite web|url=https://www.vday.org/node/1879.html|title=House Approves 'Comfort Women' Measure|date=August 2, 2007|website=vday.org|access-date=November 8, 2019|archive-date=November 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108082039/https://www.vday.org/node/1879.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=WWII 'comfort woman' demands apology from Japan|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/28/yong-soo-lee-japan-world-war-ii-comfort-woman-dema/|newspaper=Washington Times|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228160635/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/28/yong-soo-lee-japan-world-war-ii-comfort-woman-dema/|archive-date=December 28, 2015}}</ref> [[Song Sin-do]] (1922–2017);<ref>{{cite news|title=Comfort Woman Film Touches Japan |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/04/141_41520.html |newspaper=[[The Korea Times]] |access-date=September 12, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226082246/http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/04/141_41520.html |archive-date=December 26, 2013 |date=March 18, 2009 }}</ref> Yoo Hee-nam (1927–2016);<ref>{{cite news|url=https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20160710002200315|title=Number of surviving Korean sex slavery victims falls to 40|work=[[Yonhap News Agency]]|date=July 10, 2016|access-date=November 13, 2022|archive-date=November 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113233533/https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20160710002200315|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Former Korean 'comfort woman' prepares lawsuit against Japan|url=http://www.koreatimesus.com/former-korean-comfort-woman-prepares-lawsuit-against-japan-in-us-court/|newspaper=[[The Korea Times]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151226034200/http://www.koreatimesus.com/former-korean-comfort-woman-prepares-lawsuit-against-japan-in-us-court/|archive-date=December 26, 2015}}</ref> [[Kim Bok-dong]] (1926–2019)<ref>{{Citation|work=[[Asian Boss]]|title=Life As A "Comfort Woman": Story of Kim Bok-Dong |via=YouTube|date=October 27, 2018|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsT97ax_Xb0| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/qsT97ax_Xb0| archive-date=October 30, 2021|access-date=March 16, 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* Philippines – [[Rosa Henson]] (1927–1997); Remedios Felias (1928–);<ref>{{cite web|title=The hidden battle of Leyte : the picture diary of a girl taken by the Japanese military / Remedios Felias|url=http://rodhall.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/items/show/1094|website=filipinaslibrary.org.ph|publisher=Filipinas Heritage Library|access-date=August 6, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807022001/http://rodhall.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/items/show/1094|archive-date=August 7, 2017}}</ref> Isabelita Vinuya (1931–2021)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Calunsod |first=Ronron |date=November 24, 2021 |title=Filipino 'comfort woman' leading her group's quest for justice dies |url=https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/11/24/21/comfort-woman-leading-her-groups-quest-for-justice-dies |website=ABS CBN News}}</ref>
* Taiwan – [[Liu Huang A-tao]] (1923–2011)<ref>{{cite news |title=Profile: Taiwanese former 'comfort woman' dies before apology |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/09/06/2003512594/1 |work=[[Taipei Times]] |date=September 6, 2011 |access-date=September 22, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011045128/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/09/06/2003512594/1 |archive-date=October 11, 2012 }}</ref>

== Culture ==

=== Art ===
{{Main|Comfort women in the arts}}

=== Media ===
* ''[[Red Angel (Movie)]]'' is a 1966 Japanese war drama film by [[Yasuzo Masumura|Yasuzō Masumura]] where there are scenes of comfort women.<ref name="Red Angel – Yasuzō Masumura">{{cite web |url=http://deeperintomovies.net/journal/archives/534 |title=Red Angel (1966, Yasuzo Masumura) |access-date=December 16, 2021 |date=April 4, 2008 |language=en |website=DeeperIntoMovies.net |archive-date=December 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20211216212548/http://deeperintomovies.net/journal/archives/534 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''[[A Secret Buried for 50 Years]]'' is a 1998 documentary about the stories of 13 comfort women in Taiwan.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hsiao|first=Sherry|date=December 11, 2019|title='Comfort women' film reels given to film institute|url=https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2019/12/11/2003727359|access-date=November 2, 2020|website=www.taipeitimes.com}}</ref>
* ''[[City of Life and Death]]'' is a 2009 Chinese movie written and directed by Lu Chuan. The movie is based on the [[Nanjing Massacre]] that took place during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]. Several scenes of Chinese women tearfully volunteering themselves as comfort women to save the rest of the refugees are depicted, as well as their plight, pain and eventual death.
* ''[[Within Every Woman]]'' is a 2012 documentary by Canadian filmmaker [[Tiffany Hsiung]] on the Japanese comfort women program.
* ''[[Snowy Road]]'' is a 2015 South Korean film that tells the story about two teenage girls who are taken away from their homes and forced to become comfort women for the Japanese.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8216024/|title=Snowy Road|date=March 2017|via=www.imdb.com}}</ref>
* ''[[Spirits' Homecoming]]'' is a 2016 South Korean period drama film about comfort women.<!--The preceding information is in the first paragraph.--><ref>Film depicting horrors faced by 'comfort women' for Japan army tops Korea box office. (2016). [[The Japan Times]]. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from [https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/03/04/entertainment-news/film-depicting-horrors-faced-comfort-women-japan-army-tops-korea-box-office link to article.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228162533/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/03/04/entertainment-news/film-depicting-horrors-faced-comfort-women-japan-army-tops-korea-box-office |date=February 28, 2018 }}</ref>
* ''[[The Apology (2016 film)|The Apology]]'' is a 2016 documentary about three former comfort women seeking justice and stating their story.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Apology |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5593526/ |website=IMDb}}</ref>
* ''[[I Can Speak]]'' is a 2017 South Korean comedy-drama film starring [[Na Moon-hee]] as an elderly woman who travels to the United States to testify about her experience as a comfort woman.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/i-can-speak-film-review-1078248|title='I Can Speak': Film Review|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=January 25, 2018|language=en|access-date=December 30, 2018}}</ref>
* ''[[Herstory (film)|Herstory]]'' is a 2018 South Korean drama film based on a real-life story of three comfort women and seven other victims during the ''Gwanbu Trial'' which took place in [[Shimonoseki]] in 1992.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8574212/|title=Herstory|via=www.imdb.com}}</ref>
* ''[[How We Disappeared]]'' is a 2019 novel by [[Jing-Jing Lee]] about a Singaporean woman forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese occupiers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historicalnovelsociety.org/how-we-disappeared-an-interview-with-jing-jing-lee/|website=Historical Novels Review | title=How We Disappeared: An Interview with Jing-Jing Lee |first=Alan|last= Fisk|date= August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/how-we-disappeared-by-jing-jing-lee/|title="How We Disappeared" by Jing-Jing Lee|first=Susan|last=Blumberg-Kason|date=29 August 2019|website=Asian Review of Books}}</ref>
* ''[[Tomorrow (South Korean TV series)|Tomorrow]]'' Episode 13 of the Korean Netflix series Tomorrow explores the traumatic experiences of the comfort women.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kdramastars.com/articles/125042/20220513/tomorrow-episode-13-sf9-rowoon-part-comfort-womens-survival.htm |title='Tomorrow' Episode 13: SF9 Rowoon Part of a Comfort Women's Survival |website=KdramaStars |date=May 13, 2022 |language=en |access-date=January 4, 2023}}</ref> The fate of three of these women is the focus of the 60-minute episode Spring, with the peace monument in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul also playing a significant role.
* ''[[Kokosuni]]'', is a 2022 [[Korean Broadcasting System|KBS]] documentary film by reporter Lee Seok-jae, on the revisionist histories of comfort women.<ref name="KGS">{{Cite web |last=Jung |first=Kyung-ah |date=2022-08-26 |title=[이번주 개봉영화] 일본은 위안부 역사를 어떻게 왜곡했나...다큐 '코코순이' |trans-title=[Release this week] How did Japan distort the history of comfort women... Documentary 'Kokosuni' |url=http://www.kgnews.co.kr/news/article.html?no=715151 |website=Gyeonggi Shinmun |language=ko}}</ref>
* ''[[Pulang Araw]]'', is a 2024 Filipino war drama series where there are scenes of comfort women.<ref>{{cite news |last=Tomada |first=Nathalie |date=2024-10-27 |title='Pulang Araw' praised for giving voice to forgotten comfort women |url=https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2024/10/27/2395606/pulang-araw-praised-giving-voice-forgotten-comfort-women |website=Philstar}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=48em}}
* [[List of former comfort women]]
* [[1921 International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children]]
* ''[[Diary of a Japanese Military Brothel Manager]]''
* [[German camp brothels in World War II]]
** [[House of Dolls]]/Joy Division
* [[German military brothels in World War II]]
* [[Bordel militaire de campagne]]
* [[Human trafficking]]
* [[Historical negationism]]
* [[Karayuki-san]]
** ''[[Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute]]'', a documentary about Japanese women forced into prostitution in occupied territories in WWII
* [[Korean Women's Volunteer Labour Corps]]
* [[List of war apology statements issued by Japan]]
* [[Nora Okja Keller]], author of the 1997 novel, ''Comfort Woman''
* [[Park Yu-ha]]
* [[Rape during the occupation of Japan]]
* [[Rape during the occupation of Manchuria]]
* [[Rape of Nanjing]]
* [[Recreation and Amusement Association]], military prostitution in occupied Japan
* [[Sexual jihad]]
* [[United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121]]
* [[United States Military and prostitution in South Korea]]
* [[Walterina Markova]], a "comfort gay"
* [[Wartime sexual violence]]
* [[Forced prostitution]]
* [[Crimes against humanity]]
* {{Section link|Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan#Comfort women issue}}
* [[Sexual slavery]]
* [[Comfort women in the arts]]{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
:'''United Nations'''
* {{Cite web
|last=McDougall
|first=Gay J.
|url=http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/7fba5363523b20cdc12565a800312a4b/3d25270b5fa3ea998025665f0032f220?OpenDocument#Appendix |title=Contemporary Forms of Slavery – Systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during armed conflict
|date=June 22, 1998
|access-date=November 12, 2007
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130921114929/http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/7fba5363523b20cdc12565a800312a4b/3d25270b5fa3ea998025665f0032f220?OpenDocument
 |archive-date= September 21, 2013
}}

:'''Japanese government'''
* {{Citation
 |last=Kono
 |first=Yohei
 |url=http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html
 |title=Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of "comfort women"
 |date=August 4, 1993
|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709022903/http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html
 |archive-date=July 9, 2014
}}.
* {{Citation
|ref=JapanEmbassy2007
|url=http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/cw1.htm
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010011236/http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/cw1.htm
|archive-date=October 10, 2007
| work = us.emb-japan.go.jp
|title=The Comfort Women Issue
|access-date=July 4, 2008
}}

:'''Netherlands government'''
* {{cite journal
 | author = Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken
 | date = January 24, 1994
| title = Gedwongen prostitutie van Nederlandse vrouwen in voormalig Nederlands-Indië [Enforced prostitution of Dutch women in the former Dutch East Indies]
 | journal = Handelingen Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal [Hansard Dutch Lower House]
 | volume = 23607
 | issue = 1
 | issn = 0921-7371
 | author-link1=Minister of Foreign Affairs
 | url = http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/nieuws/nieuws/dwangprostitutie.asp
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927023811/http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/nieuws/nieuws/dwangprostitutie.asp
 | url-status = dead
 | language=nl
 | archive-date=September 27, 2007
 }}

:'''U.S. government'''
* {{Cite web
|last=Honda
|first=Mike
|url=http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca15_honda/comfortwomentestimony.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604220640/http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca15_honda/comfortwomentestimony.html
|archive-date=June 4, 2011
|title=Honda Testifies in Support of Comfort Women
|date=February 15, 2007
|access-date=March 23, 2007
|publisher=U.S. House of Representatives
}}
* {{Citation
|last=O'Herne
|first=Jan Ruff
|date=February 15, 2007
|url=http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/ohe021507.htm
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070228195049/http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/ohe021507.htm
|archive-date=February 28, 2007
|title=Statement of Jan Ruff O'Herne AO, Subcommittee on Asia, Pacific and the Global Environment
|publisher=Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives
|access-date=March 23, 2007
}}
* {{Cite web
|author=GovTrack.us
|year=2007–2008
|url=http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-121
|title=H. Res. 121: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally..
|access-date=March 23, 2007
|archive-date=September 30, 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930032535/http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-121
|url-status=dead
}}

:'''Books'''
* {{Citation
|last=Bix
|first=Herbert P.
|author-link=Herbert P. Bix
|title=Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
|publisher=HarperCollins
|year=2000
|isbn=978-0-06-019314-0
|title-link=Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
}}
* {{Citation
 |last=Drea
 |first=Edward
 |title=Researching Japanese War Crimes Records. Introductory Essays
 |year=2006
 |url=https://www.archives.gov/iwg/japanese-war-crimes/introductory-essays.pdf
 |access-date=July 1, 2008
|publisher=Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group
 |location=Washington DC
 |isbn=978-1-880875-28-5
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303190336/http://www.archives.gov/iwg/japanese-war-crimes/introductory-essays.pdf
 |archive-date=March 3, 2016
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Gamble
|first1=Adam
|last2=Watanabe
|first2=Takesato
|title=A Public Betrayed
|publisher=Regnery Publishing
|year=2004
|isbn=978-0-89526-046-8
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKUUuK0ym_oC
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Fujiwara
|first=Akira (藤原彰)
|title=The Three Alls Policy and the Northern Chinese Regional Army (「三光作戦」と北支那方面軍)
|publisher=Kikan sensô sekinin kenkyû 20
|year=1998
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Hata
|first=Ikuhiko
|author-link=Ikuhiko Hata
|title=Ianfu to senjo no sei (Shinchōsha)
|trans-title=Comfort women and sex in the battlefield
|year=1999
|publisher=新潮社
|isbn=978-4106005657
|language=ja
}}
* {{citation |last1=Hicks |first1=George |editor1-last=Duus |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Myers |editor2-first=Ramon Hawley |editor3-last=Peattie |editor3-first=Mark R. |title=The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945 |date=1996 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691043821 |pages=305–323 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGeGQgAACAAJ |language=en |chapter=The 'Comfort Women}}
* {{citation
|last=Hicks
|first=George
|title=The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2dUF4gcnT8C
|year=1997
|publisher=W W Norton & Company Incorporated
|isbn=978-0-393-31694-0}}
* {{Citation
|last=Himeta
|first=Mitsuyoshi (姫田光義)
|title=Concerning the Three Alls Strategy/Three Alls Policy By the Japanese Forces (日本軍による「三光政策・三光作戦をめぐって」)
|publisher=Iwanami Bukkuretto
|year=1996
}}
* {{cite book |last1=Huang |first1=Hua-Lun |title=The Missing Girls and Women of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: A Sociological Study of Infanticide, Forced Prostitution, Political Imprisonment, "Ghost Brides," Runaways and Thrownaways, 1900–2000s |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786488346 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DmVz_FRmrc8C&q=0786488344 |language=en}}
* {{Citation|author1-link=Caroline Rose (political scientist)
|last=Rose
|first=Caroline
|title=Sino-Japanese relations: facing the past, looking to the future?
|publisher=Routledge
|year=2005
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W2nU1Xu0XdkC
|isbn=978-0-415-29722-6
}}.
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GIHcaFVxXf0C&q=%22comfort+women%22&pg=PA69|title=The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan|first=C. Sarah |last=Soh|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year= 2009|isbn=978-0-226-76777-2}}
* {{Citation
|author=Pramoedya Ananta Toer
|author-link=Pramoedya Ananta Toer
|title=Perawan Remaja dalam Cengkraman Militer
|trans-title=Young Virgins in the Military's Grip
|language=id
|year=2001
|publisher=Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia
|isbn=9789799023483
|ref ={{SfnRef|Pramoedya|2001}}}}
* {{Citation
|last=Yoshimi
|first=Yoshiaki
|others=translation: Suzanne O'Brien
|title=Comfort Women. Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II
|year=2000
|series=Asia Perspectives
|publisher=Columbia University Press
|location=New York
|isbn=978-0-231-12033-3
}}
* {{cite book |last1=Zhiliang |first1=Su |title=Weianfu yanjiu |date=1999 |publisher=Shanghai Shudian Chubanshe |isbn=978-7-80622-561-5 |edition=Di 1 ban |ref={{harvid|Weianfu yanjiu}} |language=Zh |trans-title=Studies on the comfort women |script-title=ja:慰安婦硏究 }}

:'''Journal articles'''
* {{cite journal |last=Argibay |first=Carmen |date=2003 |title=Sexual Slavery and the Comfort Women of World War II |url=http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/bjil/vol21/iss2/6 |journal=Berkeley Journal of International Law |volume=21 |issue=2 }}
* {{Citation
|jstor=2170934
|last=Mitchell
|first=Richard H.
|title=George Hicks. The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War
|journal=The American Historical Review
|volume=102
|issue= 2
|pages=503
|date=April 1997
|doi=10.2307/2170934
}} (Review of {{Harvnb|Hicks|1997}}.
* {{Citation
|last=Yoneyama
|first=Lisa
|year=2002
|url = http://www.asiaquarterly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=110&Itemid=5
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060827015915/http://www.asiaquarterly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=110&Itemid=5
|archive-date=August 27, 2006
|title = NHK's Censorship of Japanese Crimes Against Humanity
|work = Harvard Asia Quarterly
|volume=VI
|issue=1
}}
* {{cite journal |last=Wender |first=Mellisa |date=2003 |title=Military Comfort Women: Doing Justice to the Past |journal=Critical Asian Studies |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages= 139–145|doi=10.1080/14672710320000061514 |s2cid=143569098 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Watanabe |first1=Kazuko |title=Trafficking in Women's Bodies, Then and Now: The Issue of Military 'Comfort Women' |journal=Women's Studies Quarterly |date=1999 |volume=27 |issue=1/2 |pages=19–31 |jstor=40003395 }}

:'''News articles'''
* {{Cite news
|url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2W6b2AKn18yWn-ZEnS9YdknaDBg
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214090003/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2W6b2AKn18yWn-ZEnS9YdknaDBg
|archive-date=December 14, 2007
|title=Canada MPs demand Japan apologize to WWII 'comfort women'
|publisher=AFP
|date=November 28, 2007
|access-date=July 4, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=BBC2000-12-08
|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1061599.stm
|title=Sex slaves put Japan on trial
|date=December 8, 2000
|work=BBC News
|access-date=July 1, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=CITEREFBBC 2007-03-02
|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6411471.stm
|title=Abe questions sex slave 'coercion'
|date=March 2, 2007
|work=BBC News
|access-date=March 23, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=CITEREFBBC 2007-03-08
|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6431011.stm
|title=Japan party probes sex slave use
|date=March 8, 2007
|work=BBC News
|access-date=March 23, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=ChinaDaily2005-07-13
|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-07/13/content_459772.htm
|title='Comfort women' distortion stirs indignation
|date=July 13, 2005
|access-date=May 20, 2008
|publisher=[[China Daily]]
}}
* {{Cite news
|ref=ChinaDaily2007-07-06
|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-07/06/content_911759.htm
|title=Memoir of comfort woman tells of 'hell for women'
|agency=Associated Press
|newspaper=China Daily
|date=July 6, 2007
|access-date=August 29, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=CNN2001-03-29
|title=Japan court rules against 'comfort women'
|date=March 29, 2001
|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/03/29/japan.comfort.women/index.html
|publisher=CNN
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060922051632/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/03/29/japan.comfort.women/index.html
|archive-date=September 22, 2006
}}
* {{Cite news
|title="Comfort Women" Resolution Likely to Pass U.S. Congress
|date=February 2, 2007
|publisher=[[Digital Chosun]] (English edition) |url=http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200702/200702020014.html
|access-date = March 30, 2007
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070313210236/http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200702/200702020014.html |archive-date = March 13, 2007}}
* {{Citation
|ref=CITEREFchosun.com 2007-03-19
|url=http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200703/200703190023.html
|title=Comfort Women Were 'Raped': U.S. Ambassador to Japan
|publisher=[[Digital Chosun]] (English edition)
|date=March 19, 2007
|access-date=July 2, 2008
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080605004220/http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200703/200703190023.html |archive-date = June 5, 2008}}\
* {{Cite news|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/015-14857-344-12-50-902-20071211IPR14818-10-12-2007-2007-false/default_nl.htm |title=Human rights: Chad, women's rights in Saudi Arabia, Japan's wartime sex slaves|publisher=Europees Parlement |date=December 13, 2007 |access-date=July 4, 2008  |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080519070159/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/015-14857-344-12-50-902-20071211IPR14818-10-12-2007-2007-false/default_nl.htm |archive-date=May 19, 2008 }} ([https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=intitle%3AHuman+rights%3A+Chad%2C+women%27s+rights+in+Saudi+Arabia%2C+Japan%27s+wartime+sex+slaves&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=Search Scholar search])
* {{Citation
 |ref=HillTimes2007-11-28
 |url=http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2007/november/28/comfortwomen/
 |author=Jeff Davis
 |title=MPs Moved to Tears by Comfort Women
 |publisher=Hill Times
 |date=November 28, 2007
|access-date=July 4, 2008
|url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518161650/http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=%2F2007%2Fnovember%2F28%2Fcomfortwomen%2F
 |archive-date=May 18, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=IE2007-03-08
|url=http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2007/03/08/story27265.asp
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326030536/http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2007/03/08/story27265.asp
|archive-date=March 26, 2009
|title=Japan refuses to apologise for WW2 brothel scandal
|publisher=Irish Examiner
|date=March 8, 2007
|access-date=June 1, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=IHT2007-03-07
|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/07/asia/AS-GEN-Asia-Sex-Slaves.php
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070309150047/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/07/asia/AS-GEN-Asia-Sex-Slaves.php
|archive-date=March 9, 2007
|title=Japanese opposition calls on prime minister to acknowledge WWII sex slaves
|date=March 7, 2007
|access-date=June 1, 2008
|publisher=International Herald Tribune
}}
* {{Citation
| ref = JapanTimes2006-12-23
| last = Coop
| first = Stephanie
| date = December 23, 2006
| url = http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061223f2.html
| title = Sex slave exhibition exposes darkness in East Timor
| access-date = December 23, 2006
| publisher = [[The Japan Times]]
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929120538/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061223f2.html
| archive-date = September 29, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=JapanTimes2007-03-11
|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070311f1.html
|title=Sex slave history erased from texts; '93 apology next?
|author=Reiji Yoshida
|date=March 11, 2007
|publisher=[[The Japan Times]]
|access-date=May 20, 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080317032702/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070311f1.html
|archive-date=March 17, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=JapanTimes2007-03-20
|last=Nakamura
|first=Akemi
|title=Were they teen-rape slaves or paid pros?
|date=March 20, 2007
|publisher=[[The Japan Times]]
|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070320i1.html
|access-date=March 23, 2007
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704003713/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070320i1.html
|archive-date=July 4, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=JapanTimes2007-04-18
|author=Reiji Yoshida
|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070418a5.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929125427/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070418a5.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=September 29, 2007
|title=Evidence documenting sex-slave coercion revealed
|date=April 18, 2007
|publisher=[[The Japan Times]]
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=JapanTimes2007-04-28
|date=April 28, 2007
|title=East Timor former sex slaves start speaking out
|author=Keiji Hirano
|publisher=[[The Japan Times]]
|access-date=August 29, 2007
|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070428f1.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929120613/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070428f1.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=September 29, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=CITEREFJapanTimes2007-05-12
|title=Files: Females forced into sexual servitude in wartime Indonesia
|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070512a6.html
|date=May 12, 2007
|publisher=[[The Japan Times]]
|access-date=August 29, 2007
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221945/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070512a6.html
|archive-date=September 26, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=Japan Times2007-11-09
|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071109a2.html
|title=U.S. got Abe to drop denial over sex slaves
|publisher=[[The Japan Times]]
|date=November 9, 2007
|access-date=July 4, 2008
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917150108/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071109a2.html
|archive-date=September 17, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=Japan Times2011-10-18
|url=http://alpha-la.org/2011/11/03/comfort-women-issue-resolved-noda-65-treaty-cited-on-eve-of-first-seoul-trip/
|title='Comfort women' issue resolved: Noda '65 treaty cited on eve of first Seoul trip
|author=Masami Ito
|date=October 18, 2011
|publisher=[[The Japan Times]] (via the Alliance to Preserve the History of WWII in Asia – Los Angeles)
|access-date=January 7, 2016
|archive-date=March 4, 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304075652/http://alpha-la.org/2011/11/03/comfort-women-issue-resolved-noda-65-treaty-cited-on-eve-of-first-seoul-trip/
|url-status=dead
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=KoreaTimes2007-09-17
|author=Bae Ji-sook |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/nation_view.asp?newsIdx=10320&categoryCode=117
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211004340/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/index.asp
|archive-date=December 11, 2013
|title=202 Pro-Japanese Collaborators Disclosed
|publisher=[[The Korea Times]]
|date=September 17, 2007
|access-date=July 1, 2008
}}
* {{Cite news
 |url = http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=349822
 |title       = FOCUS: Amnesty's European 'comfort women' campaign makes steady progress
 |publisher   = Kyodo News
 |date= November 24, 2007
|access-date  = July 4, 2008
|url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080522121358/http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=349822
 |archive-date = May 22, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=SFChronicle2007-07-31
|author=Edward Epstein
|title=House wants Japan apology
|date=July 31, 2007
|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle
|url =http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/31/MN5KR9UB32.DTL
|access-date = August 1, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
 |ref= NY Times2001-03-02
 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/02/world/cartoon-of-wartime-comfort-women-irks-taiwan.html
 |title      = Cartoon of Wartime 'Comfort Women' Irks Taiwan
 |author     = Mark Landler
 |work  = The New York Times
 |date       = March 2, 2001
|access-date = March 13, 2024
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=CITEREFNY Times2007-03-06
|first=Martin
|last=Fackler
|title=No Apology for Sex Slavery, Japan's Prime Minister Says
|date=March 6, 2007
|newspaper=The New York Times
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/world/asia/06japan.html?_r=0
|access-date=March 23, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=CITEREFNY Times2007-03-08
|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00C10FF39550C7B8CDDAA0894DF404482
|first=Norimitsu
|last=Onishi
|title=Denial Reopens Wounds of Japan's Ex-Sex Slaves
|date=March 8, 2007
|work=The New York Times
|access-date=March 23, 2007
}}
* {{Cite news
|url=http://www.theparliament.com/EN/News/200712/303a08a6-197b-42df-9425-bc36e5c8de3b.htm
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20080108102018/http://www.theparliament.com/EN/News/200712/303a08a6-197b-42df-9425-bc36e5c8de3b.htm
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=January 8, 2008
|title=EU passes resolution on Japanese-enslaved 'comfort women'
|work=[[The Parliament Magazine]]
|date=December 14, 2007
|access-date=July 4, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=CITEREFReuters 2007-03-05
|url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKSP21646220070305
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080102154814/http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKSP21646220070305
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=January 2, 2008
|title=FACTBOX-Disputes over Japan's wartime "comfort women" continue
|date=March 5, 2007
|access-date=March 5, 2008
|work=Reuters
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=NYTimes2007-03-06
|title=No Comfort
|date=March 6, 2007
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/06tues3.html
|access-date=March 23, 2007
|newspaper=The New York Times
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=TheAge2007-03-03
|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/abe-ignores-evidence-say-australias-comfort-women/2007/03/02/1172338881441.html
|title=Abe ignores evidence, say Australia's 'comfort women'
|author=Stephen Moynihan
|date=March 3, 2007
|newspaper=The Age
|access-date=July 2, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=TaipeiTimes2000-12-18
|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2000/12/18/66017
|title=WWII sex slaves want Japan to wake up
|author=Irene Lin
|publisher=Taipei Times
|date=December 18, 2000
|access-date=July 4, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=WPost2007-03-01
| last=Tabuchi
| first=Hiroko |author-link=Hiroko Tabuchi
| title=Japan's Abe: No Proof of WWII Sex Slaves
| date=March 1, 2007
| newspaper=The Washington Post
| url =https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR2007030100578.html
| access-date = March 23, 2007
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=WPost2007-03-23
|last=Coleman
|first=Joseph
|newspaper=The Washington Post
|title=Ex-Japanese PM Denies Setting Up Brothel
|date=March 23, 2007
|access-date=July 1, 2008
|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032300304.html
}}
* {{Cite news
 |url = http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/21/content_7119543.htm
 |title       = Dutch parliament demands Japanese compensation for "comfort women"
 |publisher   = Xinhau
 |date= November 21, 2007
|access-date  = July 4, 2008
|url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080225101859/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/21/content_7119543.htm
 |archive-date = February 25, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=YomoriShimbun2007-03-31
|url=http://studyofenglish.wordpress.com/2007/04/01/ianfu-comfort-woman-sex-slave-korea-korean-japan-5/
|title=Comfort station originated in govt-regulated <nowiki>'civilian prostitution'</nowiki>
|date=March 31, 2007
|publisher=[[The Daily Yomiuri]]
|page=15|access-date=June 14, 2008
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=The Guardian2007-05-03
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/05/secondworldwar.japan
|title=Japan rules out new apology to <nowiki>'comfort women'</nowiki>
|date=May 3, 2007
|last=McCurry
|first=Justin
|access-date=August 17, 2008
|location=London
|newspaper=The Guardian
}}
* {{Citation
|ref=Sankei Shimbun2012-06-09
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702134023/http://sankei.jp.msn.com/politics/news/120609/plc12060909440008-n1.htm
|archive-date=July 2, 2012
|title=慰安婦問題、敗北主義に陥るな 外務省「韓国は確信犯的にやっている」(Comfort women issue – Do not be influenced by defeatism. Foreign Ministry Staff say "South Korea is doing a criminal conviction".)
|date=June 9, 2012
|publisher=[[MSN Sankei News]]
|page=2|access-date=June 14, 2012
}}
* {{Cite news|last1=Sang-Hun|first1=Choe|title=Disputing Korean Narrative on 'Comfort Women,' a Professor Draws Fierce Backlash|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/world/asia/south-korea-comfort-women-park-yu-ha.html|access-date=December 20, 2015|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 18, 2015}}

'''Online sources'''
* {{Cite web
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|url-status=dead
|archive-date=December 19, 2007
|title=European Parliament speaks out on sexual slavery during WWII
|publisher=Amnesty international
|date=December 13, 2007
|access-date=July 4, 2008
}}.
* {{Citation
|ref=CITEREFkorea.net 2007-11-30
|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/10/117_14697.html
|title=Comfort women used to prevent military revolt during war: historian
|publisher=[[The Korea Times]]
|date=November 30, 2007
|access-date=December 30, 2015
}}
* {{Citation
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|archive-date=June 28, 2007
|url-status=dead
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* {{Citation
|url = http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/IMTFE/IMTFE-8.html
|title=International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Chapter 8) – Judgment
|editor-last=Clancey
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|date=November 1, 1948
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* {{cite book
|ref={{harvid|Hata undated}}
|last=Hata
|first=Ikuhiko
|publisher=hassin.sejp.net
|url = http://hassin.sejp.net/Hata-Ianfu_text.pdf
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080904020445/http://hassin.sejp.net/Hata-Ianfu_text.pdf
|archive-date=September 4, 2008
|title = No Organized or Forced Recruitment: Misconceptions about Comfort Women and the Japanese Military
|author-link = Ikuhiko Hata
|access-date = November 10, 2007
|quote = None of them was forcibly recruited.
}}
* {{Cite magazine
|last=Horn
|first=Dottie
|title=Comfort Women
|url=http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/win97/comfort.html
|magazine=Endeavors Magazine
|date=January 1997
|issue=Winter
|access-date=October 5, 2008
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080625101655/http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/win97/comfort.html |archive-date = June 25, 2008}}
* {{Citation
|last=Soh
|first=C.Sarah
|url=http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp77.html
|title=Japan's Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors
|publisher=Japan Policy Research Institute (JPRI)
|date=May 2001
|access-date=July 1, 2008
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|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120628222046/http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp77.html
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* {{Cite web
|author=WCCW
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|year=2004
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|url=http://www.comfort-women.org/v2/faqs.html
|access-date=June 20, 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615011715/http://www.comfort-women.org/v2/faqs.html
|archive-date=June 15, 2007
|url-status=dead
}} ( archived on 2007-06-15).
* {{Citation
|url=http://www.japanfocus.org/-H_R__759-/1908
|last=Dudden
|first=Alexis
|title=US Congressional Resolution Calls on Japan to Accept Responsibility for Wartime Comfort Women
|date=April 25, 2006
|publisher=www.japanfocus.org
|access-date=March 30, 2014
}}.
* {{Citation
|last=Nelson
|first=Hank
|url = http://rspas.anu.edu.au/papers/pah/Nelson_COMFORT_WOMEN_RABAUL.pdf
|title = The Consolation Unit: Comfort Women at Rabaul
|date=May 17, 2007
|access-date = November 26, 2007
|publisher = The Australian National University
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610042634/http://rspas.anu.edu.au/papers/pah/Nelson_COMFORT_WOMEN_RABAUL.pdf
|archive-date=June 10, 2007
}}.
* {{Citation
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}}.
* {{Citation
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 |title=History of Comfort Women by the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues – History
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}}.
* {{Citation
|last=Asian Women's Fund
|year=1996
|url=http://www.awf.or.jp/english/about/archives/1996_2.html
|title=Letter from Prime Minister to the former comfort women, since 1996
|access-date=March 23, 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516012746/http://www.awf.or.jp/english/about/archives/1996_2.html
|archive-date=May 16, 2007
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* {{Citation
|last=Nozaki
|first=Yoshiko
|date=August 1, 2005
|url=http://hnn.us/articles/13533.html
|title=The Horrible History of the "Comfort Women" and the Fight to Suppress Their Story
|publisher=History news Network
|access-date=July 4, 2008
}}.
* ''[https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xUn-lWuIoWDMqgByTDeo61Cm4z5GMfLh Diary of a Japanese Military Comfort Station (Brothel) Manager]'' (excerpt in English). Translated from Japanese version. July 20, 2018.

'''Further reading'''
* Drinck, Barbara and Gross, Chung-noh. ''Forced Prostitution in Times of War and Peace'', Kleine Verlag, 2007. {{ISBN|978-3-89370-436-1}}.
* Hayashi, Hirofumi. "Disputes in Japan over the Japanese Military 'Comfort Women' System and Its Perception in History", ''Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science'', May 2008, Vol. 617, pp 123–132
* [[Maria Rosa Henson|Henson, Maria Rosa]] "Comfort woman: Slave of destiny", Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism: 1996. {{ISBN|971-8686-11-8}}.
* {{Cite book
|last= Henson
|first= Maria Rose
|title= Comfort Woman: A Filipina's Story of Prostitution and Slavery Under the Japanese Military
|publisher= Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
|year= 1999
|isbn= 978-0-8476-9149-4
|url= https://archive.org/details/comfortwomanfili00hens|url-access= registration
|quote= maria rosa henson.
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Howard
|first=Keith
|author2=Hanʼguk Chŏngsindae Munje Taechʻaek Hyŏbŭihoe |author3=Research Association on the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan
|title=True stories of the Korean comfort women: testimonies
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CD5nAAAAMAAJ
|year=1995
|publisher=Cassell
|isbn=978-0-304-33262-5}}
* [[Nora Okja Keller|Keller, Nora Okja]] "Comfort Woman", London, Penguin: 1998. {{ISBN|0-14-026335-7}}.
* Kim-Gibson, D. ''Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women'', 1999. {{ISBN|0-931209-88-9}}.
* Levin, Mark, [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1542727 Case Comment: Nishimatsu Construction Co. v. Song Jixiao Et Al., Supreme Court of Japan (2d Petty Bench)], April 27, 2007, and Ko Hanako Et Al. V. Japan, Supreme Court of Japan (1st Petty Bench), April 27, 2007 (January 1, 2008). American Journal of International Law, Vol. 102, No. 1, pp.&nbsp;148–154, January 2008. Available at SSRN:
* Molasky, Michael S. ''American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa'', Routledge, 1999. {{ISBN|0-415-19194-7}}, {{ISBN|0-415-26044-2}}.
* {{Cite journal
 |last          = Przystup
 |first         = James
 |editor1-last  = Glosserman
 |editor1-first = Brad
 |editor2-last  = Namkung
 |editor2-first = Sun
 |date          = July 2007
 |title         = Japan-China Relations: Wen in Japan: Ice Melting But..
 |journal       = Comparative Connections, A Quarterly e-Journal on East Asian Bilateral Relations
 |volume        = 9
 |issue         = 2
 |pages         = 131–146
 |issn          = 1930-5370
 |url           = http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/0702q.pdf
 |access-date   = July 10, 2010
 |archive-date  = April 2, 2012
 |archive-url   = https://web.archive.org/web/20120402220343/http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/0702q.pdf
 |url-status    = dead
}}
* {{Cite book
|last1=Schellstede
|first1=Sangmie Choi
|last2=Yu
|first2=Soon Mi
|title=Comfort Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military : Includes New United Nations Human Rights Report
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oflmAAAAMAAJ
|year=2000
|publisher=Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc.
|isbn=978-0-8419-1413-1}}
* Tanaka, Yuki. ''Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the US Occupation'', London, Routledge: 2002. {{ISBN|0-415-19401-6}}.
* {{cite book | last=Tanaka | first=Y. | title=Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes In World War Ii | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2019 | orig-date=1996 | isbn=978-0-429-72089-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eWClDwAAQBAJ }}
* Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashii "Comfort Women: Beyond Litigious Feminism"

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Comfort women}}
{{Sister project links}}
{{Wikisource|Enforced prostitution in Western Borneo during Japanese Occupation}}
{{Wikisource|Japanese Military's "Comfort Women" System}}
{{Wikisource|Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report 49}}
* [http://www.asahi.com/topics/ianfumondaiwokangaeru/en/ Thinking about the comfort women issue, Look squarely at essence of 'comfort women' issue.] on August 22, 2014, ''[[Asahi Shimbun]]''
** [http://www.asahi.com/articles/SDI201408213563.html Testimony about 'forcible taking away of women on Jeju Island': Judged to be fabrication because supporting evidence not found] on August 22, 2014, ''Asahi Shimbun''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070202081635/http://www.awf.or.jp/english/index.html Asian Women's Fund web site] (archived from [https://web.archive.org/web/20070202081635/http://www.awf.or.jp/english/index.html the original] on 2007-02-02)
* [http://www.comfort-women.org/ Comfort-Women.org]
* [http://www.awf.or.jp/index.html Digital Museum of The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund](in Japanese)
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027084856/http://geocities.com/jugunianfuindonesia/ |date=October 27, 2009 |title=Jugun Ianfu Indonesia }}
* [http://koreadutchindiesproject.blogspot.com/ Korea Dutch Indies Sex Slavery Translation Project]
* [http://www.support121.org/ 121 Coalition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126032856/http://www.support121.org/ |date=January 26, 2019 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061024233813/http://www.mogef.go.kr/english/dev/victims/index.jsp "The Victims"] (from the South Korean Ministry of Gender and Family Equality){{dead link|date=March 2014}}
* {{YouTube|-YMUjvtt7Gg|Japanese Military Sex Slaves}}, CBS Report featuring [[Mike Honda]] and Nariaki Nakayama's infamous comment comparing "comfort houses" and cafeterias
* {{YouTube|il0xCjBXTmM|Japan forced women to work as sex slaves during World War II}}
* [http://theseoultimes.com/ST/photo_gallery/photo_gallery.php?name=Comfort_Woman_Picture_Gallery Photo gallery] at the Seoul Times.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070403184608/http://www.apublicbetrayed.com/case_studies/case_study5.htm A Public Betrayed – Comfort Women—The Asian Sex Slaves of World War II] <!-- archive.com archived links go to a different article. Possibly link the book https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Public_Betrayed.html?id=gKUUuK0ym_oC&redir_esc=y instead -->
* {{cite web
| year = 2006
| url = https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions/alliesinadversity/prisoners/women
| title = Allies in adversity, Australia and the Dutch in the Pacific War: Comfort women
| format = Web page
| publisher = [[Australian War Memorial]]
| access-date = December 12, 2017
}} – describes the experience of Jan O'Herne in Java
* {{cite web
| last = Nakamura
| first = Akemi
| author2 = Ikuhiko Hata
| author3 = Yoshiaki Yoshimi
| date = March 20, 2007
| url = http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070320i1.html
| title = Comfort Women: Were they teen-rape slaves or paid pros?
| work=[[The Japan Times]]
| access-date = March 23, 2006
| url-status = dead
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070704003713/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070320i1.html
| archive-date = July 4, 2007
}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101209170437/http://fcwa.org.au/ Friends of "Comfort Women" Australia (FCWA)] – not-for-profit organisation focusing on the plight of the Japanese military "Comfort Women" of World War II.
* {{YouTube|R7aMMlMN1XM|''Mourning''}}, song about comfort women composed by Mu Ting Zhang and directed by Po En Lee
* [http://www.nanum.org/eng/ House of Sharing] The "House of Sharing" is a South Korean home for surviving comfort women and incorporates "The Museum of Sexual Slavery".
* [https://justiceforcomfortwomen.org/ Justice For Comfort Women]
* [https://wam-peace.org/ianjo/ Archive Museum 女たちの戦争と平和資料館(wam)] A museum documenting oral account publications, images and interactive maps of designated "Comfort Women" military establishments and experiences of "Comfort Women" (in Japanese)

'''Academic research'''
* {{cite web|url=http://online.sfsu.edu/~soh/comfortwomen.html |title=The Comfort Women project |access-date=April 22, 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209130115/http://online.sfsu.edu/~soh/comfortwomen.html |archive-date=December 9, 2006 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050408103521/http://www32.ocn.ne.jp/~modernh/13eng.htm Hayashi Hirofumi's papers on comfort women]
* [http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp77.html Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120628222046/http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp77.html |date=June 28, 2012 }}: [[Japan Policy Research Institute]] Working Paper 77.
* [http://www.jpri.org/publications/critiques/critique_IX_2.html Japan's Comfort Women, Theirs and Ours] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180901225737/http://www.jpri.org/publications/critiques/critique_IX_2.html |date=September 1, 2018 }}: Book review, Japan Policy Research Institute ''Critique'' 9:2.
* [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_asian_american_studies/toc/jaas6.1.html Journal of Asian American Studies 6:1, February 2003], issue on American studies of comfort women, Kandice Chuh, ed.

'''Japanese official statements'''
* {{cite web|url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/postwar/page22e_000883.html |date=January 14, 2021 |title=Japan's Efforts on the Issue of Comfort Women |website=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)]] |access-date=February 1, 2021 }}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/other/bluebook/2019/html/references/r0101.html |date=2019 |title=Diplomatic Bluebook 2019 / The Issue of Comfort Women |website=Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan) |access-date=February 1, 2021 }}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/na/kr/page4e_000364.html |date=December 28, 2015 |title=Announcement by Foreign Ministers of Japan and the Republic of Korea at the Joint Press Occasion |website=Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan) |access-date=February 3, 2021 }}
* [https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/rp/page25e_000352.html "Letter from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the former comfort women"]. ''Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)'', 2001.
* [https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/rp/page25e_000354.html "Statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on the occasion of the establishment of the Asian Women's Fund"]. ''Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)'', 1995.

'''United States historical documents'''
* [https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-resolution/121#:~:text=121%20%2D%20A%20resolution%20expressing%20the,to%20the%20world%20as%20%22comfort: House Resolution 121], introduced by Rep. Michael Makoto Honda (California 17th), Passed House amended (July 30, 2007)
* [http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html Japanese Comfort Women] (1944, United States Office of War Information)
* [http://www.hermuseum.go.kr/ Korea official website for sex slaves victims]

{{World War II}}
{{ComfortWomenMemorialsInUSA}}
{{Korea under Japanese rule}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Comfort women| ]]
[[Category:Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan]]
[[Category:Anti-Korean violence]]
[[Category:Military-related euphemisms]]
[[Category:Japanese war crimes]]
[[Category:Violence against women in Asia]]
[[Category:Women in war]]
[[Category:Post-traumatic stress disorder]]
[[Category:Sexual euphemisms]]
[[Category:Transitional justice]]
[[Category:Women in China]]
[[Category:Women in Korea]]
[[Category:Slavery in Japan]]
[[Category:Sexual violence in Asia during World War II]]
[[Category:Human trafficking in Japan]]
[[Category:Sex trafficking]]
[[Category:Women in Korea under Japanese rule]]
[[Category:Forced labour during World War II]]
[[Category:Sexual slavery during wars]]
[[Category:Child sexual abuse during World War II]]