Dark days of ‘co Omfort women’
Chinese scholar spent nearly 3 Japan’s World War II-er
Thirty years ago, Su Zhiliang first learned about “comfort women” — a euphemism for the hundreds of thousands of girls and young women in Asian countries forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during World War II.
In 1993, the historian started investigating the issue in Shanghai, where the first “comfort station” in China was identified. He hoped his study would shed further light on a war crime that was once covered up.
Evidence is mounting, victims are dying, but the formal apology demanded from the Japanese government by survivors in China has not been forthcoming.
On the contrary, Tokyo recently gave approval for Japanese publishers to use equivocal terms in textbooks to describe historical facts related to “comfort women”.
However, efforts to combat such distortion through studies, exhibitions and protests continue and more people, especially the younger generation, have been urged to remember this grim time to ensure such incidents are never repeated.
On Sept 18, at the opening of an exhibition in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on the crimes of the Japanese “comfort women” system, Su said, “To this day, the Japanese government hasn’t thoroughly reflected on its past and is still trying to deny the existence of ‘comfort women’, let alone give them a sincere apology and compensation.”
The exhibition was held in the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders to commemorate the September 18 Incident 90 years ago, which marked the start of Japan’s 14-year invasion of China.
Su said: “Every attempt by the Japanese government to revise textbooks is a denial of its wartime crimes, which we shall fight against vigilantly. The exhibition is a reminder for us not to forget the past.”
On Sept 9, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
approved a plan by five publishers to change the term for wartime sex slaves in history textbooks and remove the expression “forced conscription” — a reference to those compelled to work against their will.
Tokyo agreed to refer to victims of its wartime sexual slavery as “comfort women”, instead of “military comfort women”, and to delete the term “forced conscription”, indicating that the victims somehow had a chance to decide against being sex slaves.
This move sparked outrage throughout Asia, where women were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in countries including China, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Sept 13 that the forced recruitment of “comfort women” was a grave crime against humanity committed by the Japanese military and it is “a historical fact with ironclad and undeniable evidence”.
“Japan’s latest attempt is to meddle with textbooks and play with words to blur the historical facts,” Zhao said.
“It highlights Japan’s long-standing dishonest attitude toward the history of aggression,” he added. “Japan should honestly face up to and reflect on its history of aggression, make a clean break with militarism, properly handle the ‘comfort women’ issue in an honest and responsible manner, and take concrete actions to win the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community.”
The South Korean Foreign Ministry also expressed regret over Tokyo’s decision.
“It is very regrettable that the ministry approved the textbook publishers’ recent applications for the removal or change of related expressions,” the ministry said. It stressed that the forced nature of the mobilization, recruitment and transfer of the military “comfort women” is an “undeniable fact” backed by victims’ firsthand accounts, and Tokyo itself has already acknowledged its past misconduct.
In 2015, at a session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, the Japanese government admitted that forced
labor victims were brought “against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions”.
Takakage Fujita, director-general of a civil group dedicated to upholding and developing the 1955 Murayama Statement, said the “comfort women” issue is a huge crime by the Japanese military government, and “many victims and their relatives are still bleeding today”.
The Murayama Statement, released by former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, advocates historical recognition and reconciliation with Asian countries by Japan.
To commemorate the September 18 Incident, Fujita’s group organized a rally in Tokyo on Sept 17, which was attended by about 200 people. Fujita hopes the event will urge the Japanese government to learn lessons from history and improve relations with China.
“The top leader of Japan should have a correct view of history, reflect on the past, and look forward to a peaceful future,” Fujita said.
“Civil groups all over the world are building ‘comfort women’ statues and memorials to remind people of this dark history and to make sure that it will never be forgotten,” he said, adding that all peace-loving people should remain alert to attempts to whitewash this part of history.
A bronze sculpture of two girls — one Chinese and the other Korean — stands in front of the Chinese “Comfort Women” History Museum on the campus of Shanghai Normal University. The girls represent the hundreds of thousands of young victims of the “comfort women” system.
The sculpture is one of many created by Korean couple Kim Eun-sung and Kim Seo-kyung and local artists around the world since the first was erected on a road outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, in 2011. The sculpture at the Shanghai university was created in collaboration with Chinese artist Pan Yiqun and film producer Shi Yong.
A mosaic shadow of an old woman is cast under the young Korean girl, while under the Chinese girl, a trail of
footprints made by surviving Chinese “comfort women” symbolizes their fragmented lives and suffering from childhood to old age. Next to the girls, an empty chair forms part of the sculpture, inviting people to sit and join the victims’ battle.
Kim Eun-sung said in 2015 when the sculpture was erected: “The Chinese and Korean peoples both suffered from Japanese militarism and shared common agonizing memories. Now, the Korean girl will not be lonely anymore.”
The museum, which used to be a library where Su researched “comfort women”, opened in 2016, and now houses some 3,000 exhibits donated or collected over the past 20 years. These include photographs of “comfort stations”, and indictments from the first group of victims from the Chinese
mainland seeking compensation from Japan.
Since it opened, more than 100 volunteers have worked at the museum, where their daily duties include cleaning the sculpture and providing guided tours for visitors.
Wang Ximing, a graduate student of world history who has been a volunteer at the museum since 2019, said: “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many people from home and abroad visited the museum every week. We’ve received many Korean groups, and they always lay flowers and take photos of the sculpture.” She added that Korean students have been volunteers at the museum.
Portraits of registered Chinese “comfort women” are exhibited on a wall at the museum entrance. This display is divided into sections featuring the
origins of the “comfort women” system, its implementation during wartime, the testimonies of victims, and their current status.
Wang said: “I once met a retired Japanese lady. She took a lot of notes in the museum and told me she had previously read one Japanese book in the collection to familiarize herself with this issue.”
Gu Anqi, a freshman at the university from Jilin province who visited the museum on Sept 18, said she was impressed by the exhibition of the “precise but cold and brutal system of sexual slavery used by the Japanese military”.
“I was also shocked by the extent to which the system spread in Asia-Pacific regions,” she said. “I have sent messages to my roommates to come and visit the museum.”
Wang added, “This past tragedy cannot be changed, but we can play our part to help preserve the memory of it, such as providing guided tours and raising funds for these ‘grandmas’.”
Zhang Jindong, a student majoring in film production, who is also studying Korean, approached the museum to apply for volunteer work.
He said he was moved by Twenty Two, a documentary on “comfort women” made with support from Su, who also serves as director of the museum and the university’s Chinese “comfort women” research center.
“I was so touched by the ‘grandmas’ in this documentary. They are just like my own grandmother, who died recently,” he said.
A total of 22 “comfort women” living on the Chinese mainland in 2014 were filmed for the documentary, which was
crowdfunded by more than 32,000 people.
Released in 2017, the film has made a record 150 million yuan ($23.19 million) at the box office. Its director, Guo Ke, donated his earnings to set up a special foundation run by the university to support “comfort women” and research on the issue.
The film is a sequel to Guo’s documentary Thirty Two, made in 2012, when there were 32 living Chinese “comfort women”.
The two documentaries remain influential and are played online or at special screenings every year during International Memorial Day for Japanese Military “Comfort Women” on Aug 14.
In the past month, the film team has received orders worth 420,000 yuan for souvenirs related to the latest documentary. This money was donated to the 14 living victims.
When a “comfort woman” dies, Su publishes an obituary of her on his research center’s website and attends the funeral.
According to his studies over the past three decades, some 400,000 women in Asia, nearly half of them Chinese, were forced to serve as “comfort women” for the Japanese military
during World War II.
“As far as we know, there are only 14 surviving ‘comfort women’ on the Chinese mainland,” he said, adding that their average age is more than 90.
“We are losing them almost annually,” said Su, who visits the survivors with his students every year, taking notes, documenting the women’s histories and providing care and companionship.
In the past 30 years, Su and his team have published many books and papers on the issue. One of their most recent books, Evidence: Revealing 172 Comfort Stations in Shanghai, was published in 2018.
“When I started my studies in 1993, I thought there were only four to six ‘comfort stations’ in Shanghai, but now my research presents evidence that at least 172 such stations were established in the city,” Su said.
The book provides detailed locations, historical photos and related information about Japanese military brothels, with a wealth of evidence from Japanese government archives and Japanese soldiers’ memoirs.
“Shanghai was where the Japanese built the most ‘comfort stations’ in the world, which victimized tens of thousands of Chinese and Korean women,
with many of them losing their lives,” Su said.
He has helped other cities launch similar comprehensive research to collect evidence of wartime “comfort stations”. Two years ago, Su spent 20,000 yuan on a small photo at an auction in Tokyo. The photo showed several Japanese soldiers leaving a house in Nanjing, where signs indicated it was a brothel.
Su said he has not found the location of the building, but he suspects it was one of the “comfort stations” built by the Wang Jingwei Puppet Regime of the Empire of Japan from 1940-45.
“There are fewer and fewer survivors, but the Japanese government still hasn’t apologized, so the research must go on,” Su said in his office overlooking the sculpture of the Korean and Chinese peace girls at Shanghai Normal University.
On the empty chair beside the sculpture, a bundle of flowers was laid on Sept 18. Words on the stone under the sculpture read, “We can forgive, but we can never forget.”