Behold He Comes: Japanese Comfort Women

While much can be written about the brutality of the Japanese empire, such as the massacres at Nanking,  I decided to focus on one particular aspect of it. Being in fear of unhappy soldiers far away from home led to the establishment of government brothels throughout the Japanese empire. At first, lured by higher pay and the open nature of prostitution in Japan, the recruits for these brothels were volunteers. But there were not enough women to keep the soldiers happy. So this was the result. 

Young women from countries under Japanese Imperial control were abducted from their homes. In many cases, women were also lured with promises of work in factories or restaurants. Once recruited, the women were incarcerated in “comfort stations” in foreign lands. Other women were rounded up at gunpoint, some being raped before being herded into “comfort stations.” A Dutch government study described how the Japanese military itself recruited women by force in the Dutch East Indies. Some “comfort stations” were run by private agents supervised by the Japanese Army or run directly by the Japanese Army.

It seems to me that this is the natural result of empire. If you separate young men from their natural environment for the defense of an empire, any empire, such things will happen. It is one of the most common, yet most underreported, aspect of any empire. Of course these women were well treated:

Approximately three quarters of comfort women died, and most survivors were left infertile due to sexual trauma or sexually transmitted disease. According to Japanese soldier Yasuji Kaneko, “The women cried out, but it didn't matter to us whether the women lived or died. We were the emperor’s soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages, we raped without reluctance.” Beatings and physical torture were said to be common. 

This an aspect of all aggressive militaries. 

Hiroshima was the Christian Center of Japan. This was a church. Even if you are innocent, you suffer if your nation suffers. I see the natural results of Imperial Japan in the suffering the Japanese people during the end of the war and the post-war period. I am not saying that God directed the hands of MacNamara in the war. But I am saying that God made the world in a certain way, and the natural consequences of human action are often eventually that evil will be returned on those that do evil. 

As Paul said in Galatians, “God is not mocked, what a person sows, that he shall also reap.” Japan sowed hate and brutality. Guess what Japan reaped? God does not have to do anything. The natural consequences of an individual’s or a nation’s actions will occur. 

Tomorrow I will talk about the Third Reich. Until then you can look at this video on the Comfort Women.