Throughout history there have been numerous tales of people that were affected by wars, directly or indirectly. During the period of World War II, comfort women were the prime example of unknown casualties.
It all started when Japanese military began collecting women as they traveled from city to city, and forced these women into sex slavery. The women were not always Japanese, as many news reports indicate that Dutch women were also being taken. These women have been carted along by the military to wherever they were going, and have a special hut in which they stayed.
These were known as comfort houses that men in the military could visit if they felt the need to have a sexual release. According to most news reports, these women were often given the titles of being patriots and diplomats. However, in reality, these women were being forced to have sex– and had their own privacy, liberties and the like taken from them.
The Victims
During WWII a lot of women were forced into prostitution.
These women included:
- Japanese women
- Women from war areas
- Several women volunteered
Comfort women were often taken from areas the Japanese military was passing through. Therefore, there were more than just Japanese women who were forced into the act. For example, many of these women who have come forth were Dutch. There were also women who volunteered to be prostitutes for monetary gain.
These volunteers were prostitutes, who were looking to be paid. However, the ways in which they were treated is inhuman and unimaginable. For instance, they were put into homes in which soldiers could visit at any time and expect to get whatever sexual act they wanted.
Women were meant to comply. If not, they were physically tortured. In reality, these comfort women were nothing more than sex slaves. The women were often visited by soldiers from other countries as well, such as the United States.
Fighting Back
The women who were forced to live the life of agony and pain are fighting back
- Comfort women lives have become public
- Government official apologizes
- Issues the Asian Women’s Fund
- Lawsuit filed
Women being used during this time just picked up a fight by issuing statements. At first, they made their experiences publicly known via media, demanding compensation for what they were put through. At this point, the government seemed to have little interest in acknowledging these women.
However, with public outrage gaining grounds, the governments were made to apologize and announce the creation of the Asian Women’s Fund, to help the plight of those affected. The fund was set up to ensure that these women had health and emotional care, as well as monetary compensation for all that they were put through.
All the Asian countries involved in this act of human sex trafficking, have been forced to apologize, and most have done so via the mass media, to ensure that everyone knows just how ashamed the government truly is.
Women who were forced to live in these conditions often found that their lives came devoid of basic human rights—full of terror and often ending in being treated as a second class citizen. Even after being forced into these positions, the culture reprimanded them for what they did.
