About Japan in World War II

"Be a new woman-foreign clubs recruit waitresses to cover high income, limited to 18-year-old to 25-year-old women". This kind of advertisement may attract many people today. No wonder, on September 20th, 1945, this advertisement was published in major Japanese newspapers. On that day, more than 1600 people came for an interview. Within three months, as many as 60,000 women from all over the country came to apply. The advertisement was released by the RAA Association, which was established with the participation of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

Later, the survey found that most candidates didn't know what the real job was behind this advertisement. * * background, public service advertisements in national newspapers and periodicals, make them trust, and their subsequent fate is a page in Japanese history that they are unwilling to mention so far.

RAA, the full name of Leisure and Entertainment Association, is translated as "special comfort station", which is a Japanese organization specializing in providing sexual services for American occupation troops. The Japanese call it the "national prostitution agency".

1August, 945 15, Japan was defeated and surrendered, and the US troops headed by General MacArthur immediately entered. In Japan before the defeat, many people had never seen westerners. Coupled with the militarists' perennial propaganda of "British and American ghosts and animals", the news that tens of thousands of American troops are about to enter the island country has brought great panic, even though MacArthur quickly issued a statement saying that he would not carry out "barbaric personal revenge." At that time, the social survey in Japan showed that the main fears and worries about the American occupation were lack of food, unemployment of demobilized personnel and abuse of women by occupying forces. Among them, the proportion of women who are worried about being abused by atrocities is far ahead, ranking first. The reason for this idea is that the Japanese have been promoting for a long time that "if defeated, all men will be castrated and all women will be prostitutes". Secondly, the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in various parts of Asia during the war have obviously become the most important reference for the Japanese to imagine the occupying forces.

In response to this panic, the Japanese cabinet urgently discussed countermeasures, and concluded that it would provide "comfort facilities" and sexual services for the US troops stationed in Japan with reference to the comfort women system established in Japan during the war, so as to reduce the intrusion of the US troops on Japanese civilian women. The budget for the establishment of this facility is 50 million yen, which is a huge expense for Japan, a defeated country, and Ikeda Hayato, director of the Finance and Taxation Bureau of the Finance and Taxation Department, quickly approved the money. His view is that "it is very cost-effective to exchange this money for the continuation of Japanese women's chastity and bloodline."

Generally speaking, it may be a shame and hard to say in any country to establish a brothel in the name of the country to comfort the occupying forces, although it may be necessary in history. However, the Japanese emphasize strict style, which makes them do this kind of thing formally. On August 18, 2008, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs issued * * documents to all localities, such as "Preparations for Providing Comfort Stations for Foreign Troops stationed in Japan" and "Notice on Providing Comfort Stations for Foreign Troops stationed in Japan", requesting local police departments to assist in establishing comfort stations for occupation troops. On August 26th, the RAA meeting led by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was formally established, and a ceremony was held outside the Imperial Palace Gate (the participants were mainly Japanese bosses and cadres selling sex). It consists of comfort department, swimming skill department, artistic ability department, special facilities department, canteen department and product department, and solemnly declares: "In order to maintain the purity of the nation and the future after a hundred years, it will be a breakwater to stop the tide and an underground pillar of post-war social order."

There is also a Japanese saying that the establishment of sexual service facilities is a requirement of the US military. This statement can be found in Hiraoka Takashi I's Post-war Sex Trafficking System, which states that on August 20th, the Japanese sent Kojiro and others to Manila along the river to discuss the stationing of American troops. In the final document, there is an item "Responsible for coordinating the provision of dormitories (including cars and trucks) and comfort stations needed for the stationing of allied troops". But according to research, this statement is not true. First of all, Japan decided to set up a comfort station on August 18, when the river had not yet set off; Secondly, the English original of the so-called "Manila Document" is recorded in the book "Public Security Information of Defeated Countries" in Japan. The US military requires clubs, but there is no requirement for sexual service facilities. Translating "club" into "comfort station" can only be said to be a matter of translating Chinese and Japanese customs.

However, after the opening of these comfort stations, the management adopted the way of "Japan-US cooperation". MacArthur was 800 meters long next to Tokyo's "Occupy Headquarters", and the avenue from Hibiya Park to Tokyo Treasure Theater was the most famous "* * Street" at that time. At any time, there are hundreds of * * women standing in the street soliciting, MacArthur can see from his window-if he didn't see it, it is estimated. It can be seen that the US military stationed in Japan has a clear support attitude on this matter.

In this way, a nationwide "comfort station system" led by Japan and serving the US military began to be established in Japan. On August 28th, the first such comfort station opened in Komatsu Park, a suburb of Tokyo. Since then, comfort stations such as Wukonglin, Seeing Love, Bo Manchuan and Lady B have been opened one after another. At the peak, as many as 60,000 RAA women worked as "comfort women" in Japan.

At first, Japan * * concealed the behavior of "state prostitution" and asked the operators of various comfort stations to act in their personal capacity, not in the name of the state * *, and comfort women were also prepared to take advantage of public prostitutes and private prostitutes in Japanese society at that time. However, when collecting, we encountered unexpected difficulties.

On August 2 1 day, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department called a meeting of sex trafficking giants in flax primary school, asking them to mobilize their own * * to provide comfort services for the Allies, but the result was quite embarrassing. For this unheard-of "national requirement", Cheng Chuanmin, the boss of Yoshihara Jun, a big brothel, has the most representative answer-"Using your body to serve the enemies of today and yesterday can of course be mandatory, but it is * *, and it is hard to say whether it can be accepted. Please allow us to go back and discuss. " Seya, the boss of Fanglong Group, replied: "If it is for the country, we can only act according to orders, but what should we say to the girls afterwards?" I hope that the state will give a responsible guarantee for this. "In this regard, Dazhu, director of the security department of the Metropolitan Police Department, vaguely replied:" I will report to my superiors and seek a solution. "

In fact, the bosses' concerns are justified, and the bosses reacted strongly to this order. Long-term publicity is one reason. Another reason is that there is a saying in * * that "Westerners and Japanese are physically different, so if they do that, they will be split in two", so they will die tragically.

In some places, * * finally obeyed. For example, the "Yoshihara" mentioned above, at first, people just cried when they heard this request, and then one finally stopped crying and said, "Since it is for the country, try to serve the public." As a result, other * * bowed their heads and acquiesced.

Ironically, in some brothels, this order has caused different understandings. When the police chief of Tupu City asked the local sex trade boss to help set up a comfort station, the sex trade boss remembered a tactic put forward by Japan when preparing for a "decisive battle at home"-"When an American soldier wants to rape a Japanese woman, pretend to cooperate and then pinch his testicles to kill him. If one person kills another person, he will kill all American soldiers who land." So the man was very excited and asked the police chief, "Will it fight that?"

The police chief is in distress situation. After thinking for a long time, he had to answer: "The emperor has ordered a truce, so don't mention the past." "Although it is different from the previous method, it is essentially the same for the country."

Nevertheless, the number of people willing to cooperate can't even reach the initial requirement of 1/3. As a result, Japan finally tore its face and recruited good women with newspaper advertisements. So, the previous scene appeared. At that time, Japan's economy was depressed and the unemployment rate was extremely high, so there was a practice of "giving priority to men's employment". Many women who lost their male relatives in the war or couldn't find a husband because of the mass death of Japanese men were on the verge of starvation. So fund-raisers naturally gathered when they saw such advertisements. According to the statistics at that time, less than 20% of these women can do sexual services by default when applying, but once they throw themselves into the jaws of death, most of them can't escape the fate of comfort women under the carrot and stick of * * and the boss who sells themselves. In the book "The Comfort of the Occupation Forces", Nobukaze described the scene at that time-"No more than half of the people volunteered." "The war is over, but innocent women can still be driven to' station' foreign soldiers in the name of' patriotism'. This is as cruel as pulling a woman to rape in the war. Today, it is called particularly comfortable. "

The Japanese Ministry of the Interior named these women "special stand-up comedians". According to records, the standard rations provided for their "service" at that time were beds, quilts, pillows, pajamas, long skirts, toiletries, food, toilet paper and condoms used by the former Japanese army, which were called "Chongchong No.1".

In fact, the fate of these women is also very tragic.

For example, the earliest town park comfort station was originally scheduled to open on September 2, but on August 28, a group of American soldiers rushed in here and beat up the waiters, killing all the comfort women there. According to Japanese records, half of the comfort women met foreigners for the first time, and the terror and panic at that time seemed as if the door of hell had been opened.

The same thing happened in other places, such as Huzhu Music Village in Yokohama, which was originally planned to open in September 1. However, the night before, 100 black soldiers rushed in and threatened with carbines. 14 comfort women screamed all night. Japanese police are afraid to ask questions. At dawn, three male employees were seriously injured, and the half-dead comfort women fell to the ground dying, with mud marks on their boots. Despite this, the comfort station is still open as scheduled. On the second day of opening, a comfort woman who used to be a black soldier was scared to flee when she saw that the guest was black, and was strangled by an American soldier on the spot. The American soldier was killed by American military police for his violent behavior. None of this was reported after the Japanese press followed the orders of the Occupy Command.

Even if the comfort station is "normal", the scene is very acceptable. Hiraoka Takashi once interviewed a woman named "Mary" in the comfort station of Xiaoming Garden. She used to be a comfort woman. She said: "Day and night, American soldiers waited in line outside the gum, and women were imprisoned in the house. There is no freedom to refuse. " "Pick up 55 people a day. Sadness, or affection, these feelings belong to people, and there is no more. " "At first, there were 30 comfort women in Xiaoming Garden, and only half of them could last for three months. Later, 100 comfort women were added, and victims kept appearing. "

I don't know if the "sacrifice" here means that I can't keep going and leave, but the women who have stayed can imagine the physical and mental damage.

There must be some "sacrifices" that have special significance. "Some of them are young girls who know nothing about the opposite sex. They are very pitiful. They were suddenly occupied by whites and suddenly by blacks," recalled Ji Yiguang, head of the RAA intelligence department. There is a girl who works in Mitsui Bank. The first guest was a black man, and the next day she jumped off the tram and died. However, at that time, such things had to be kept secret, so we had to bury her in secret. How many Japanese women are safe because of them? I can only comfort myself like this. "

Ointment and anti-inflammatory drugs were quickly added to the rations of Japanese comfort stations. However, the Japanese police only asked the comfort women to "try to be patient" when they encountered the "disorderly violence" of American soldiers. Of course, they won't care about it, because the whole RAA incident is an act of state. The above-mentioned Tupu police chief even took out the police dormitory as a comfort station.

The United States is one of the civilized countries in the world, and the quality of military personnel is also good. However, according to Japanese records, the crime rate of American troops stationed in Japan is quite high. It is difficult to disclose these atrocities because of the occupying forces. Today, the Japanese elites still call the American troops stationed in Japan quite gentlemen-indeed, as an occupying force, the performance of the American troops stationed in Japan should be better, but the occupying force is an occupying force. If you read the crimes committed by "dark-skinned people" (more than half of the early American troops stationed in Japan were black soldiers) and "people wearing 13 boots" in Japanese newspapers at that time, the older generation of Japanese tacitly understood that they were talking about American soldiers. If it is a * * case, as long as there is no life, most of the victims can only admit that they are unlucky. During the Korean War, more than 200 black soldiers in Kokura refused to participate in the war and launched riots, making Kokura a chaotic city of robbery and murder. A few days later, American military police and rebel soldiers fought in the streets to suppress the riots. This incident is rarely known to outsiders because of the control of news reports, but it is described in Seicho Matsumoto's Painting of Black Land.

There is a view that MacArthur tried to select reservists who had not participated in the war because he was worried that his men who fought side by side with the Japanese army were too vindictive. However, most of these reservists in the United States are low-quality people (those with high quality have gone to regular troops), and even prisoners in prisons have been pardoned to join the army, which will inevitably lead to a higher crime rate. Moreover, most of these people are in their twenties and energetic, which is also a cause of atrocities.

However, it is difficult to explain why there are cases of * * women from time to time in Okinawa today. However, judging from the fact that American troops stationed in Okinawa are rarely convicted even if they are caught red-handed, it is not impossible to speculate on the reasons for the high crime rate of American troops stationed in Japan.

When comfort women "serve the country" and "serve the public hard", the upper class in Japan is another scene. On the one hand, the secret order is to prevent women of the following families from being involved in comfort behavior-royal family, Chinese family, public family and chaebol. In other words, the "comfort" of lower-class women is to protect the chastity of upper-class families. On the other hand, the RAA right wing, which originally clamored for the strongest war arrogance, rushed into the cause of Japan and made huge profits from it. For example, Gu Lingjun, an important cadre of the former Chicheng Association, and Taisaburo Okada, an important cadre of the Essence Alliance, all made use of this opportunity to "run every day" and made a fortune. The price of American soldiers enjoying sexual services is almost 100 yen per person, which is equivalent to twice the average monthly salary of Japanese at that time. According to the contract, comfort women are rationed and only get a small part, most of which fall into the pockets of these right-wing chaebols. Some of them are still famous entrepreneurs and philanthropists in the world, but people don't know that their "charity" is covered with the blood and tears of comfort women.

Whether before or after the war, the dark side of Japan is so clear.

However, this "prosperous" cause was beheaded in 1946.

The reason is that it is on a small condom.

Although Japanese "comfort stations" are equipped with condoms, American soldiers rarely use them, and the arrogance of the occupying forces is irresistible. Therefore, sexually transmitted diseases are common in the comfort stations of RAA. More than 90% comfort women in RAA suffer from sexually transmitted diseases.

This triggered protests from American wives and relatives across the ocean. In particular, a reporter went deep into the Japanese comfort station and took the inside story back to the United States for publication, causing an uproar. Mrs. Roosevelt, who is engaged in human rights activities, angrily questioned MacArthur-"Are American boys openly sick in Japanese brothels?" Are you proud of this commander? "American public opinion is increasingly attacking this.

Embarrassed MacArthur had to make a decision. 1March 946 10, the headquarters of the occupying forces demanded that Japan * * close all comfort stations on the grounds that it was "a blatant betrayal of democratic ideals". On 26th, Japan * * ordered local police departments to comply with it, and refused to continue to visit American soldiers' comfort stations.

Japan immediately ordered the dismissal of comfort women, and 55,000 comfort women were driven into the streets, scarred and without any compensation.

Many of these comfort women continue to work in the * * industry, or serve the US military in places such as "teahouses", "cafes" and "bars" run by RAA, and become the "hope" of the US military (there is a tacit understanding between the United States and Japan that secret prostitutes will replace public prostitutes and continue to provide comfort services. In fact, RAA will not be officially terminated until four years later); Or for the US military, it is called "Anli" (Japanese pronunciation of English "Only").

Without a contract with the comfort station, they are still doing the same thing. Are these comfort women despicable and morally bankrupt? Not all of them. The root cause is Japan. Because they are engaged in this profession, and most of them are infected with diseases, it is difficult for comfort women to be accepted by the original environment. What's more, their savings in the life of flesh and blood were wiped out because of the "deposit freeze" policy implemented by Japan at the same time-"deposit freeze" was a policy implemented by Japan at that time to solve the shortage of materials and replace the old and new monetary systems. All currencies above 5 yen should be deposited in the bank and frozen for later use. The freezing of deposits has caused comfort women to fall into a desperate situation of food and clothing. Their only livelihood is to continue to engage in the flesh business.

Among them, the fate of "Pan Pan" is even more tragic. Their typical image is standing on the street, wearing thick lipstick and dresses made of cloth from the US military warehouse. They must meet the requirements of the US military anytime and anywhere in exchange for meager income. At that time, there was a folk Sang Song: "Drunk American soldiers and Pan Pan did that on the weeds in the park, like dogs-three, five, and ten children twisted their hips like American soldiers-American soldiers laughed, Pan Pan Xiao died, and the children's stones came."

"Anli" is better, and even the police take better care of them, because they are the "prospective wives" of American soldiers. However, their fate is mostly abandoned wives in the end. When American soldiers return to China, they have no obligation to "settle down", including their children. The Japanese film Witness once described such an example, in which Song of the Straw Hat and the plot of the mother killing her half-blood son to cover up her "Anli" may still be fresh in readers' memory.

During the entire American occupation of Japan, although Japan and the United States tried to ban this semi-underground "comfort station" many times under the supervision of public opinion, it could not be eradicated because of the upper half-hearted. During this period, American military doctors "improved" the treatment method of syphilis, and changed oral pills into drugs directly injected from the glans penis, hoping to use this extremely painful treatment method to slightly curb the American soldiers' * *. The pursuit of Japanese police and "Pan Pan" in the street was a helpless landscape during that time.

With the end of American occupation of Japan and the rapid development of Japanese economy, this history has been gradually buried. However, in Japan, there are still people with conscience who are constantly reminding-

In the past 50 years, Japanese * * has never given an account to "Anli" and "Pan Pan" of RAA, let alone paid compensation. ...

At that time, NHK once produced a program "Pan Pan in Lucky Town" to describe their lives. Among them, Kikuji's last elegy "Meteor" is a bit of bitterness abandoned by the world, just like their fate-

Take me under the meteor,

Stay anywhere today.

This heart is in turmoil.

Do you still have a heart in your chest?

I really don't know

I want to cry, but there are no tears.

This woman,

Nobody knows who she is.