A Comprehensive Overview of the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" Digital Archives

A Reliable Repository of Information: The Digital Archive

Easy, convenient, and fast—anytime, anywhere. Thanks to the evolution of digital technology powering our hyper-connected society, access to information has expanded to an unprecedented extent. Beyond basic product specifications, the sheer volume of circulating information—covering rational consumption and trade, knowledge and experience, and even human relationships—has grown exponentially, while its types and spectrum continue to diversify. More recently, with the rapid advancement of AI, we are witnessing a literal tsunami of information being generated.

As a result, one demand is becoming increasingly important: the quality of information. As the risks, harms, and social costs arising from distorted, contaminated, or corrupted information continue to grow, individuals are left in an environment where it is difficult to verify what is true. Under these conditions, the demand for accurate, reliable, and high-quality information inevitably increases.

In such a context, one of the safest sources of information is the digital archive. In archival science—the core discipline of the field—a digital archive is defined as a system or repository for the electronic preservation and management of records. Simply put, it is an online repository that stores and accumulates vast amounts of digital content, enabling users to easily access, search, and use it.

While they vary by field or subject, most digital archives currently in operation have been established by public institutions and organizations engaged in active public work, built around their outputs and collected records. As a result, the records, or the information data they contain, tend to be of high quality and integrity. Accordingly, digital archives are becoming increasingly prominent as reliable channels for quick access to trustworthy records and information.

The same applies when questions arise or information is needed about the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" issue. Turning to digital archives that offer reliable information and materials is often the most prudent choice. Various reputable institutions now operate such archives, and the records they provide encompass more than 30 years of efforts to address the issue. These materials include official documents evidencing the systematic operation of comfort stations by the Japanese military, survivors' oral testimonies and records of healing, activities by civil society organizations working toward resolution, as well as international investigation reports and records related to parliamentary resolutions adopted around the world.

Currently, several digital archives collect and provide public access to records concerning the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" issue. Representative examples include "Archive 814" operated by the Research Institute on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery (RIMSS), and the "War and Women's Human Rights Archive" run by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (the Korean Council). Additionally, archival institutions such as the National Archives of Korea and the Seoul Metropolitan Archives, along with public platforms like the "Gender Equality Archive Yeogimoa" and the "Open Archives," also maintain relevant collections. To help the users better understand these records, this article outlines the characteristics of five major digital archives along with their key holdings.

Editor's Note: The number of records housed at each archive are as of April 2026 and may change.

01. Archive 814

Launched on August 14, 2020, by the RIMSS—an affiliate of the Women's Human Rights Institute of Korea under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family—"Archive 814" is a digital archive that brings together records and materials related to the "Comfort Women" issue from home and abroad. It is often the first site visited by those interested in the issue, as it typically appears at the top of search results when searching for "Comfort Women," in line with its aim of being "a digital repository accessible to all." The name "814" refers to August 14, the date when the late Kim Hak-sun first publicly testified about her experience as a victim of Japanese military sexual slavery. Since this date was designated a national memorial day in 2018, RIMSS has commemorated it each year as the International Memorial Day for Japanese Military "Comfort Women."

The most distinctive feature of Archive 814 is its role as a comprehensive platform that brings together public and private resources to build a wide-ranging, reliable body of materials on the Japanese Military "Comfort Women." Particularly noteworthy are the records that help verify historical truth, accessible through the "Collections" category, which is organized by women's human rights and peace, format, and period. Representative examples include official documents that trace state responsibility, such as "war diaries" documenting the Japanese military's direct and indirect involvement in the recruitment and transportation of "Comfort Women," as well as the establishment and operation of comfort stations. Also included are minutes from the Japanese House of Councilors Budget Committee, which reference the issue in the context of unresolved postwar responsibility. The archive is categorized by format into documents, books, publications, and audiovisual records, with a substantial number of "testimonies and oral histories." As the number of surviving victims continues to decline, giving rise to the term "post-survivor era," these records are especially invaluable. They include video testimonies from 22 survivors, such as Kim Hak-sun and Kim Bok-dong, as well as oral histories from 38 others, offering rare insights into their lived experiences. Among them is the account of Kim Hak-sun, who wandered through Manchuria with her father and, after his death, was handed over to the Japanese military by her adoptive father in 1941 and forced into life as a "Comfort Woman." Another testimony illustrates "employment fraud," one of the methods used to mobilize Korean women: Park Du-ri recounts boarding a ship in Busan for what she believed was factory work in Japan, only to arrive in Taiwan and be forced into military sexual slavery.

Furthermore, Archive 814 provides records of domestic and international advocacy efforts that document efforts and achievements in raising global awareness, uncovering the truth, and seeking a resolution to the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" issue. These include resolutions produced by the Asian Solidarity Conference on the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Issue and the 2000 Women's International War Crimes Tribunal, as well as indictments filed by prosecution teams from victimized countries against perpetrators of Japanese military sexual slavery. All of these records are organized in the "Women's Human Rights and Peace" section.

The "Collection" category offers a multidimensional perspective on the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" issue. It features curated themes such as "The Kono Statement: Responsibility and Compensation," "The Sino-Japanese War and 'Comfort Women' in China," "Recruitment and Overseas Transfer of Japanese Military 'Comfort Women,'" and "The Reality of Comfort Stations." By integrating primary records with contextual narratives and data visualizations, these collections provide an enriched and comprehensive overview of the issue.

Archive 814 provides access to original records centered on major historical events, complemented by functional services such as downloading and printing. It works in synergy with the webzine <Kyeol>, which curates content on a wide range of phenomena, discourses, and research findings related to the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" issue. Together, they provide a robust foundation for active public discussion on the issue.

02. War and Women's Human Rights Archive

Launched in July 2023, the "War and Women's Human Rights Archive" is South Korea's first digital archive specialized in the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" issue to be established by a civil society organization. While it is chronologically the "newest," there is an undisputed consensus that the history of the records and information on the issue it houses is the most profound and extensive.

This becomes clear when examining the archive's origins. The War and Women's Human Rights Archive is created and operated by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (the Korean Council). Launched in 2018, the Korean Council was formed through the merger of two key entities: the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, which, since its founding in November 1990 by 37 women's organizations, had led advocacy efforts to raise awareness—both domestically and internationally—of the existence of Japanese Military "Comfort Women" and the harms they suffered, while also spearheading movements for resolution; and the Foundation for Justice and Remembrance, established in 2016 by civic groups to nullify the 2015 Korea-Japan "Comfort Women" Agreement and to work toward resolving the issue.

The Korean Council, which has spearheaded diverse initiatives such as the Wednesday Demonstrations and support for the establishment of the Statue of Peace, launched the War and Women's Human Rights Archive in 2023. This initiative reflects a long-term vision to ensure that future generations remember the issue of Japanese Military "Comfort Women" accurately, while fostering global awareness of human rights and peace through historical education and commemorative projects aimed at restoring the victims' dignity and rights. The War and Women's Human Rights Museum, which opened in 2012 and has since steadily collected, preserved, and provided access to records of survivors and documentation of the movement to resolve the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery, also played a pivotal role in bringing this digital archive to fruition.

As a recently launched platform, the War and Women's Human Rights Archive boasts a substantial volume of data—comprising 2,418 information entries and 3,183 records, organized through a sophisticated classification system. Users can search records by various criteria, including type (documents, artifacts, and photographs/illustrations), chronology, and source. The top-level category "Information Dictionary" allows for efficient searching by person, organization, or timeline. Furthermore, the "Collections," which group together key activities like the Wednesday Demonstrations, the Asian Solidarity Conference on the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Issue, and legal responses, enhance user understanding by integrating contextual narratives with diverse data visualizations.

A particularly notable feature is the "People" section within the "Information Dictionary," where users can explore the lives of those who were directly or indirectly connected to the issue, as well as those who played key roles in efforts to resolve it. One such individual is Kang Duk-kyung, who was forcibly mobilized in 1944 as part of the first cohort of the Korean Women's Volunteer Labour Corps. After an escape attempt, she was captured by military police and forced into sexual slavery as a "Comfort Woman." From late 1992, while residing at the House of Sharing, she showcased her artistic talent through art therapy, leaving behind numerous works. Many of her paintings depict her experiences in comfort stations, including Stolen Chastity, which symbolizes the victims' suffering, and Punish the Responsible. Her works can also be seen in photographs from exhibitions held at the Asian Solidarity Conference on the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Issue. In this way, the "Information Dictionary" enables users to access not only descriptions of individuals and organizations, but also photographs, records of their activities, and relational information about the materials they produced.

In particular, the "Wednesday Demonstration"—a world-renowned movement that continues to make history even today—has a dedicated "Wednesday Demonstration Archive," enabling more extensive exploration of its records. Although tens of thousands of related materials are still being curated, the collection currently provides access to 2,473 records and pieces of information. Furthermore, the War and Women's Human Rights Archive offers its major records in multiple languages, including English and Japanese.

03. National Archives of Korea

Korea has established a "State‑Designated Records" system to identify privately held records of lasting national value, prevent their loss or damage, and ensure their proper public management. Under this system, the National Archives of Korea designated a total of 12 collections (15 items) as "State-Designated Documentary Heritage" between 2008 and 2016, when the International Council on Archives Congress was held in Seoul. These include the first draft of the Constitution by Yu Jino (No. 1), the presidential records of Syngman Rhee (No. 3), and records related to the Saemaul Undong (No. 6). It provides support for their safe preservation and management.

These include records related to the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" designated as State‑Designated Records between 2013 and 2014. The currently registered records related to Japanese Military "Comfort Women" are No. 8 (House of Sharing, 3,060 items), No. 8-1 (Daegu Citizens' Forum for Halmuni, 940 items), and No. 8-2 (House of Sharing, 125 items). Among them are drawings created by the victims themselves, such as the late Kim Soon-deok's Flowers Unbloomed (1995)—which served as the motif for the "Statue of Peace"—and Taken away (1995), which vividly depicts the moment of being taken away.

The National Archives of Korea has curated 27 key records related to the "Comfort Women" from its collection, providing original texts along with detailed information. The majority of these 27 items are historical catalogs and victim testimonies produced by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. These catalogs serve as foundational reference documents on the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" and help identify the locations of scattered records across Korea. Additionally, the testimony materials act as vital resources for cross-referencing and validating historical evidence of the Japanese military's sexual slavery system.

To explore a more comprehensive range of records, visit the National Archives of Korea website and search for "Comfort Women" via the "Integrated Search" function. As of late August 2024, the search results amount to 5,632 items, including official documents from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan, as well as investigation records related to forced mobilization victims from the Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization under the Japanese Imperialism, Republic of Korea. Chronologically, 80 records were excavated or collected between 1950 and 1980, while the vast majority were produced from the 1990s onward.

Among these, a total of 36 records are accessible via online services. While this number is relatively small compared to the entire collection, records such as the Basic Introduction to Understanding "Comfort Women" will serve as an essential guide for novice researchers. This particular document provides comprehensive insights into research trends, bibliographies, memoirs of Japanese soldiers, maps of mobilization areas, and recruitment advertisements for "Comfort Women."

04. Seoul Metropolitan Archives

In July 2017, an 18-second, silent video caused a tremendous stir in Korean society. Discovered at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the footage is estimated to have been filmed on September 8, 1944—the day after U.S.-Chinese allied forces recaptured the Songshan area in Yunnan Province, China. With the interpretation that "while documents and photographs restored the bones and flesh of the 'Comfort Women' issue, the video breathed life into it," this footage, once released, elicited profound public empathy and remains recognized as the world's first video record containing images of Korean "Comfort Women."

The footage was uncovered by the Seoul National University's Chung Chin-sung Research Team. Formed in September 2014 under the official name "Japanese Military 'Comfort Women' Records Management Project Team," the group has since compiled approximately 250 photographs and documents, along with more than 1,000 other materials. These include the Chinese Yunnan Expeditionary Force's operational logs, which contain records of the execution of "Comfort Women," consistent with the testimonies of surviving victims.

In 2018, the research team donated to the Seoul Metropolitan Archives a collection of records related to the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" that it had gathered from archival institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Thailand. The Seoul Metropolitan Archives organized these materials into a collection titled "Japanese Military 'Comfort Women' Records Collected by Seoul National University's Chung Chin-sung Research Team with Support from the Seoul Metropolitan Government" and held an exhibition in 2019 to make them available to the public.

The collection comprises a total of 237 items, including official documents from the U.S.–Chinese Allied Forces, prisoner interrogation reports, still photographs, maps, and video footage. Of these, 137 records have been fully annotated.

The North Korean documentary film Uncovering the Truth Behind the Photos, aired by Korean Central Television, features the testimony of Park Young-sim, known as the "heavily pregnant 'Comfort Woman.'" Scenes of her locating her room in a preserved former comfort station building and "collapsing to the floor, wailing like a child" overlap strikingly with historical photographs of the Allied POW camp in Songshan, China. The "Comfort Women" collection donated to the Seoul Metropolitan Archives by the Chung Chin-sung Research Team contains many records so vivid that they evoke the sensation of a "time slip" back into the past.

05. Gender Equality Archive Yeogimoa

The "Gender Equality Archive Yeogimoa," operated by the Seoul Foundation of Women & Family, serves as the city's central hub for gender equality content. It provides comprehensive resources, including gender-related statistical data (Gender-Sensitive Statistics Moa), policy research and project materials (Policy Research & Projects Moa), and donated archives (Donated Materials Moa).

Among these, records related to the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" are accessible in the "Donated Materials Moa" section. This archive compiles the original texts of materials donated to the Gender Equality Library of the Seoul Foundation of Women & Family since 2015, categorized by record type, format, creator, and donor. Rather than constituting standalone content, the majority of these materials are centered on the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" issue, curated through the lens of the women's rights movement.

As of April 2026, there are approximately 500 records related to the "Comfort Women" issue. Books and publications comprise the largest share, followed by documents, photographs/drawings, and artifacts. Notably, the collection also features records from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) regarding the 2000 Women's International War Crimes Tribunal. These materials include the indictment submitted by the joint North-South Korean prosecution team, charging Emperor Hirohito and 11 other Japan's wartime military leaders with crimes against humanity, as well as a poster for the "International Public Hearing on Violence Against Contemporary Women" organized by the DPRK Committee on Measures for Compensation to the Former Comfort Women for Japanese Army and Pacific War Victims (COCOPA).

The archive also features a variety of promotional and leaflet materials. These include pamphlets summarizing the testimonies of Japanese Military "Comfort Women" victims in Hainan, China; an exhibition pamphlet produced by the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Women and Family Policy Office; a promotional brochure from the Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" Memorial Site; and commemorative stickers for the International Memorial Day for Japanese Military "Comfort Women."

In addition to the archives mentioned above, records concerning the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" are also accessible via the Open Archives (https://archives.kdemo.or.kr). The archive hosts 290 items, including 222 documents donated by the Korea Church Women United and other groups, 54 photographic records—including images from Kim Hak-sun's historic press conference where she first publicly testified—and 4 oral history records among many others.

Points to Consider: Restricted Access and System Instability

While these digital archives offer specialized information on Japanese Military "Comfort Women," reflecting their unique characteristics and features, certain limitations remain. At the National Archives of Korea, although the catalog of relevant records is substantial, access is limited because many records are classified as "non-public" for various reasons. The Seoul Metropolitan Archives and the War and Women's Human Rights Archive occasionally experience system instability, with records that appear in one search sometimes disappearing in subsequent searches. Archive 814 provides limited annotation services, making it difficult to fully understand key records, including official documents produced by the Japanese government. Lastly, at the Gender Equality Archive Yeogimoa, records related to the "Comfort Women" issue are not consolidated in one place, which makes it challenging to locate the desired information.

Nevertheless, these digital archives related to the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" provide essential information and resources that form the basis for fact-based inquiry. These archives enable a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the issue, while also fostering greater awareness of women's human rights and peace. The continued expansion of digital archives further supports a virtuous cycle by encouraging more people to actively interpret related records. At a time when the history of the "Comfort Women" is increasingly subject to deliberate disparagement and distortion—particularly through historical revisionism—the value and role of digital archives on this issue, as repositories of accurate records and information, will become increasingly vital.