Webzine-KYEOL │ Research Institute on Japanese Military Sexsual Slavery (RIMSS)

A Story of Constant Struggle: The “Comfort Women” Issue in North Korea

Historian Harrison C. Kim traces how discourse on “Comfort Women” in North Korea has evolved—at times in dialogue with the outside world—while developing distinct advocacy practices and perspectives.

Cheehyung Harrison Kim

“Comfort Girls”: The Forgotten Tragedy of Child Exploitation

The “Comfort Women” system was not only a violation of women’s rights, but also a grave infringement of children’s rights. In this article, Professor Ñusta Carranza Ko examines how imperial Japanese authorities systematically violated the rights of underage girls, in direct contravention of international conventions of the time, reframing the issue as a case of child rights violations.

Ñusta Carranza Ko

Images of “Comfort Women” Survivors at the Time of Their Rescue by Allied Force, as Seen in a Chinese Magazine

A report on the “Comfort Women” survivors rescued by the Allied Forces, as featured in the Chinese magazine “Da Zhan Hua Ji,” published just beforethe end of World War Ⅱ.

Liu Guangjian (刘广建)

History of Japanese Military “Comfort Stations” Dates Back 130 Years

Japan’s state-level responsibility for the “comfort women” issue in the context of the country’s history of licensed prostitution system

Song Yeon-ok

#Song Yeon-ok

[사진 3] 청팍옌 박사 가족이 소유했던 자란 주롱 케칠의 상가 건물은 일부가 과거 위안소로 사용되었다는 이유로 처음으로 보존 대상으로 선정됐다. (사진 제공:케빈 블랙번)

Characteristics of the Issue of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery in Singapore

Until 2022, when the book The Comfort Women of Singapore in History and Memory was published, it was widely thought in Singapore that there were no Singaporean "Comfort Women" who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military.

Kevin Blackburn

The Meaning of “Using Comfort Stations” for Japanese Soldiers

The role and function of “comfort stations” as revealed in numerous memoirs written by Japanese soldiers

Aya Furuhashi (古橋綾)

What a Former Japanese Soldier Who Served as the Recreation Section Chief Saw and Failed to Say

Aya Furuhashi sheds light on the unspoken truths that emerge from the gaps between the lines of the the memoir, Wuhan Military Logistics Base, written by Seikichi Yamada.

Aya Furuhashi (古橋綾)

[사진 2] 통곡의 벽 서쪽에 마련된 희생자 묘지에는 다양한 집단의 희생자를 기억하는 추모비들 이 서있다. 사진은 성 강제노동 희생자 추모비이다.

Visiting the Memorial Museum Ravensbrück, the Site of the Largest Women’s Concentration Camp under Nazi Germany

The irony is that Germany, which is often hailed as a “model” country for past liquidation by providing compensation to victims of wartime forced labor through government-industry collaboration, did not even include women forced into sexual slavery in the category of victims entitled to such compensation and still does not recognize their legal victim status.

Jung Yong Suk

Documenting Imperial Japanese Military’s Atrocities Against Women in China

While warfare continues inflicting damage and suffering in today’s world, and rape of women is still used as an instrument of armed conflicts, it is critical to bring the narratives of the “Comfort Women” into public memory.

Peipei Qiu

1948년 네덜란드의 바타비아 임시군사재판에서 일본군이 재판 받는 모습 ⓒCollectie Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

Japanese Military “Comfort Women” in the Dutch East Indies and the Batavia Temporary Court Martial

Notably, the Batavia Court Martial adjudicated a case involving the Japanese military’s exploitation of Dutch women as “Comfort Women.” This stood as the only trial that addressed perpetrators who abducted women for the purpose of forced prostitution among post-World War II war crime tribunals under international law.

Moon Jihie

Historical Memory