Victims of the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” included not only Asian women from Korea, China, the Philippines, Taiwan and other countries, but also white women and those of Eurasian mixed race with Dutch nationality who resided in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War II. Following the war, the Netherlands conducted the Batavia Temporary Court Martial (Temporaire Krijgsraad in Batavia), a military tribunal for war criminals, to address cases related to sexual violence and Japanese Military “Comfort Women” during the war. This article introduces the reality of the mobilization of “Comfort Women” in Indonesia and the proceedings of the Batavia Temporary Court Martial.

Mobilization of “Comfort Women” in Indonesia

Until mid-1943, primarily indigenous women from Java were recruited to serve as housekeepers for Japanese officers and civilians, while Japanese individuals sought out civilian prostitutes or private brothels. However, after mid-1943, the army and military authorities decided to take direct control of comfort stations with the assistance of pimps and brokers. This policy was implemented in Batavia, Bandung, Pekalongan, Magelang, Semarang and Bondowoso. European women designated for comfort stations were recruited (mobilized) from concentration camps and outside the camps, with instances of the military and the military police using physical force to mobilize the women. In late April 1944, an order from Tokyo mandated the closure of all comfort stations employing Dutch and Indo-Dutch (Eurasian) women. Subsequently, the mobilization of European women into comfort stations was prohibited. The Dutch government report^[1] indicates that 200 to 300 European women^[1] (predominantly Dutch) were mobilized as Japanese Military “Comfort Women” in the Dutch East Indies. Among them, 65 were clearly identified as victims of forced prostitution, while the number does not include cases of voluntary prostitution.

The report states that “it is clear that the mobilization of large numbers of European women for prostitution and their transport to comfort stations from mid-1943 to mid-1944 was coercive.” It also notes that even in instances of voluntary cases, in which coercion cannot be proven, the concept of “voluntarism” must be understood in relative terms, given the dire conditions within the concentration camps, where famine, disease and other circumstances led to the deaths of many detainees. This held true for Europeans residing outside the camps as well. Some were compelled due to severe economic hardship, while some succumbed to coercion by Japanese authorities. Consequently, their consent cannot be deemed voluntary if they were not fully informed or if they were coerced into signing consent forms by Japanese authorities.

According to De Jong’s research, a compilation of Dutch historical records from World War II, in late 1943, the Japanese 16th Army Headquarters in Java recruited 12 women from concentration camps in Magelang and Semarang and transported them to a newly established brothel. The authorities told them they would work as volunteers, but this promise was not upheld. Instead, they were sent to a comfort station in Semarang, where they were beaten, threatened, and raped by Japanese officers. According to a report investigating the Gedangan camp incident in Semarang by the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) after 1945, a bus carrying a group of women and their children was taken to a comfort station in early March 1944. They were initially informed that they would work in a restaurant, but the Japanese told them that they needed to “serve” (ontvangen) men three days later. “On numerous occasions, the European women did not agree to the proposal, but when the Japanese authorities used physical force, they had no choice but to accept,” the government report states. The Batavia Temporary Court Martial expanded the scope of the term “forced prostitution” to illustrate that the Japanese military employed coercion and force to mobilize European women.

The Batavia Temporary Court Martial and verdicts on war crimes related to forced prostitution

After Japan’s defeat, from August 5, 1946 to December 1949, when Indonesia’s independence was officially recognized, a total of 448 trials were conducted at the Temporary Court Martial in the Dutch East Indies regarding Class B and C war crimes perpetrated by the Japanese. The defendants reached 1,038 individuals. 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.

The Batavia Temporary Court Martial processed a total of 171 cases and brought charges against 419 individuals. 4 of the 171 cases were related to Japan’s involvement in forced prostitution. In total, 15 Japanese individuals were charged, while one of them received a death sentence. In general, the mobilization of “Comfort Women” targeting Europeans occurred from mid-1943 to mid-1944 and the four cases prosecuted for forced prostitution at the Batavia Tribunal were as follows:

i. Case No. 40/1946. The defendant Washio Awochi: In the case prosecuting Washio Awochi, a private hotel manager operating the “Sakura Club,” he was convicted of the war crime of “intimidating and coercing women into forced prostitution for Japanese civilian men through both direct and indirect collaboration with the Japanese military police” and sentenced to 10 years in prison. 
ii. Case No. 72/1947. 12 defendants: In the case concerning the “comfort station in Semarang, Java,” where Japanese military officials detained Dutch women for the purpose of forced prostitution, one was sentenced to death, eight were sentenced to prison and two were acquitted, among 12 defendants involved. 
iii. Case No. 72A/1947, prosecuting Ikeda Shoichi, and 4. Case No. 34/1948, prosecuting Nozaki Seiji. They were sentenced to 15 years and 12 years in prison respectively for war crimes of “forced prostitution” and “rape.” The judgment states that even if some women and girls were recruited voluntarily, the dehumanizing conditions they faced at the time were deemed “contrary to morality and humanity,” and were deemed criminal, indicating the improbability of their consent. Furthermore, the judgments explicitly outline how the Japanese military systematically exploited the “vulnerable situation and dependent, subordinate relationships” within the camps to coerce women and girls into prostitution. These cases demonstrate the organized system through which the Japanese military compelled women and girls into prostitution, with the cooperation and proxy of civilians.  

The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) evaluated that the Batavia Temporary Court Martial in the Netherlands “reached a reasoned judgment in accordance with the law by making the most concrete use of existing knowledge of international law on war crimes.” The verdict of the Batavia Temporary Court Martial clearly illustrated the Netherlands’ distinctive approach to women’s rights compared to other nations of the time. Notably, it represented the first instance of prosecuting the war crime of mobilizing women for forced prostitution during World War II under international law. Furthermore, it set a precedent as the first case in history in which individual soldiers, but not just civilian brothel owners, were convicted of violating laws and conventions of war by participating in forced prostitution. In other words, the Batavia Temporary Court Martial, conducted by the Netherlands, provided a platform for victims of the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” to voice their grievances for the first time in history, and thereby it stands as a vital piece of evidence demonstrating the coercion and intervention of the Japanese military in the mobilization of “Comfort Women” to this day.