While it is true that comfort women came from multiple nationalities, the overwhelming majority of comfort women that were Korean (80%) is alarming and has caused not only Korean women activists but also researchers and historians to question the popularity of Korean women in the comfort system. Comparably, the number of Chinese and Taiwanese military comfort women is also high to that of Japanese women. In fact, the number of comfort women from occupied areas including Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands are considerably higher than the number of Japanese comfort women. This statistic has caused controversy about Japan’s treatment of these nations during the war. It has also caused strife with political activist groups, like the Korean …show more content…
The Japanese government ultimately got to choose which women were drafted into sexual labor and they specifically preferred women that were not Japanese. In The Korean “Comfort Women:” Movement for Redress, Chunghee Sarah Soh argues that “Japan chose to use Korean women as sex laborers while urging Japanese women to marry young and bear many children to fulfill “the national mission of motherhood.” Many other Japanese historians claim that the government chose colonial women over Japanese women in order to preserve Japanese nationality. The Document “Matters Concerning the Handling of Women Sailing to China,” expressed the reasoning for using women from colonies as comfort women. This document read.
“If the recruitment of these women [who intend to work as prostitutes] and the regulation of {recruiting} agents is improper, it will not only compromise the authority of the empire and damage the honor of the Imperial Army, it will exert a baleful influence on citizens on the home front, especially on the families of soldiers who are stationed overseas. Also, we cannot be assured that it is not contrary to the spirit of international treaties to the traffic in women and girls. You are hereby notified of your orders to handle these matters from now on in accordance with the following
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This notion leads researchers to believe that government officials knew that their treatment of comfort women was inhumane and instead of inflicting this horrific conduct on Japanese citizens, they instead chose to manipulate their power over the colonies that they held prejudice over anyways. It is also important to note that this specific document also addresses the nature in which the government must recruits’ women into the brothels in order to not “compromise the authority of the empire and damage the honor of the Imperial Army.” This document was sent out to government-generals in China and Japan as a reminder to follow specific guidelines for enlisting comfort women. However, this document was conveniently not given to any officials in Korea or Taiwan due to the loopholes in the international treaties against
The First World War presented European women with ample opportunity to step up and demonstrate their strength; however men of this era had conflicting opinions of how capable women were to take on a man’s occupation. Therefore, it was necessary for women to prove their abilities and destroy the widespread belief of their stupidity and ignorance. To begin, it was during this era of World War 1 and directly after this that women were able to prove themselves as vital members of the economy and society of Europe. In Document 1, a picture depicts the harsh patriarchal society that women were forced to change by showing a woman being ignored by a man. The purpose of this photo of a female figure arguing that women were strong enough to save men
Beginning in March of 1942, in the midst of World War II, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were forcefully removed from their homes and ordered to relocate to several of what the United States has euphemistically labeled “internment camps.” In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston describes in frightening detail her family’s experience of confinement for three and a half years during the war. In efforts to cope with the mortification and dehumanization and the boredom they were facing, the Wakatsukis and other Japanese-Americans participated in a wide range of activities. The children, before a structured school system was organized, generally played sports or made trouble; some adults worked for extremely meager wages, while others refused and had hobbies, and others involved themselves in more self-destructive activities.
The deeply rooted history of a Confucian paradigm in Korea has for long limited women’s roles and rights. In the male-dominated and patriarchal society, women’s roles remained in the domestic sphere, where they were required to be submissive. However, with the introduction of westernization and modernity in the 1920s, modern generation was rapidly incorporated into colonial modernity. Korean women began to “redefine the Korean female identity” by displaying the “new woman” characteristics, in which some literate women initiated to “enhance their education, determine their own physical appearance, and contribute to the debate about changing gender roles and expectations”(Yoo, p.59) Fearing the threat of the emergence of the “new women” with the potential disturbance to the hegemony, Japanese colonial authorities as well as nationalist reformers veered the direction where the new ideologies of womanhood with modern sensibilities, also contained them within traditional gender boundaries, such as in education and social spheres(Yoo, 60). Park Kyung Won, the main female character in the film Blue Swallow, also lived during this era of the “new women” as well as restrictions under the Japanese colonial rule. In the film Blue Swallow, while her father encouraged her to stay at home for her to fit into the role of the traditional women, Park works as a taxi driver and eventually studies abroad to attend Tachikawa Flight academy, where she becomes the first civilian Korean female pilot. She displays the “new women” image, in which like the other “new women”, she does not conform to the traditional norms of a woman and strives in redefining the Korean female identity. However, her engagement in male-dominated education and profession, “ma...
Born in 1894, Hee Kyung Lee grew up in Taegu, Korea. Although the details of her early life are not given, the reader can assume that she came from a decent middle class family because her parents had servants (Pai 2, 10). In the early 1900’s, Japan exercised immense control over Korea, which by 1910 was completely annexed. Her twenty-year-old sister and eighteen-year-old Lee were introduced to the picture bride system, an opportunity to escape the Japanese oppression (Pai 4). Unlike her older sister, Lee made the decision to immigrate to Hawaii in 1912 as a pictu...
American women in World War II brought significant changes which although people expectation that life would go back to normal they modify their lifestyle making women free of society pressure and norms, because the war changed the traditional way to see a woman and their roles leading to a new society where women were allowed to study and work in the same way than men. Creating a legacy with the principles of today’s society.
Various socioeconomic classes of women were targeted by wartime propaganda mobilizing them to “do their part”. Customarily, single women of the lower and middle classes were recruited into the...
The events of World War II have established a new public perspective on women. Through women’s accomplishments, they justified females were capable of achieving high standards that existed once as only attainable by men. Once vulnerable to prejudices, they’ve given an opportunity for all to comprehend there can be a life when the populaces aren’t segregated by race or gender. Women have rehabilitated the faded thought of their rights and responsibilities, bringing history closer to a more righteous and responsible dawn.
"From Home Front to Front Line." Women in War. Ed. Cecilia Lee and Paul Edward Strong. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. The Churchill Centre. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
In December 1941, the government conscripted single women aged 20-30 as auxiliaries to the Armed Forces, Civil Defense, or war industries… Government figures show that women’s employment increased during the Second World War from about 5.1 million in 1939 (26%) to just over 7.25 million in 1943 (36% of all women of working age). Forty six percent of all women aged between 14 and 59, and 90% of all able-bodied single women between the ages of 18 and 40 were engaged in some form of work or National Service by September 1943. (Anitha)
As we first get into the book, we find out that the origins of comfort stations i.e. military brothels are unknown, but official documents strongly suggest that the Japanese Imperial Forces created comfort stations roughly around 1931-1932 for Japanese sailors. In the introduction we get some of Tanaka’s personal opinions and thoughts, and a vivid account of what it felt like to be a comfort woman by a Filipina. “Twelve soldiers raped me in quick succession, after which I was given half an hour rest. Then twelve more soldiers followed. I bled so much and was in such pain; I could not even stand up” (p.1). During the war, the Japanese could see that their soldiers were committing mass rape toward civilians. That led military leaders to ask the Japanese government for comfort stations to be made in order to prevent such crimes. This is a quote from a Japanese Lieutenant-General in 1932. “Recently I have heard a lot of scandalous stories, including that some of our soldiers wander around seeking women. Such a phenomenon is hard to prevent as fighting becomes less frequent. Therefore the establishment of appropriate facilities must be accepted as a good cause and should be promoted” (p.10). They were also created to boost soldier morale and to prevent the spread of VD among fellow troops. In the first couple of chapters Tanaka explains how women from different countries were procured into working as sex slaves and how they were brought into such dealings. The women used for comfort houses were at first professional Japanese prostitutes, and poor Japanese and Korean women. They were usually recruited by an agent who would go to a specific town and look for girls to recruit. Of course deceit was used to get these girls to come in that they were promised a nice paying job, food, and shelter if they came along. The recruiting of Korean women was a way of the Japanese to colonize their newly gai...
...Valerie. "Japanese American Internment." Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. 286-288. US: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1998. History Reference Center. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Brooks, Katherine. "The History Of 'Comfort Women': A WWII Tragedy We Can't Forget." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25 Nov. 2013. Web.
At one time men were expected to be loyal to their lord and women were supposed to be loyal to their husband and family. During this women were allowed to own property and even inherit family property. They were expected to control the household budget and household decisions to allow men to serve their lord. When World War II hit it marked a shift in thinking about gender roles. The Japanese society went into the past of loyalty and courage to promote war effort during this crucial time. This is when women’s duty became to only have children. Women were looked at as keepers of the nation’s household even though many women worked in factories. During this war many “unused” women were drafted to sexually service military men. Soldiers referred to these women as “hygienic public bathrooms” or even as “semen toilets.” Japan was influenced by China to take on the confucian ideals in society. Confucian society focuses on the family and the roles of the genders in the household. Men are the heads of the household; women are dependent on the men. Women were expected to marry the men their family set for them, produce kids, and oversee the house. Women became not able to own property and became “slaves” to men in every way possible. It is believed that women’s happiness in life is only to be found in marriage. In this society women were to be married between 22 through 27 and if this was not met you were considered
Dance Moms The media that I chose to watch was Dance moms which was aired on television on the network Lifetime from 2011-2019 produced by Collin Avenue Productions. This show is about a dance teacher who goes by the name of Abby Lee Miller, who goes around the world to different dance competitions with her selective team of six girls that range from the ages of five to twelve, along with their moms. Dance moms mainly revolve around the different relationships the young female dancers, and their mother have with their dance instructor Abby Lee Miller. I have watched this show since I was young and I have always been in awe, because of the children and I could somewhat relate to them going to an extracurricular activity and performing for the
In addition, shortly thereafter, she and a small group of American business professionals left to Japan. The conflict between values became evident very early on when it was discovered that women in Japan were treated by locals as second-class citizens. The country values there were very different, and the women began almost immediately feeling alienated. The options ...