'Taming Soldiers': The Gender Politics of Japanese Soldiers in Total War

The number of soldiers mobilised for the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy at the end of the Asia-Pacific War (1931–45) was around 6 million. This chapter is about those enlisted during the war and the women euphemistically called ‘comfort women’ who were provided to the military men for sex. These women were forced into sexual servitude during the war, and were mainly Korean, and also Taiwanese, Chinese, Indonesian, East Timorese, Filipino, Burmese, Dutch, Australian and Japanese women. An extensive deployment of comfort stations for the exclusive use of the military started in 1937 following the Nanking Massacre in China.