Wartime State Violence against Women of Weak Nations: Military Sexual Slavery Enforced by Japan during World War II

This article explores the fate of the so-called “comfort women,” in territories occupied by the Imperial Japanese army, women and girls forced to being sex slaves before and during World War II. Estimates as to how many women were involved, range from 50,000–200,000. Most of them were from Korea, China, and the Philippines. Women who were used for military “comfort stations” also came from Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Manchukuo, Taiwan (then a Japanese dependency), the Dutch East Indies, Portuguese Timor, and New Guinea.