Japan's Comfort Women (31 page)

Japanese comfort women for the Allied forces
139

Plate 6.2
During the war many high-school students were mobilized as members of the Women’s Volunteer Corps and worked in munitions factories. After the war, some of those students ended up as comfort women serving the Allied soldiers.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun

Kanagawa prefecture. The students had lost their families due to bombing and had nowhere to go. One day, a certain Yoneyama Sabur
d
came to this dormitory in a truck carrying the sign “Re-born Public Enterprise, Leisure Division.”

He introduced himself as the Chugoku District Manager of the Peace Mainten-ance Association, an organization formed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Yoneyama told these students that they would be drafted into the “special volunteer task.” He took them away in the truck.20 It is almost certain that these girls did not know what sort of “task” they were “volunteering” to carry out.

A dozen high-school students, who were members of the Women’s Volunteer Corps, were staying at a dormitory of one of the arsenals in Kure, a major naval port in Hiroshima prefecture. They had become war orphans when, on August 6, 1945, their families had perished and their homes had been destroyed by the atomic bomb. (Shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima, the younger sister of one of the dormitory students, Momoyama Chikako, had made the trip from Hiroshima to Kure on foot, only to fall dead in front of the factory gate on arrival due to radiation exposure.) As the students had nowhere to return to, they stayed at the dormitory, doing domestic work for the factory manager’s family. One day, the above-mentioned Yoneyama appeared at the factory, and gave the factory manager several tins of sugar and some packets of foreign-made cigarettes. Then 140

Japanese comfort women for the Allied forces
the factory manager took Yoneyama to the dormitory. Yoneyama told the students about a “task” – the same “task” about which he had told the students in Kawasaki. They were put into a truck and taken away. First they were taken into a house in an unknown place where they were gang-raped by a number of GIs, then they were taken by the same truck to a building in another place, where they were again gang-raped by a different group of GIs. Eventually they were taken to a comfort station and attended by a medic of the occupation troops. A few days later all were found to be infected with V.D.21

Very little information is available about the cases of high-school students who were deceived or forced to become comfort women. Nor is there much information on the related criminal activities of the gangsters. However, the Tokk
d
, Special Japanese Police Force, was aware of the fact that some leaders of the popular fascist organizations, which were closely interconnected with the gangsters, were heavily involved in procuring comfort women and setting up comfort stations for the occupation troops. For example, according to the information gathered by the Osaka office of Tokk
d
in late September 1945, Sasagawa Ry
d
ichi, the president of one of the largest wartime fascist organizations, Kokusui D
d
mei (“National Virtues Federation”), set up a new company in Osaka called “American Club,” which was nothing but a comfort station. He posted his own brother, Sasagawa Ry
d
hei, as president of this company, with Okada Tasabur
d
and Matsuoka Y
d
ji, both former executives of Kokusui D
d
mei, as managers of this new club. Kokusui D
d
mei had been dissolved when Japan surrendered to the Allied nations, but Sasagawa set about restructuring the organization into a new political party called “Nippon Kinr
d
sha D
d
mei” ( Japan Workers’ Federation). Sasagawa ordered Okada to “leave the movement [setting up a new political organization] to somebody else and to concentrate on the establishment and management of a comfort station as this business is a big project in which the capital of several million yen has been invested.”22 Several million yen was a huge sum of money at that time, but there is no detailed information available about the “American Club”, which was apparently opened on September 18.

According to a report by Iwate prefecture’s governor on September 26, a man called Hishitani, the head of the Iwate branch of another nationwide fascist organization called “Sekisei Kai” (Sincerity Association) led by a well-known right-wing ideologue, Hashimoto Kingor
d
, was working hard setting up a comfort station in a red-light district called Ueda. An article which appeared in one of the local newspapers in Kobe,
Kobe Shimbun
, on September 20 implied the involvement of dubious organizations in setting up comfort stations. It reported that “many so-called grafters are visiting the Public Security Section of the Kobe Police Office, carrying letters of introduction from some members of the city council.”23 Considering how difficult it was to “recruit” even professional prostitutes at the time, it was quite possible that these former fascist organizations, which kept close ties with
Yakuza
groups, used gangsters to hunt and procure comfort women. It is well known that Sasagawa and another right-wing leader, Kodama Yoshio, made a fortune operating the black market in the immediate
Japanese comfort women for the Allied forces
141

postwar period, but little is known about their activities in the field of comfort stations.

Such was the reality in the aftermath of the war that even the most ardent nationalists like Sasagawa, who had led a popular anti-American movement during the war, quickly became flattering sycophants of the US occupation forces as soon as the war ended. We find Japanese politicians who had procured tens of thousands of non-Japanese comfort women during the war quickly turning to the procurement of their own women for the benefit of soldiers who had only recently been their enemies. It is obvious that, for people like Sasagawa, political ideologies were simply tools of self-promotion; they were ready to change their hats according to the political conditions of the time.

The Recreation and Amusement Association
The largest private enterprise for the purpose of rendering sexual and other recreational services to the occupation troops was set up in Tokyo.

On August 18 the Police and Security Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs telegraphed the governors and police chiefs of all prefectures regarding comfort stations for the occupation forces. The newly appointed Superintendent-General of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters, Saka Nobuya, was summoned by the Deputy Prime Minister, Prince Konoe. Saka was told to act on the instructions in order to protect “respectable women.” Immediately after the meeting with Konoe, Saka summoned the deputy chairman of the Tokyo Metropolitan Association of the Restaurant and Bar Industry, Nomoto Genjr
d
, the owner of an exclusive Japanese restaurant,
Saganoya
, and asked for his cooperation. As Saka often dined at
Saganoya
, he and Nomoto were already acquaintances. At the same time, Saka assigned the project to the head of the Public Peace and Security Section, Takanori Shakutoku, and his subordinate,
i
take Bungo. The Public Peace and Security Section of the Metropolitan Police Office was responsible for controlling prostitution in Tokyo. Takanori and
i
take received instructions not to make any official documents on this matter, as this work would be “outside of the police duty.” They were told that all messages should be conveyed verbally.24

It is interesting to note that Saka sought the cooperation of the restaurant and bar industry for setting up comfort stations rather than approaching the Tokyo Metropolitan Association of Licensed Brothels, and that the staff of the Public Peace and Security Section were instructed not to produce any paperwork on the matter. This indicates that the Superintendent-General of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters himself was clearly aware of the fact that the police were about to launch illegal clandestine operations. It seems that Saka could not openly encourage the licensed brothel owners to break the law by recruiting unlicensed women or even habitual illicit prostitutes in order to secure sufficient numbers.

Both the chairman of the Tokyo Metropolitan Association of the Restaurant and Bar Industry, Miyazawa Hamajir
d
, and his deputy, Nomoto, felt that they 142

Japanese comfort women for the Allied forces
were in the wrong industry to properly respond to Saka’s request. As expected, most members of their Association, owners of top-class Japanese traditional restaurants in places like Ginza and Shinbashi, refused to join such a project. As a result of these refusals, Miyazawa and Nomoto had to use their personal connections to make contact with representatives of the owners of nightclubs, saloons, coffee shops, and popular cheap restaurants, and representatives of licensed brothel proprietors and geisha-house owners. On August 21, Takanori summoned the representatives, with whom Miyazawa had managed to make contact, to the Metropolitan Police Headquarters in Tokyo. Takanori explained the purpose of the project to them, repeatedly emphasizing that he was asking their cooperation in his “private capacity.” He said they were not required to report to the police about the details of their business operations, although he guaranteed sufficient financial support from the appropriate authorities. Miyazawa asked for their help “in order to protect 40 million Japanese women.” In return, these representatives requested police permission to openly recruit women in and around the Tokyo area because there were far too few existing sex workers. This request was immediately accepted without the issuing of any official document.25

On the morning of August 23, these representatives gathered again and officially established the organisation called Tokushu Ian Shisetsu Ky
d
kai (the Special Comfort Facilities Association), which was soon renamed the Recreation and Amusement Association (RAA). Takanori,
i
take and two other officers from the Metropolitan Police Headquarters also attended this meeting. Miyazawa was elected director, Nomoto and two other men were elected deputy-directors, three others managing directors and 15 others members of the board. On August 28 the executives of the RAA gathered in front of the Royal Palace, where an “inauguration ceremony” was held involving a group of distinguished guests, government bureaucrats and top-ranking police officers. Director Miyazawa made a speech and said that he had decided to sacrifice himself in order to contribute to laying the foundation for rebuilding the new Japan and for protecting the “purity of all Japanese women.” This ceremony was concluded with three cheers of “Long live the Emperor!”26 It seems that these people were truly proud of their patriotic “enterprise” aimed at protecting innocent Japanese women and contributing to the well-being of the nation and the emperor.

Financial aid was given by the Ministry of Finance of the Japanese government through Nippon Kangy
d
Gink
d
(the Japan Industrial Development Bank) – a quasi-governmental bank. The executives of the RAA were ordered by the Minister of Finance, Tsushima Toshiichi, to see the Director of the Tax Bureau in the Ministry of Finance, Ikeda Hayatato, later Prime Minister between 1960

and 1964. Ikeda told them that he would make sure that up to 100 million yen would be available for the newly established organization. The executives could not believe the astronomical sum that Ikeda was offering for setting up comfort stations. At that time the average monthly salary of a factory worker was 166

yen. It is said that Ikeda told the RAA executives that 100 million yen was cheap if it would provide good protection for Japanese women. Nippon Kangy
d
Gink
d
offered a scheme whereby the first installment of 50 million yen would be given
Japanese comfort women for the Allied forces
143

to the organization at low interest. As the bank had to take the formality of lending money on security, it was decided that the fire-insurance of each RAA member would be mortgaged. As fire-insurance had been frozen during the war by the government, in reality, this meant an unsecured loan. The bank eventually loaned 30 million yen (approximately US $2 million at current value) to the RAA on September 6, and a further 3 million yen on January 10 the following year. The shares, valued at 10,000 yen each, were acquired by individual members of the RAA, and according to Mark Gayn, a Canadian correspondent posted in Tokyo shortly after the war, “some shares were presented, as a mark of esteem and appreciation, to high Japanese officials.” 27

Although the 100 million yen that Ikeda had promised was never fully to materialize, 30 million yen was more than sufficient capital to start the RAA. The initial idea was to buy out the entire building of the Mitsukoshi department store in the middle of Ginza and convert each floor to accommodate a comfort station, dance-hall, beer-hall, various restaurants, and the RAA’s main office.

However, the police authorities probably thought the site too conspicuous and the plan was not approved by the Metropolitan Police Headquarters.28 Instead, the RAA was advised to set up comfort stations along the Keihin National Highway in the
i
mori and
i
i areas in Shinagawa ward of south Tokyo, a traditional red-light district since the feudal Edo period. Here there were a number of brothels, large restaurants, and inns. Towards the end of the war they had been closed and used as dormitories for the members of the Women’s Volunteer Corps who were working at nearby arsenals. It was also expected that the highway would be the route by which the US occupation troops landing at Yokohama and Yokosuka would get to Tokyo. The RAA managed to secure several former Japanese restaurants in this location and quickly converted all of them to comfort stations. 29

Although the RAA gave up the initial plan to set up a large-scale “entertainment complex” in Tokyo’s expensive shopping district of Ginza, it did locate its head office in a Chinese restaurant in Ginza, called K
d
raku, and managed to set up a few cabarets, a beer hall, a dance hall and the like in the area. With police protection and strong government financial backing, the RAA had, by the end of November 1945, set up a range of facilities in Tokyo, Chiba, and Atami, a hot-spring resort town in Shizuoka prefecture. The facilities were available only for members of the occupation forces; use by Japanese clients was totally banned.