Introduction

- 目次 -

1. History of the “Map of ‘Comfort Stations’ of the Japanese Military” (the Map)

Following the Manchurian Incident in 1931, the Imperial Japanese military set up “comfort stations” for its officers and soldiers throughout the Asia-Pacific region it invaded and occupied. In the 1990s, when KIM Hak-sun revealed the suffering she had been subjected to in these military “comfort stations”, many other women who had also been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military in various parts of Asia followed her in coming forward. These revelations led historians to locate related official documents and study military unit histories, and citizens to interview victimized women and Japan’s former soldiers. As a result of these efforts, it has become clear that “comfort stations” were set up almost everywhere the Japanese military invaded.

In order to visualize the fact that Imperial Japan operated military sexual slavery throughout the Asia-Pacific region, citizens began producing maps in the mid-1990s showing the locations of “comfort stations”, and several editions have been produced. WAM, founded in 2005, fully updated the data used in the map of “comfort stations” prepared for the “Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal” in 2000 and created a digital archive of the source materials in 2008. This effort led to WAM’s own “Map of ‘comfort stations’ of the Japanese military”, published in 2009.
More than 10 years have passed since then, we have decided to update the Map with new survivor testimonies, official documents as well as the development of research and discussion on the Japanese military sexual slavery system.

2. Concept behind the Map

In updating the Map, one of the first issues we considered was whether the revised map should be a map of “comfort stations” or a map of sexual violence perpetrated by the Japanese military. In an effort to give maximum weight to the testimonies of survivors who suffered the sexual violence at the hands of the Japanese military, the previous versions included all identified locations regardless of whether they were subjected to sporadic rape on the battlefield or suffered in a more established “comfort station” setting.
However, the “comfort station”, a facility established and operated by the Japanese military, is what decisively demonstrates that it was indeed the Japanese military’s system of wartime sexual slavery, a crime distinct from other forms of wartime sexual violence perpetrated by the armed forces of other countries.

Ordinarily, such acts would be tried by a court-martial; however, due to their organized nature, they were not considered crimes and the soldiers were allowed to rape women without remorse.

In our discussion, some pointed out that treating the sites of the established system of military “comfort stations” and the sites of more sporadic “rape” in the same way might obscure the fact that the “comfort station” system had failed to “prevent rape”, the very reason the military had decided to establish the “comfort stations” in the first place.

As a result of discussion, we decided for the time being, the revised map would only show the locations of “comfort stations” set up by the Japanese troops in order to give a clearer picture of the nature of Imperial Japan’s military sexual slavery system.

3. Locations Included in the Map

Japanese military “comfort stations” took a variety of forms, including those operated directly by the military, those the military contracted out to private procurers, and those private brothels the military designated as “military only”, all of which were managed and supervised by the Japanese military. In addition to these “comfort stations”, there were also places that should be called “rape centers”, where troops imprisoned and raped local women in the territories they occupied and on the front lines. Also, some women were pulled out of such places and kept elsewhere to be “exclusive” to certain officers. All these kinds of places where women were imprisoned are included in the revised Map as they were part of the organized system of “comfort stations” of the Imperial Japanese military.
While research on private brothels for the Empire is still ongoing, we have included in the revised Map those private sites documented to have received a large number of Japanese soldiers as customers, even temporarily, or to have provided some benefit (such as a military discount) to Japanese soldiers.

4. Locations Not Included in the Map

Information about a site of sexual violence by the Japanese military, but not marked on the map, is included in the list of source materials with “*Not marked on the Map” in the Notes column.
The sites of sporadic rape by Japanese soldiers, including sites where women were raped before being transported to a “comfort station”, are not shown on the Map but are included in the list of source materials.

The Map also does not show the locations of so-called “corporate comfort stations”. Many Korean and Chinese laborers were forced to work in coal and other mines, airstrip construction sites, dam construction sites, and others during the war. The locations of the “comfort stations” built by private companies for these laborers are not included on the Map because the purposes, actual conditions, and management of these facilities are believed to be different from Japanese military “comfort stations”, although it was indeed a part of the Empire’s national policy.

As for the records of rape, they may well have been overlooked in past research because the effort has been to locate “comfort stations”. Re-investigation with a different focus is needed to get a wholistic picture of wartime sexual violence by Imperial Japan. We would like to further research the facts of rape and other forms of wartime sexual violence perpetrated by the Japanese military, and then explore ways to visually present the results to the public.

5. Explanatory Notes for Reading the Map and the Source Materials

5-1. About the Map

The Map showing the entire Asia-Pacific region can be viewed on the “Map of ‘comfort stations’ of the Japanese military” – See the Map First!” page. Clicking on a country will take you to that country’s page with an enlarged map and the list of source materials related to that area.

(1) Locations shown on the Map

Where possible from source materials, the place name and location (longitude and latitude) were determined and marked as a red dot on the map. The accuracy of the locations varies depending on the information obtained. Below are some of the examples how we determined the longitude and latitude:

Based on building name or address.
Based on the name of a specific county/administrative district.
*Among the sites where the administrative district is identified, some of the dots (longitude and latitude) are placed near the possible location of the site based on the details described in the source material, while the other dots are based on the longitude/latitude of the center of the identified district.
Represented by the name of a larger area covering multiple districts when the new name of the specific district mentioned in a source material could not be identified, due to post-war re-zoning or other reasons.

If the location information in the source material is uncertain or simply a country name, the source materials are listed but not marked on the map.

(2) Place names

The country names on the Map are the official country names as of the date of the Map production (October 2019). Taiwan is written as “Taiwan”.
Place names are based on the current administrative names. As place names have often undergone major changes after the war, some are indicated as follows so that the name of the place on the document and the name of the place today can be identified: ‘current place name (place name at the time)’.

The map is marked as follows:

●	A red dot represents the location of a ”comfort station”.
Location name	The name in black represents the name of the place (town etc.) where a ”comfort station” was.
Administrative district name / Island name	Administrative district names and island names are in blue.
Country name	Country names are in green.
━━━━	The orange line shows the Farthest Reach of the Japanese Invasion.

(3) Number of “comfort stations”

Please note that BOTH the number of source materials listed and the number of red dots on the Map DO NOT represent the actual number of “comfort stations”.

This Map has been created based on available records. The presence of many dots in one part of the Map simply means that there are many source materials such as witness accounts and/or official documents about “comfort stations” in that area, but does not necessarily mean that the area had many or large “comfort stations”.
Likewise, the fact that a part of the Map has no red dots is no basis for claiming that there were no “comfort stations” in that area, for it merely means that no records have yet been obtained for that area.

The level and precision of the information varies in the source materials; for example, some give the specific, concrete names of “comfort stations” in one area while others mention only the name of the area where “comfort stations” were located, so that it is not possible to determine whether the “comfort stations” mentioned in them are the same ones, even though the name of the area is the same.

5-2. Source Materials

NB This section concerns the Source Materials page, which is only in Japanese. Please use online translation services to review the page.

The materials on which the Map is based are listed on the “Source Materials” page, sorted by current country and place names.
When the source material does not provide enough information to determine the name of the place or country for any “comfort station” mentioned, the material will be listed accordingly on its country page and marked “place name unidentifiable”[地名特定不可能] or on the “country unknown”[国名不明] page and marked “place name unidentifiable”[地名特定不可能].

As this list of source materials is organized with a special focus on Japanese military “comfort stations”, some of these materials are listed more than once under each location if they contain information about more than one “comfort station”. For example, if a soldier’s memoir notes that he visited “comfort stations in Shanghai, Nanking, and Hankou,” the same quote is listed under each of these three cities.

(1) Categories of source materials

The materials on which the Map is based are sorted into five categories as follows:

被害証言 Victim testimony (labeled in white lettering against red)	This category includes the testimonies of the survivors of Japan’s military sexual slavery system, as recorded in published interviews and related books, as well as in the court documents of the cases filed by “comfort women” victims, including complaints, briefs, etc. Also included are the testimonies of those victims who were first made “comfort women” and then later assigned to a management position, based on the fact that they were taken to the battlefields as victims in the first place.
兵士の回想録等 Soldier recollections (labeled in white lettering against blue)	This category includes information found in memoirs of former officers and enlisted men, unit histories, and records of veterans’ associations of the Japanese military written after World War II. In addition to materials written by former members and civilian employees of the military, records of their interviews conducted by journalists and other members of civil society and private photographs taken by individual soldiers during the war and published afterward are also included. The testimonies of war correspondents who accompanied the Japanese troops as members of the military’s press sections are also included.
目撃証言 Eyewitness accounts (labeled in white letters against green)	This category includes accounts (e.g., of seeing a “comfort station”) by local residents and those Japanese, Koreans, and Taiwanese who lived in the neighborhood, as well as military nurses and female civilian employees of Japanese troops and “comfort station” managers whose status as military employees is not apparent from documents, and other such accounts.
公文書・軍関係資料等 Official documents and military materials (labeled in white lettering against black)	This category includes documents recorded by national or local government agencies or officials in the course of their duties, including documents related to the Japanese military and government, documents produced by the Allied Forces, records of the postwar Tokyo Trials and Class BC war crimes trials, war damage assessments conducted by the governments of victimized countries, and court decisions in “comfort women” victims’ lawsuits. Also included are documents from Imperial Japan’s de facto national policy concerns (semi-governmental corporations).
その他 Others (labeled with black lettering on yellow)	This category includes materials that do not fall into any of the four categories above. Included are analyses by scholars and researchers based on a variety of materials, newspaper articles of the time, and others.

(2) About the “Source Materials”

The “Source Materials”[資料]page for each area is organized as follows:

Clicking the “Details”[>>詳細] button in the far right column will take you to the “Material Details” page which will tell you more about the source material.

(3) About the “Material Details” page
The “Material Details” [資料詳細]page contain the following information.

出典種別 Source category	Classified into five categories: victim testimony, soldier recollections, eyewitness testimony, official documents and military materials, and others.
現在の地域情報 Location information (current)	The current name of regional or administrative district and place name where a “comfort station” was located. The map and source materials are sorted based on this current location information.
資料にある地域情報 Location information (as in the material)	The name of the location as written in the source material. Pronunciations learned by ear and misremembered Kanji (Chinese) characters are listed uncorrected.
慰安所があった時期 When the “comfort station” was there	Dates and periods when the “comfort station” was there, as determined from the source material.
記載内容 Contents/excerpts from the source material	Information about the “comfort station” that can be identified from the source material. A quote from the source material is basically provided. Information includes the name or the type of the “comfort station,” ethnicities and the number of women there. A summary is provided for the tables, maps, and other items that are difficult to cite in text form.
証言者 Witness	In the case of “testimony” or “account”, the name of the witness is provided.
証言者属性 Witness status	In the case of “testimony” or “account”, the witness’ status, official title, role played, and other information about the witness is provided.
部隊名 Military unit name	The military unit name identified from the source material.
資料タイトル Source Material title	The title of the primary source material from which the above quote is taken. It may be the title of a published book, a newspaper article or academic thesis, or an official document. The materials in foreign languages are basically translated into Japanese.
著者、公文書発信者など Source Material Author, official sender, etc.	The name of the author of and/or the body responsible for creating the primary source material.
公文書宛先 Official document recipient	The name of the recipient, person and/or government agency, of the official document (e.g., telegrams, reports, and others) when the destination is known.
発行日 Date of issue	The date the primary source material was published or sent out / issued / recorded.
発行所 Publisher	The name of the publisher of the book or others.
ページ Page	The number of the page where the quote is located.
出典備考 Notes on Source material	Information about the book or magazine that contains the primary source material from which the quote is taken. For an official document, the reference code from the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records or the ID number from the WAM website for official documents related to Japanese military “comfort women” may be listed as appropriate.
備考 Notes	Different types of supplementary information, how the location was determined from the source material, what information was used for the specific data, etc. If the location is not marked on the map based on the source material, it is indicated here.

(4) Rules of quotation

As a rule, a quote is presented as it appears in the original text, except for line breaks, emphasis marks including underlines, Kanji reading aids (phonetic guides for Chinese characters), and other such signs that are principally excluded due to data input limitations.

The following notation rules are used for quotes and omissions within quotes.

・・・	Indicates a part of the original text that is omitted.
……	Indicates that there is an ellipsis in the original text.
／	Indicates the position of a line break in poems or similar materials in which a line break itself has a meaning.
□	This is used for an unreadable Kanji (Chinese) character when the official document or other original is written by hand or using a typewriter.
〔ママ〕	This means [sic]; may be added immediately after a Kanji character in the original that is clearly incorrect.

Discriminatory expressions found in the original text are left as they are, as they are also of historical significance.
In the case of quotations from foreign-language materials, the Japanese translation is generally given. However, some place names, personal names, and other terms are given in their original alphabetic spelling.
Certain special symbols which may become distorted when displayed on a website are replaced by similar expressions. Other symbols are generally given as in the original wherever possible.

6. Request for Information

We would be grateful if you could send us any information about ”comfort stations” set up by the Japanese military. We will carefully review the material you provide to update the source data of the Map.

7. Acknowledgements

In creating the “Map of ‘Comfort Stations’ of the Japanese Military”, we have received the cooperation of a wide range of individuals and organizations. The Center for Research and Documentation on Japan’s War Responsibility not only provided the results from their investigations at Japan’s National Diet Library and previously discovered official documents and other materials, but also provided a variety of advice. For each region, we were able to consult with experts in that field. We also received partial funding from the Northeast Asian History Foundation. We thank all of them for their support.

8. Inquiries

We strictly prohibit the unauthorized use or reproduction of the “Map of ‘Comfort Stations’ of the Japanese Military” Website created by WAM, including map data, lists of source materials by region/country, detailed data of source materials, photographs, or other contents. If you would like to use a digital copy of the Map, please read here. For other inquiries related to this website, please contact us using the Contact Form.

Released: December 7, 2019 (Updated regularly)
Produced by: Women’s Active Museum of War and Peace (WAM)
Cooperation: The Center for Research and Documentation on Japan’s War Responsibility