| ForewordIn 1938 the Japanese Imperial Forces established a 'comfort station' in Shanghai. This was the first of many officially sanctioned brothels set up across Asia to service the needs of the Japanese forces. It was also the first comfor station where women, many in their early teens, were coaxed, tricked and forcibly recruited to act as prostitutes for the Japanese military. Tracing the fight by Japanese and Korean feminist and liberal groups to expose the truth and tells of the complicity of the Japanese government in maintaining the lie. This is an account of a shameful aspect of Japanese society and psychology. It is also an exploration of Japanese racial gender politics. However, it allows the victims of this acknowledged war crime to tell their own stories powerfully and poignantly; to speak of their shame and the full magnitude and brutality of the system. Nearly, 50 years after the war, former comfort women are beginning to speak out, to fight for compensation and demand that their stories be acknowledged in the official history of the war.
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