Reaction #7: The Truth About Comfort Women

It was shameful to have been a part of the Comfort Women in Japanese history. Many stayed silent simply for this fact. Many who were a part of the raping were left to live lonely, solitary lives for the rest of their lives. The worth tied with a woman being a virgin in those days is astoundingly more so than the thought people give it today here in the States. Thus, when the women were finally released from the wartime Comfort stations, the women were left on their own. They’re status in life had been stolen from them, leaving them as the worst class of unclean women. Not only did others view them as unclean and unworthy, but their own views of themselves created a downfall in their own minds. The value placed on a virgin status of a woman only heightened the affects that the Comfort Women saw after they were released from their station.
In one astounding recollection from a Comfort Woman’s diary, she claimed to have been recruited forcibly by the government to go work in a factory. If any family member argued with or tried to keep the officials from taking their girl, they would be brutally beaten or even killed. But, of course, they did not take her to a factory. They took her to China, and placed her in one of the Comfort stations available for soldiers. The deception involved in taking these women was just a small part of the trouble these stations caused.
Many of the government officials viewed all of these rapes as just an “unfortunate consequence” of war and nothing more. They never thought about the status that was placed on the women after the stations closed, or the inflicting pain put upon the women. After the war, the women forced into these stations were released into a world that saw these women as unclean. They were left to live the rest of their lives seen as dirty, even though they did not willingly give up their bodies for sex. The pain that these women were put through is unreal. Being raped once in a lifetime is mentally challenging enough in today’s world, but these women saw between 20-30 men in a day. Even if they fought the men, they were not strong enough to fight them off. If they got pregnant, they were given a shot of the antibiotic Terramycin which would induce a swelling throughout her body and usually an abortion. The same antibiotic was given to those in pain after the rapes. The many rapes made many of the women sterile, and heightened their rank of outcast after the war. The view shared by so many countries that rape is always going to be an outcome of war are so highly untouched by the occurrence of rape. The emotional toll it takes on a woman to be over powered and have taken from her the one thing that makes her a woman is unbelievable.
These words and actions from the Japanese officials can be seen as another attempt to silence them because it degrades those that speak up against them. It puts them in a worse social situation and makes them feel worse of themselves because they think that it is such a big deal to be raped continuously day in and day out. The feelings of the women were never heard for so long mainly because of the degrading views of the social community, their old friends, and the government. The government would do anything in order to keep these women from pointing out the actions they have put upon them during wartime.