"Comfort Women"

[Emetri]

*shrug*

"Second only to the expenditures of a public railway system, the urges of the human reproductive system are the ones that are hardest to control."

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Besides, they were only women, and women of no consequence, anyway.

Misogynistic humor would say something like, "Aren't all women?"

The angrier nationalists would say something like, "Turnabout is fair play."

Of course, there's a slight difference between these Japanese "comfort women" and the actual comfort women, namely that the poor Japanese ones simply seemed to have been coerced in a fashion not unlike how many Eastern Europeans/Russians/Latin Americans/Southeast Asians are these days--economic coercion, you know.

Not at gunpoint.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Straybow


The only "new" thing is the gov't creating and sustaining the service. But then, were the girls treated better than they would be as a prostitute on their own, beaten by pimps and customers, etc?

With thousands of soldiers there are ALWAYS prostitutes-- the only thing different as you say is the level of government involvement

Originally posted by Straybow
Question: How many women are prostitutes because of "desperate financial straits" and a "willingness to make such a sacrifice to help her family?"

ALL of them do it for the money-- some are in desperate shape, some do it to feed their family and a very few want that new luxury automobile .

[Straybow]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
The Japanese (especially in Korea and China) weren't interested in allowing women to "go to the big city looking for jobs" or particularly concerned with their "desperate financial straights."

You might notice that this was talking about Japanese women recruited (sometimes deceptively) by the Japanese government to "service" the occupying American force.

You might notice that I was comparing the process to the way women end up as prostitutes without being recruited or forced by a government or army.

[Bkeela]

What else are women good for besides spawning brats?

[Dis]

History is cruel. How is this news?

At least this is better than an invasion of their homeland which may have resulted in them dying. They should be thankful we dropped the A bomb and used their comfort women.

Okay that last sentence was a serious troll. .

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Straybow

You might notice that this was talking about Japanese women recruited (sometimes deceptively) by the Japanese (...).

The article says "coerced into prostitution".

[Ecthy]

Interesting that some people would hold actions of thei own country to the standard of the enemy, an admittedly crueler one, and not to their own ideals?!

[Straybow]

Originally posted by BeBro
The article says "coerced into prostitution".

Originally posted by Straybow
You might notice that I was comparing the process to the way women end up as prostitutes without being recruited or forced by a government or army.

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Interesting that some people would hold actions of thei own country to the standard of the enemy, an admittedly crueler one, and not to their own ideals?!

This isn't about the US Army. Prostitution is an ugly business, for the most part. It exists because there is an opportunity and there are people willing to take advantage of the opportunity.

If the soldiers were stationed in a country with legal prostitution would that change the fact that some women are coerced into the role? No. The only difference here is that the Japanese gov't did the coercion. There is no indication that the Army cooperated or approved (or even knew) the methods.

[Dis]

Need I say it again. Morals of the day were not very high compared to modern standards. It is unfair to compare the U.S. of then to the U.S. of today. We already know the U.S. was not the good guy it was portrayed to be. Fire bombings in germany and Japan have shown this.

Prostitution all over the world was probably like this. Women are always coerced into prostitution. Japan was taking the brunt of the ciriticism, when I'm sure even in the U.S. women were forced into prostitution in those days. They still are in some instances. But things are much better now days. But street prostitution is still a problem. Especially in Las Vegas where prostitution is illegal. Not that legalizing it would help. Because legal prostitution is too expensive. And some poor people need their quick fix as well as middle class and rich people.