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Documents and testimonies
Click on pictures to read more about important documents to get more insight about Comfort Women and sexual violence in conflict from primary sources and interviews
Primary Source Documents
(complete documents attached)
Interrogation Report No.49, 1 Oct 1944
Written by United States Office of War Information, Psychological Warfare Team Attached to U.S. Army Forces India-Burma Theater. Proof of the existence of Comfort Women and deception to recruit them
Proof that there were underage Comfort Women in Comfort Stations, 23 June 1942
Report from Military Medical Office at Iloilo "On the Result of Examination of Sexual Diseases" written on 23 June 1942
Revisions of the regulations on the field canteens, 21 Sept 1937
File from: The Grand Records of the Ministry of Army (RikugunshoDainikki), Collection A (Kou-juu), 1937
Article 1: “comfort facilities may be created at the field canteens if necessary, in addition to what is previously provided.”
Article 1: “comfort facilities may be created at the field canteens if necessary, in addition to what is previously provided.”
The case involving an alleged abduction of women, 7 Feb 1938
Letter from the Chief of prefectural police at Wakayama Prefecture to the Director of the Policy and Security Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Chiefs of Police Offices in the Prefecture.
Contents of the letter:
- On Jan 6, 1938, suspicious men were arrested, who later confessed that they were in Wakayama to recruit 3,000 Comfort Women for the Imperial Military in Shanghai.
- Interrogated because of their suspicious tacts in recruitment (coercion, deception)
- Verified with the External Affairs Division of Nagasaki Prefecture’s certificate to recruit Comfort omen for the Imperial army in Shanghai to boost morale.
Contents of the letter:
- On Jan 6, 1938, suspicious men were arrested, who later confessed that they were in Wakayama to recruit 3,000 Comfort Women for the Imperial Military in Shanghai.
- Interrogated because of their suspicious tacts in recruitment (coercion, deception)
- Verified with the External Affairs Division of Nagasaki Prefecture’s certificate to recruit Comfort omen for the Imperial army in Shanghai to boost morale.
Photo of Comfort Women in Songshan, China, 3 Sept 1944
Photo was taken by Private Hatfield on 3 September 1944. The women in the photo were held in a Prisoner of War camp in Kunming, China for 7 months until they were sent back to Korea. In the Tokyo Tribunal held on December 2000, Park Yong Shim testified and identified herself in the photo as the pregnant woman to the right.
Sumatra's Captives
Report from Britain’s 26th Indian Infantry Division. Reports on the conditions of Indonesia’s Japanese captives. Divided captives between Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese, men and women. In Palembang, Indonesia, the report records 751 patients, 5 prisoners, 336 military “nurses.” At the time, it was a common practice to label Comfort Women as nurses so it can be assumed that a large portion of the number of nurses listed were Comfort Women.
Personal war diary of a Japanese officer, entry written on 6 July 1942
Entry about a group of 130 Comfort Women sent off to Burma, led by a woman named Tsutako. July 1942 saw a mass transfer of Comfort Women to Burma, and it is presumed that the women mentioned in the letter were Comfort Women traveling through Singapore to get to the military base in Burma.
Report by Naval Colonel in Guam, 4 Oct 1945
Report by the G.J. McMillion (Naval Colonel who was taken as a prisoner of war after Guam was won by Japan). He identifies the crimes he has seen in this camp as well as the 75 ‘geisha girls’ (the Comfort Women) he has seen in the facility.
Photo of captured Comfort Women and Japanese master/owner of the Comfort Station, 14 Aug 1944
Photographed by Sgt. Wayne Shearer, after American soldiers took control of Myitkyina, Burma. The women’s testimonies are included in Interrogation Report No. 49
Testimonies
Kim Hak Sun's Testimony
Kim Hak Sun's First Testimony in 1991 (First Comfort Woman to testify in public)
“I am a Comfort Woman who was taken by the Japanese. My name is Kim Hak Sun.
After seeing the newspaper and news I felt determined -- I need to correct this.
I don't know why they are lying. That is why I finally came forward.
No one told me to come forward. I am now 70 years old. I've lived long enough and I am fine with dying. I was a little scared when I first came forward. I have nothing to regret anymore. I am going to say what I want.
Would I just follow because they took my arm and told me to follow? I was scared and kicked them so I would not be taken. [The Japanese soldier said] "If you listen to me you will be fine, if you refuse and act out you will die here." That's when he… a girl grinding her teeth was raped… terrible… I can't speak. I can't do this.
…
You must know this. You need to know. Because this happened in the past.”
“I am a Comfort Woman who was taken by the Japanese. My name is Kim Hak Sun.
After seeing the newspaper and news I felt determined -- I need to correct this.
I don't know why they are lying. That is why I finally came forward.
No one told me to come forward. I am now 70 years old. I've lived long enough and I am fine with dying. I was a little scared when I first came forward. I have nothing to regret anymore. I am going to say what I want.
Would I just follow because they took my arm and told me to follow? I was scared and kicked them so I would not be taken. [The Japanese soldier said] "If you listen to me you will be fine, if you refuse and act out you will die here." That's when he… a girl grinding her teeth was raped… terrible… I can't speak. I can't do this.
…
You must know this. You need to know. Because this happened in the past.”
Park Yong Shim's Testimony
"I was in Nampo (city in North Korea) when I was 17 to go to my grandmother’s house when a Japanese man told me that he had a job in a factory for her so I followed him. I took the train all day and arrived in Nanjing where a bunch of Japanese soldiers and a bunch of women were there as Comfort Women. They made me work as a Comfort Woman there."
Q)Do you remember the Comfort Station’s name?
"Yes. ‘Ginsuyiru’ If you look up, there will be a Comfort station named that. Thinking of the Japanese army’s atrocities makes me wonder how humans could do it.
We too have sisters and brothers and sons and daughters.
Even if I was 17, I was a child. A child.
When I think I about it, beating them up is not enough. Really, beating them up is not enough."
Q)When you were in Burma, do you remember the Comfort Station’s name?
"There was a name but I don’t really know what they called it. "
Q)Did you forget it?
"‘Ikakuro’ it was called. ‘Ikakuro.’"
Q)Is that Japanese?
"That is Japanese.
If you look it up, you’ll find it."
Q)How many Koreans were in the Burma Comfort Station?
"7 people. Around 3 to 4 people died.
On one day the Japanese military was rowdy and I asked and they said they were going to burn the flag. I realized that the Japanese was defeated. So a few Korean girls and two Japanese girls decided to run. So we ran away from the station.
I don’t need anything else. I just… want the compensation we asked for before we die. And that compensation should not be from Japanese citizens’ donations but the national government’s money. The country should pay for it, not the citizens of the country."
Q)Do you remember the Comfort Station’s name?
"Yes. ‘Ginsuyiru’ If you look up, there will be a Comfort station named that. Thinking of the Japanese army’s atrocities makes me wonder how humans could do it.
We too have sisters and brothers and sons and daughters.
Even if I was 17, I was a child. A child.
When I think I about it, beating them up is not enough. Really, beating them up is not enough."
Q)When you were in Burma, do you remember the Comfort Station’s name?
"There was a name but I don’t really know what they called it. "
Q)Did you forget it?
"‘Ikakuro’ it was called. ‘Ikakuro.’"
Q)Is that Japanese?
"That is Japanese.
If you look it up, you’ll find it."
Q)How many Koreans were in the Burma Comfort Station?
"7 people. Around 3 to 4 people died.
On one day the Japanese military was rowdy and I asked and they said they were going to burn the flag. I realized that the Japanese was defeated. So a few Korean girls and two Japanese girls decided to run. So we ran away from the station.
I don’t need anything else. I just… want the compensation we asked for before we die. And that compensation should not be from Japanese citizens’ donations but the national government’s money. The country should pay for it, not the citizens of the country."
January 1, 2001
Letter from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the former "Comfort Women"
December 28, 2015
Joint Press Conference between Japan and Korea of "final and irrevocable" resolution of the "Comfort Women" issue
Japanese Governments' Responses
Click on dates to read full text.
January 17, 1992
Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa's policy speech
August 4, 1993
Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono
July 6, 1992
Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato
October 14, 2014
Ministry of Foreign Affairs summary of measures taken on the "Comfort Women"
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