The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 15 | Issue 18 | Number 3 | Article ID 5071 | Sep 15, 2017

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I Learned about the Wretchedness of War: Women Settlers’‘Sexual Entertainment’ of Soviet Red Army Troops in PostwarManchuria

Sato Masaru

Translated and with an introduction by Joseph Essertier

Japanese text from the July 3, 2017 Tokyo Shimbun is available below theEnglish translation.

Introduction

The history of the “comfort women” (ianfu)concerns women and girls from Korea, China,the Philippines, and other parts of the Japaneseempire who were forced into sexual slavery inJapanese military-run or sponsored stationsduring the Asia-Pacific War.1 Knowledge of thisepisode in human history is above all the resultof the courage and persistence of the victimswho have testified and chronicled theirexper iences , but a lso of the work ofresearchers, journalists, and concerned citizensinside and outside Japan, who investigated thefacts and published their findings despiteefforts by history denialists to intimidate them.For example, their experience is welldocumented in memoirs by former “comfortwomen,” such as South Korean Kim Hak-sun,the first woman to come forward in 1991, andFilipina comfort woman Maria Rosa Henson,who wrote a memoir descr ib ing herexperience.2 Activists and NGOs, such as theKorean Council for the Women Drafted forSexual Slavery by Japan, recorded testimoniesby former “comfort women.” In 2000, survivorsfrom more than a dozen countries gathered andgave testimonies at the International Women’sWar Crimes Tribunal held in Tokyo.3 Works byscholars and journalists were also significant.For example, historians such as Yoshimi

Yoshiaki discovered Japanese military archivaldocuments describing the ”comfort woman”system, and journalists such as UemuraTakashi covered the story of Kim Hak-sun forthe Asahi Shimbun. Yoshimi, Uemura andothers were subjected to vicious attacks byJapanese neonationalists.4

In 2017 the “comfort women system” remains asource of political conflict between Japan andformer colonies and occupied areas, especiallyKorea and China, and the subject of a vastcontentious literature. With the comfort womenissue and other wartime violence againstwomen being debated, survivors of other formsof wartime sexual violence began to speak out.The recent Tokyo Shimbun newspaper articletranslated here tells a number of stories thathave rarely been told, including the story of theself-sacrifice and trauma of Japaneseadolescent girls and unmarried women inManchuria following Japan’s 1945 defeat.Soviet Red Army soldiers entered Manchuria atthe very end of the war on August 8, 1945,occupying the area following Japan’s surrenderand capturing Japanese soldiers, many of whomfaced years of imprisonment in Siberia. Thisarticle describes the fate of the young womenof the Kurokawa Settler Community who weredispatched by their own community to providesexual services to Soviet Red Army soldiers in

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hope of assuring the survival of the localcommunity and safe passage to Japan in thewake of Japan’s defeat. More than half acentury would pass before the first agingsurvivors began to tell their stories to the nextgeneration.

This article reveals the decades-long silencesurrounding the sacrifice of the young womenfor their community. The weight of communitypressure to maintain silence about theirsacrifice meant that the issues remainedsuppressed even after many of the victimspassed away.

The involvement of family and communitymembers in the case of the Kurokawa SettlerCommunity also complicates the picture ofmilitary sexual slavery and sex trafficking. Theremorse of a few of the remaining elderlysettlers and their children, and their gradual,public recognition today, nearly three-quartersof a century later, of the sacrifices made by theadolescent girls and young women waspresented in a Tokyo Shimbun article and anNHK documentary that aired on August 8,2017, on Japan’s public broadcasting stationNHK: “Kokuhaku: manmō kaitakudan no onnatachi” (Confession: Women of the SettlerCommunity of Manchuria and Mongolia).5

The Tokyo Shimbun article introduced here isnot the only coverage of the Kurokawa Settlercommunity case. For example, researcherInomata Yūsuke, who is cited in the article, hasstudied the case since 2005, conductinginterviews with former members of theKurokawa Settler Community.6 Nonfictionwriter Hirai Miho also conducted investigativejournalistic work and interviewed the survivorsand others in the community, and published herarticles in such popular media venues as thewomen’s magazine, Josei Jishin (Oct 4, 2016),and more recently, in an online magazine,Gendai Business.7 Their groundwork led tofurther work, including the Tokyo Shimbunarticle introduced here, and the NHK

documentary mentioned above. These works byscholars and journalists play crucial roles inhighlighting the forgotten history and thevoices of the aging survivors, just asresearchers working on “comfort women” havelong been doing. (JE)

I Learned about the Wretchedness of War:Women Settlers’ ‘Sexual Entertainment’ ofSoviet Red Army Troops in PostwarManchuria

The Settler Community of Manchuria andMongolia (Manmou Kaitaku Dan) was the homeof many Japanese in the years 1920-45. Inaccordance with national policy the settlerswere sent to Manchukuo ( in presentnortheastern China). Along with theirrepatriation after Japan’s defeat in the warthere were a huge numbers of victims. It wasthere, in the immediate aftermath of the war,with the aim of protecting the settlercommunity, that young women were forced toprovide “sexual entertainment” for Soviettroops. The facts of this story remainedconcealed long after the settler communitymembers’ repatriation. Although more than afew of the victims have died, and the remainingvictims are elderly, these women have recentlybegun to reluctantly tell their story.

“We had given the slip to [compulsory] suicide,but before we had even caught our breath fromthat narrow escape, we were converted intoentertainers.”

“We will save the lives of hundreds of people bysacrificing our young maidens.”

These words were written by hand in an A4-sizenotebook. About two years ago an 89-year-oldwoman who now lives in Tokyo began to putdown on paper her bitter recollections, 70years after the War ended.

She had emigrated to Manchuria before the

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War as a member of the “Kurokawa SettlerCommunity” from Kurokawa Village (whichnow is part of the town of Shirakawa-cho) inGifu Prefecture. Right after the end of the War,she was forced to serve soldiers of the SovietRed Army as a “sexual entertainer.” She was 17years of age at the time. “I felt the most intenseshame and learned of the wretchedness of warin an absolutely merciless way.”

The Kurokawa Settler Community settled inTaolaizhao (between Changchun and Harbin) inJilin Province, China in 1941. The Communityconsisted of some 600 people. After Japan’sdefeat, approximately one in three people diedfrom extreme cold, starvation, typhoid fever, orother conditions. Most of the approximately400 people who survived repatriated to Japanby September of 1946.

The 89-year-old woman had become a memberof the Community due to the fact that herstepmother was from Kurokawa Village. In thesettler community’s “Manchuria SettlerWomen’s School” she had been taught “what isexpected of a traditional Japanese woman.” Butone week after defeat, the community memberswere filled with fear as they were suddenlycaught off guard by news that the Red Armyhad advanced into and occupied Manchuria. Aneighboring settler community had beencornered into committing collective compulsorysuicide (shūdan jiketsu), and there were thosein the Kurokawa Settler Community who alsofelt they had no choice but to end their lives inthis way.8 Their stores of food had run out.

“You know, we can’t ask married women to dothis. It’s up to you, the single women. Please,you are our only hope.” It was then that theSettler Community leaders asked theunmarried women to “sexually entertain”Soviet Red Army troops. Approximately 15 girlsbetween the ages of 16 and 20 were gatheredtogether.

In order to receive help from the Soviets,including food provisions, the community

“offered” the girls to the troops. The girlswanted to escape, but with the lives ofeveryone in the community in jeopardy, theyhad to cooperate.

In one room of the Settler Community’s sharedfacilities, futons were spread on the floor sideby side without any partitions between futons.The girls were assigned to Red Army soldiersone after another. The Soviet soldiers jabbedthe girls with the tip of the barrel of their gunsand knocked them down like so many logs.

“We felt panic and confusion. The way theytreated us was terrifying. We were treated likemere physical objects .” The “sexualentertainment” continued until November whileRed Army troops were stationed there. In orderto prevent the spread of sexually transmitteddiseases and typhus, the girls were “irrigated.”They contracted such diseases anyway. Amongthe gir ls who were forced to provide“entertainment,” four died. They caught typhusand suffered unspeakable agonies from highfevers.

The terror was still burned into her after shereturned to Japan. Even the sound of a belt wasenough to make her turn about in fear. Sheasked her father to wear beltless trousers. Sheraised a family in Tokyo but never said a wordabout the “sexual entertainment” until aftershe and her husband were separated by hisdeath. She did not even tell her children aboutit.

70 years after the War ended, the feelingsprang up in her heart that she should tellabout her experience. “There was a time whenI believed that I should never speak of anexperience as filthy as this. But gradually Icame to feel a sense of obligation, to let out acry of protest that war is wrong.”

“I Want It to Be Remembered ThatIt Was Due to Our Sacrifice ThatThey Were Able to Return”

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We do not know what sort of negotiations tookplace back then between community leadersand the Red Army. The officials did not offerany explanation even after everyone had beenrepatriated. What we did hear—from membersof the community—was that the women whohad suffered had been slandered by the settlercommunity. It was outrageous.

“What deep sadness we felt! I want it to beremembered that it was our sacrifice thatallowed others to return.”

Another woman who suffered (now 91 years oldand living in Gifu Prefecture) exclaimed, “Wehad such an urge to run away! The person incharge of our settler community requested ofme: ‘Your turn has come. I’m sorry. But go.’ Ifelt afraid, but I knew that we needed to returnto Japan, and this was the time for me to helpeveryone, even if something scary wouldhappen to me.”

She contracted a sexually transmitted disease,but later revealed everything to the man whoeventually became her husband. That was aftershe returned to Japan. She even handed himher medical certificate. They moved to anotherpart of Gifu Prefecture and she worked as hardas she could.

“We never imagined that we could live thislong. This sort of history, too, is important. Itwill be remembered even after we are dead.”She says that now there are only threesurvivors remaining.

Ms. Yasue Kikumi (now 82) of the KurokawaSettler Community was 10 years old when theWar ended.

She said, “We cannot forget the noble womenwho saved us.”

In 1981 the “Former Manchukuo KurokawaDivision Village Survivors Society” erected a“Monument to the Maidens” to enshrine thespirits of the women who had been “sex

entertainers” and who were no longer amongthe living. Ms. Yasue has prayed there manytimes. Not many people, not even locals, knowhow the Monument came to be there.

Although Ms. Yasue was a small child at thetime, she knew about the “sex entertainers.”While helping heat up the bath with choppedwood and feeling excited about being able totake a bath, her mother scolded her saying,“With the older girls out there saving us bygoing to where the Red Army soldiers are, youput your heart and soul into heating up thatbath.”

When Ms. Yasue went to a clinic to help withthe treatment of her younger sister who wassuffering from malnutrition, she learned thatthe older girls were being “irrigated.”

After they returned to Japan, the VillageSurvivors Society held memorial services. Butthe “sex entertainers” were not spoken ofopenly, and in the written records of the SettlerCommunity, no mention was made of them.9

It was the death of one of the victims thatmoved Ms. Yasue to resolve to pass this historyon to future generations. A 91-year-old womanwith whom she had been friends requested ofMs. Yasue just before she died, “I want you totell people about our sacrifice, people whodon’t know about it.” Later, Ms. Yasue began toserve as a storyteller, giving talks about the sexentertainers at places such as the ManchukuoSettler Peace Memorial Hall (in Achi Village,Nagano Prefecture).

Changes in the atmosphere in the SurvivorsSociety also supported Ms. Yasue’s efforts. In2012 Mr. Fujii Hiroyuki, a second generationmember of the Community born after the War,assumed responsibilities as the new chair ofthe Survivor’s Society. Mr. Fujii, whose fourolder brothers and sisters died in Manchuria,thought deeply about the importance of tellingthe community’s history.

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“What I can do is tell the next generation aboutit. That is another way that we can bring peaceof mind to the victims who have passed away,just like holding a Buddhist memorial service.”

Inomata Yūsuke, a researcher at the non-profitorganization “Institute on Social Theory andDynamics” (“Shakai Riron Doutai Kenkyuujo”)in Hiroshima City, has done research on war-time sexual violence and interviewed formerm e m b e r s o f t h e K u r o k a w a S e t t l e rCommunity.10 He says, “The former members ofthe Community had a strong sense that thiswas ‘the Community’s shame,’ so they have notyet been able to provide details about exactlyhow this whole thing came about. But with thecomfort women issue and other such issuesbeing debated, and they themselves havingreached old age, they have become aware ofthe need to preserve these memories for thesake of history.”

The 89-year-old woman mentioned above spokefor three hours without drinking any water atall, as if she was saying “I am leaving behindmy will.” In her words, “War, you know, issomething that hurts the weak. People mustnever use weapons, no matter how many yearsit takes to come to an agreement.”

In one woman’s notebook, these words hadbeen set down in writing:

Even after 70 years

Facts that cannot be erased

Absolutely opposed to militarism

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Ichikawa Miako, Child survivor of forced masssuicide in Manchuria still loves hero who savedher

David McNeill, 'If we don't face our past, we'rebound to repeat the same mistakes.' Japanesewartime medical orderly reports on army's rolein maintaining 'comfort women' system

Mori Takemaro, Colonies and Countryside inWartime Japan: Emigration to Manchuria

Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Addressing Japan’s‘Comfort Women’ Issue From an AcademicStandpointMariko Tamanoi, Victims of Colonialism?Japanese Agrarian Settlers in Manchukuo andTheir Repatriation

Rowena Ward, Left Behind: Japan's WartimeDefeat and the Stranded Women of Manchukuo

Joseph Essertier is an associate professor at the Nagoya Institute of Technology. He haswritten about debates over the use of the colloquial in Japanese writing and the Romanizationmovement in the Meiji period (1868-1912).

Sato Masaru is a Tokyo Shimbun journalist.

Notes1 “Fact Sheet on Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women’,” Asia-Pacific Journal Feature, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 13:19:2 (11 May 2015).2 Maria Rosa Henson, Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny (Philippine Center for InvestigativeJournalism, 1996).3 The full documentary of the tribunal, Breaking the History of Silence, is available here onyoutube. 4 Yoshimi’s works include Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During

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World War II, trans. Suzanne O'Brien (Columbia UP, 2002). See also, “Reexamining the‘Comfort Women’ Issue: An Interview with Yoshimi Yoshiaki.” Introduction by Satoko OkaNorimatsu. For Uemura’s coverage of Kim Hak-sun, see Uemura Takashi, “Labeled theReporter Who ‘Fabricated’ the Comfort Woman Issue: A Rebuttal.” 5 NHK, “Kokuhaku: manmo kaitakudan no onna tachi,” (8 August 2017)6 Inomata, Yuusuke. “Homo sōsharu na sensō no kioku wo koete – ‘manshū imin josei’ nitaisuru senji sei bōryoku wo jirei to shite.” (Beyond the homosocial memory of the war: a casestudy of wartime sexual violence against ‘settler women in Manchuria’) Gunji Shigaku, 51(2),2015:94-115.7 Hirai, Miho. “Wasuretai ano ryōjoku no hibi, wasure sasenai otome tachino aietsu” (We wantto forget the days of humiliation, we won’t let the maidens’ tears be forgotten) Josei Jishin,October 4, 2016. Hirai Miho, “Sorenhei no ‘seisettai’ wo meijirareta otome tachi no 70nen gono kokuhaku” (Testimonies 70 years later by maidens who were ordered to “sexuallyentertain” the Soviet soldiers) See part 1 here and part 2 here.8 In some cases Japanese authorities pressed Japanese settlers as well as soldiers to commitsuicide rather than surrender.9 In 1981 the Settler Community printed a commemorative booklet (“kinenshi”) to recordtheir history. In a section that one man wrote, he gave the “entertainers” some recognition,saying that the settlers owed their lives to the girls who entertained the Soviet soldiers, buthe only spoke of their serving the soldiers various foods, such as a cooked pork dish. (Seesection 40:40 to 41:30 of the documentary here).10 See here.