Japanese Military Sexual Slavery System Before and During WWII
The term “comfort women,” ianfu (慰安婦), is a euphemism referring to women and girls who were forced into state-sanctioned wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces in their occupied territories from the 1930s until the end of WWII. The term “comfort women” is a patriarchal reference, ignoring the inhumanity of systematic sexual and gender violence against young women and girls in Asia. When addressing sexual and gender-based violence, a grave violation of human rights, we apply lessons learned from the dark history of the Japanese military’s sexual slavery system before and during WWII.
