Abstract
In discussions regarding the system of sexual exploitation constructed by the Japanese Empire in Asian colonies and occupied territories during the first half of the 20th century, the term “Comfort Women” has long served as a standard idiom in both academic and popular narratives.
However, examined through the lens of contemporary legal history and victims’ human rights, this term is in fact a “whitewashing euphemism.” It not only conceals the profound compulsory nature of the system but also weakens, at a linguistic level, the war crimes committed by the Japanese military during the Japanese Occupation Era.
This article aims to explore the misleading nature of this term and argue for the necessity of shifting toward precise descriptions such as “Military Sexual Slaves” to restore historical truth and pursue historical justice.
I. Etymological Investigation and the Mask of RhetoricThe term
“Comfort Women” is a direct translation of the Japanese word ianfu. Within the context of the Japanese Occupation Era, the term was utilized by the Japanese military to refer to women who provided “comfort” and “stability” to the troops’ morale. This naming convention packaged a system of extreme violence as a supply of military necessities, attempting to define the victims as “voluntary service providers” rather than “sufferers of atrocities.”
From the perspective of academic precision, this rhetoric successfully created a false sense of contractual relationship in historical archives, while utterly ignoring the deception, kidnapping, and violent coercion the victims suffered during the recruitment process.
II. The Damage to Historical Cognition Caused by the Term “Comfort Women” The continued use of this term generates several cognitive biases:
- Obscuring the Nature of the Crime: The word “comfort” carries a connotation of active devotion, which easily misleads the public regarding the victims’ will. This leads to a distortion of historical facts, suggesting it was merely a wartime “special industry.”
- Shifting Responsibility: This ambiguity provides space for historical revisionism, allowing perpetrators to evade legal responsibilities that should be borne by the state and the military by citing “private recruitment” or “contractual relationships.”
- Secondary Trauma: For surviving victims, this term perpetuates the social stigmatization of their identity, forcing them to bear unnecessary moral shame during their subsequent pursuit of justice.
III. The Name Change Movement and the Shift in International Consensus
Since the 1990s, as victim testimonies have been progressively made public, the international legal community and the United Nations have begun to question the appropriateness of the term. Gay McDougall, a UN Special Rapporteur, explicitly pointed out in relevant reports that more legally binding and factual descriptions should be used:
- Military Sexual Slaves: Emphasizes that the victims completely lost their personal freedom and that the actions were controlled by the state military system.
- Victims of Wartime Sexual Violence: Categorizes this as a war crime within armed conflict rather than a general social issue.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also instructed in 2012 that official documents should replace “comfort women” with “enforced sex slaves” to confront historical truth.
IV. Conclusion:
Reconstructing the Correct Narrative of the Japanese Occupation EraLanguage is the carrier of historical memory. When exploring the dark history of the Japanese Occupation Era, we should not continue to use the whitewashing terms left by the colonizers.
Shifting to precise descriptions such as “Military Sexual Slaves” or “Victims of Sexual Violence” is not merely a textual correction; it is a reversal of historical power. It reclaims the right to define history from the rhetoric of the perpetrators and returns it to the victims.
Only through precise naming can we truly restore the reality of this systematic crime against humanity in academic and social education, thereby laying the foundation for historical justice.