The extreme secrecy of the Japanese army’s “comfort women” system

Abstract

An extremely important characteristic of the modern Japanese military's “comfort women” 慰安婦 system was its extreme secrecy. It was realized through a high degree of tacit “cooperation” between the Japanese military and government. This “cooperation” was mainly manifested in “special treatment” in various areas such as simplified exit procedures adopted by the government for the recruiters and recruited “comfort women” during the Japanese military's recruitment of “comfort women.” Its extreme secrecy was mainly manifested as documents on “comfort women” between the Japanese military and government all having various levels of classification, and the extreme secrecy of the management of “comfort women” affairs, and their being cut off from the external world. “Comfort women” were even killed to cover up the crimes. Owing to the extreme secrecy, many truths about the Japanese military's “comfort women” problem are still concealed today.