Springfield South Dakota Veterans
  • World War I
    • Veteran Photos
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Edwin Dwight Wood
  • World War II
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Lawrence Namminga
      • Fred C Hornstra
      • Chuck Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • John Palsma
      • Clarence Ludens
      • Jack Martin
      • Bob Slade
      • Joe Uken Jr
    • Springfield Was There
    • Biographies A-H >
      • Walter Babcock
      • Wayne Barham
      • Charles "Chuck" Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • Jake DenOuden
      • Biographies K-Ma >
        • Bernard Kastein
        • James Kirk
        • Leonard Lange
        • Ted Lindeman
        • Clarence Ludens
        • John C. Ludens
        • John "Jack" Martin
        • Richard "Darby" Martin
      • Robert DeRoos
      • Shorty Halsey
      • Nanno Hiemstra
      • Fred C Hornstra
    • Biographies Mi-O >
      • Floyd Mitchell
      • Jacob Namminga
      • Lawrence Namminga Sr
      • Ode Odens
      • Lawrence Owens
    • Biographies P-S >
      • Allen Palsma
      • John Palsma
      • Virgil Rauch
      • Jack Rich
      • Robert Slade
    • Biographies Th-U >
      • Clark Thomas
      • Neil Thomas
      • Merle Toyne
      • Joe Uken
  • Korean War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
    • Biographies >
      • Donald Dempster
      • Gelvin "Gil" DeRoos
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
      • Virginia McClure
      • Donald McMillan
      • Peter Monfore
      • Wilbert Renner
      • Clarence Vanderlei
  • Cold War
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Robert McCollum
  • Vietnam War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Larry Talsma
    • My Week in Hue City
    • Biographies >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Perry Lundin
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Robert Monfore
      • Larry Talsma
  • Middle East Wars
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • James "Uke" Uken
  • Army National Guard
    • Veteran Photos
    • Rapid City Flood
    • Japanese Internment

Comfort Women

1/7/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Submitted by Dick Martin
The story of “Comfort Women” during World War II is one of the more tawdry and sad parts of the war.  It is the story of the widely diverse estimates of 50,000 to 200,000 women forced into prostitution by the Japanese Military.  Beginning in Shanghai, China in 1932,  the young women were abducted from their homes in the countries under Imperial Japanese rule.  In many cases, they were lured from their homes with promises of factory jobs and then sent to comfort stations against their will.  



The Japanese Military established the comfort stations to prevent rape and venereal diseases among its soldiers, to provide comfort for its soldiers, and to head off espionage.   Since prostitution was open and well-organized in Japan, it made it easier for the Military to set up the stations.  The first “comfort women” were Japanese volunteers.  With the huge expansion of the Japanese Army as the war expanded, many more women were needed.  Consequently, most of the women were from occupied countries like Korea, China and the Philippine Islands.  Little known is that the Japanese Army also forced Dutch women into becoming comfort women. The common use of the word prostitute to define “comfort women” is inaccurate since most of the women did not compromise their principles for personal gain or money.  Instead, they were forced to become sex slaves against their will and did not receive money or personal gain.  


There have been many attempts to tell the story of “Comfort Women.”  They have been hampered by the China-Japan Joint Communique’ of 1972 in which the Chinese government agreed not to seek any restitution for war-time crimes and incidents; the burning of relevant documents by the Korean government; and the suicide, murder, and/or death of approximately 75% of the women.  The Japanese government has partially accepted responsibility for its role in the creation of the Comfort Women Stations.  In the 1993 Kono Statement, the Japanese government admitted coercion in setting up the stations and in 2007, the Japanese parliament issued an official apology.  However, the Japanese prime minister at the time stated that there was no evidence that the Japanese government kept sex slaves.  Since then, on December 28, 2015, Japan and South Korea reached agreement to settle the dispute.  The agreement provided for Japan paying South Korea 8.3 million to fund supporting surviving victims and South Korea agreeing to refrain from criticizing Japan regarding the issue.  In San Francisco, on September 22 of this year, a memorial was dedicated in memory of the thousands of “comfort women” from Korea, China, and the Philippine Islands, who were forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese Military in World War II.


Taken from Wikipedia, Mindy Kotler’s November 14, 2014 opinion piece article “The Comfort Women and Japan’s War on Truth” in the New York Times and the February 2018 edition of World War II magazine.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Arlis Namminga Wozniak
    Bernard Kastein
    Carol Hagen
    Carol Wysuph
    Charlene Dempster
    Clarence Vanderlei
    Dale Ludens
    Dan Mejstrik
    Daryl Heusinkveld
    David Lange
    David Odens
    Dick Martin
    Donald McMillan
    Doug Hanify
    Eugene Hornstra
    Gary Romkema
    Gene Lang
    Gil DeRoos
    Glenda Palsma Meech
    Jim Hornstra
    Jim Kirk
    Jim Uken
    Jon Mitchell
    Joyce Romkema
    Julie Hanisch
    Larry Lang
    Laura Martin
    Lawrence Namminga
    Lee Merchen
    Lee Morton
    Linda Rauch Scott
    Linda Tjeerdsma
    Lori Slade Krier
    Loyal Meech
    Marilyn Thomas Stone
    Mary Monfore Hurd
    Merle Toyne
    Nancy McMillan Flammang
    Perry Lundin
    Ronnie Hornstra
    Sandy Uken Haima
    Springfield Veterans
    Tim Diede
    Virgil Rauch
    Wilbert Renner

    Archives

    December 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

This web page is a work in progress. It has been created through the donated efforts of Laura Genant Martin, Dick Martin, and Jim Hornstra. When Laura was made aware of what we needed, she took the initiative to research and educate herself on how to create a web site to identify, respect and honor the military veterans in Springfield. The web site had to be easy to navigate and had to provide the viewer a method of providing feedback. Most of the written material has been provided by Dick Martin over the past couple of years with some important contributions from others, i.e. Jim Kirk.  Jim Hornstra has been the reliable source as he has been the collector of information concerning Springfield Veterans and has provided Laura much of what has gone into the web site.
  • World War I
    • Veteran Photos
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Edwin Dwight Wood
  • World War II
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Lawrence Namminga
      • Fred C Hornstra
      • Chuck Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • John Palsma
      • Clarence Ludens
      • Jack Martin
      • Bob Slade
      • Joe Uken Jr
    • Springfield Was There
    • Biographies A-H >
      • Walter Babcock
      • Wayne Barham
      • Charles "Chuck" Dawes
      • Grover DeLong
      • Jake DenOuden
      • Biographies K-Ma >
        • Bernard Kastein
        • James Kirk
        • Leonard Lange
        • Ted Lindeman
        • Clarence Ludens
        • John C. Ludens
        • John "Jack" Martin
        • Richard "Darby" Martin
      • Robert DeRoos
      • Shorty Halsey
      • Nanno Hiemstra
      • Fred C Hornstra
    • Biographies Mi-O >
      • Floyd Mitchell
      • Jacob Namminga
      • Lawrence Namminga Sr
      • Ode Odens
      • Lawrence Owens
    • Biographies P-S >
      • Allen Palsma
      • John Palsma
      • Virgil Rauch
      • Jack Rich
      • Robert Slade
    • Biographies Th-U >
      • Clark Thomas
      • Neil Thomas
      • Merle Toyne
      • Joe Uken
  • Korean War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
    • Biographies >
      • Donald Dempster
      • Gelvin "Gil" DeRoos
      • Robert "Bob" Ludens
      • Virginia McClure
      • Donald McMillan
      • Peter Monfore
      • Wilbert Renner
      • Clarence Vanderlei
  • Cold War
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • Robert McCollum
  • Vietnam War
    • Veteran Photos
    • The Rest of the Story >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Larry Talsma
    • My Week in Hue City
    • Biographies >
      • Daryl Heusinkveld
      • Harvey Kastein
      • Perry Lundin
      • Dan Mejstrik
      • Lee Merchen
      • Robert Monfore
      • Larry Talsma
  • Middle East Wars
    • Veteran Photos
    • Biographies >
      • James "Uke" Uken
  • Army National Guard
    • Veteran Photos
    • Rapid City Flood
    • Japanese Internment