Japan’s Comfort Women Book Review

757 Words2 Pages

A main argument Tanaka has is the constant denial of the Japanese comfort women. It became something that was not talked about. Tanaka mentions his father and his uncles, “…very little reference was made to the live of local Chinese people…” (pg.2). They had kept all quiet when it came to talking about the wrongs of the war. Soldier’s and the government feign ignorance when it comes to the matter of comfort women. The head of the allied troops did the same covering the sexual crimes of occupation soldiers in Japan. An example of this is when, “…SCAP issued a… press code for Japan and controlling press reports by introducing post censorship”(pg.124). They purposefully hid the wrong of their troops also so that it would not get back to the states. Women during and after were seen as tools to satisfy these man allowing them to escape when from the real world. The government turned their heads the other way.
Tanaka’s next argument is, sex becomes a source of oppression, brutality and money in war. In his introduction to the book he states, “Sex is a beautiful and extremely enjoyable human relationship with a partner” (pg.1). As soon as war comes into the picture it is used for oppression in a country that has been dominated by another. One woman by the name of Yi Sunok was switched from one comfort station to a comfort station in Singapore, where she again demanded to give up her body to Japanese soldiers. The interesting thing is the Japanese didn’t use their own women for prostitution and if they were used it was only licensed prostitutes. The women used for low ranking soldiers were Korean and Taiwanese women. These two countries both belonged to Japan as colonies. They were forced into becoming prostitutes they had no way to de...

... middle of paper ...

...only lied with their women.
Overall Yuki Tanaka was able to show just how the Japanese and every country around the world can hide things that they do not want to be known either because they are ashamed of what they have done or the fact that they just do not care to acknowledge they had committed a brutal crime against women, even to those that were not even born during this time. His arguments throughout the book convinced to a great level that during a war things can be changed, showing the ugliness of dehumanization. No country is innocent when it comes to war. He gets one thinking of how everyone can know about the Holocaust a racism against at ethnicity but not of the racism, sexism against women.

Works Cited

Tanaka, Toshiyuki. Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.

Show More
Related

  • The Rhetorical Analysis Of John Hersey's Hiroshima By John Hersey

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    The character, Miss Sasaki, who was left trapped, disabled and severely injured, by the dropping of the bomb suffered more in the long haul, from the emotional impact than just the physical destruction alone. Not only was she physically disabled, but also emotionally disabled, as the overwhelming feeling of being hopeless is a permanent psychological scar on the brain. Being unable to walk properly for the remainder of her life, Miss Sasaki, knew that she would no longer be able to provide for her family anymore; in Japanese cultural the honor of their family is of utmost importance, similar in nature to radical religious groups. Also of Japanese cultural priorities, were that of marriage. In Japan, women who were married were looked upon with higher statue and class. Miss Sasaki knew that her chances of getting married now had been reduced and for a woman of this time, that realization, also leaves damaged emotional baggage within herself. All of the aforementioned, left Miss Sasaki depressed for years to come and ultimately left her a permanent emotional scar affecting the rest of her life. By including the accounts of Miss Sasaki, in this book, John Hersey, exposes to the readers, that atomic warfare not only affects the human body physically for years to come but also

    Read More

  • Famed Honolulu Harlot

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    World War II impacted Hawaii greatly. From economics to sex to race relations, Hawaii would never be the same. Chinatown was filled a sea of white uniformed men filing into lines for tattoo parlors and brothels. A famed prostitute at this time was none other than Jean O’Hara. The publication of her book My Life as a Honolulu Prostitute, led to the immediate shutting down of the brothels in Honolulu. Through this spirited hot-tempered woman, we are able to see into the lives of the women in the brothels.

    Read More

  • Farewell to Manzanar

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beginning in March of 1942, in the midst of World War II, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were forcefully removed from their homes and ordered to relocate to several of what the United States has euphemistically labeled “internment camps.” In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston describes in frightening detail her family’s experience of confinement for three and a half years during the war. In efforts to cope with the mortification and dehumanization and the boredom they were facing, the Wakatsukis and other Japanese-Americans participated in a wide range of activities. The children, before a structured school system was organized, generally played sports or made trouble; some adults worked for extremely meager wages, while others refused and had hobbies, and others involved themselves in more self-destructive activities.

    Read More

  • Bitter And Sweet Themes

    542 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lee grew up in China, a country that had been ravaged by Japan, because of this this has resulted in a deep hatred for Japan that followed Henrys father all the way to his death. When reading in the paper that Japanese school teachers were being put in jail for reasons that weren’t clear, Henry's father felt relief and victory (67). Unfortunately Henry’s father wasn’t the only one with a negative impression of japan; many Americans regarded all Japanese Americans as enemies and possible spy’s, this created a torrent of hate and discrimination towards the Japanese. In reality, most, if not all, of these Japanese Americans were not spies and many didn’t care to be associated with

    Read More

  • Picture Bride Character Analysis

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    Japanese were treated unjustly which inevitably affected Hana and Taro very quickly. “The President of the United States authorized the Secretary of War and his military commanders to prescribe areas which any or all persons could be excluded...'It means we are all going to be evacuated one day soon,' Taro explained sadly, 'It means we are all going to be uprooted from our homes and interned without a trial or a hearing," (p. 154 Uchida). When Japan bombed the U.S., it really opened Hana’s eyes to how cruel the world can be, especially since it was her homeland. What this event also did was flip the definition of America to Hana and Taro. They always thought of America as a safe place to be themselves and a fresh new start to form their lives but now they were taking away the Japanese-American rights one by one. While in the Japanese concentration camps, tragedy struck Hana when she didn’t think life could get any worse. "'There was an accident, Mrs.Takeda,' the director said, ' your husband was shot by one of the guards. He was walking near the barbed wire fence and the soldier thought he was trying to escape," (p.211 Uchida). Hana was furious at the unreasonable and awful death of her husband but rethought her relationship with Taro. She forgot all the little things that bothered her and focused on their

    Read More

  • The Rape of Nanking

    2406 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...ce of ordinary people, fear of retribution from the Japanese underground they still believed to be in existence… (Yamamoto p. 190).” Even after the war, the Chinese were so traumatized by the vile actions that they were still afraid that the Japanese army would return to treat as livestock once more.

    Read More

  • Obasan, by Joy Kogawa

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many if not most, considered World War II the most atrocious act of all time. It was viewed as a war of beliefs and ideals. One side, vouching for domination, while another for freedom; One slaughtering and discriminating due to nationality, race, and religion; the other fighting for freedom, sovereignty, and peace. In reality, the war was not as black and white as that. Though the Axis Powers committed heinous crimes against humanity (I.E Holocaust, Murder of millions, Attempt at world domination etc.), the allies also had their own dark moments. Joy Kogawa displays the horrors of the allies’ dark side accurately in the book “Obasan”. The book talks about the impact of a loathing society and internment on Japanese-Canadians during and after World War II. A Japanese woman named Naomi narrates the book, and recalls the horrors that befell her and her family. The book affirms that the internment of Japanese-Canadians during and after World War II didn’t just restrict them physically, but also had deep psychological and economic impacts.

    Read More

  • The Blue Kite Analysis

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    Zhu Ying was a member of the military’s theatre troupe, and about to be a member of the party, until she refused to sleep with party members. After that, they transferred and then imprisoned her. While her role in the military could have made Zhu Ying an androgynous figure, an emblem of communist gender equality, the party’s expectation that she have sex with party members makes her a sexual object, which is its own form of feminization. Zhu Ying is allowed to retain her femininity only if she consents to being a sexual object; when she does not, she is sent to be a laborer, and later imprisoned. Moreover, by being separated from her boyfriend, her chance at domestic happiness is taken away. After imprisonment, she has no opportunity to fill the traditional female role of marriage and children (which she may or may not have desired). Thus, the party halts the “natural” order of marriage and

    Read More

  • Nisei Daughter Thesis

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thesis statement: A Japanese girl grew up in the land of America could not find herself fit in either Japan or American society. Things are bad and got even worse when World War II came, made the relationship between America and Japan went bad. Awful things were pulled on this girl when she was still little.

    Read More

  • Farming the Home Place, by Valerie J. Matsumoto

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Matsumoto studies three generations, Issei, Nisei, and Sansei living in a closely linked ethnic community. She focuses her studies in the Japanese immigration experiences during the time when many Americans were scared with the influx of immigrants from Asia. The book shows a vivid picture of how Cortex Japanese endured violence, discriminations during Anti-Asian legislation and prejudice in 1920s, the Great Depression of 1930s, and the internment of 1940s. It also shows an examination of the adjustment period after the end of World War II and their return to the home place.

    Read More

  • Freedom and Human Rights: When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

    1277 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ile the war is still happening. The lack of freedom and human rights can cause people to have a sad life. Their identity, personality, and dignity will be vanish after their freedom and human right are taking away. This is a action which shows America’s inhuman ideas. It is understandable that war prison should be put into jail and take away their rights; but Japanese-American citizen have nothing to do with the war. American chooses to treat Jap-American citizen as a war prisoner, then it is not fair to them because they have rights to stay whatever side they choose and they can choose what ever region they want. Therefore, Otasuka’s novel telling the readers a lesson of how important it is for people to have their rights and freedom with them. People should cherish these two things; if not, they will going to regret it.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On The Naking Massacre

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Japanese soldiers were extremely brutal and insensitive. They raped the women in their homes, but they would also take the women out in the streets to be raped, killing them afterwards in appalling ways. They would rape pregnant women and cut open their bellies. They made fathers rape their daughters and sons rape their mothers. If they objected, they were killed. Women of all ages were violated. They raped seventy year-old women, nine year-old girls, nuns, and high class wives. Many of the young and pretty girls were taken from their families and homes for days and used as sex slaves for the Japanese soldiers. They would charge into the safety zones and take women by the hundreds. They would gang rape women and when they returned, if they returned, they would often fall into a state of depression or they would commit suicide from the shame of the

    Read More

  • Speech On Chewing Gum And Chocolate

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    Look at your local Chinese food takeaway, half of it is Americanized, sweetened and thickened to suit our tastes. Anything that is labelled ‘sweet and sour’ for instance, Sweet and sour pork, that’s a lie. Countries like Japan have become a war ground for the constant battle between tradition and Americanization. Here we can see this battle through the woman dressed in a traditional Kimono, sitting almost helpless, contrasting the English typography in the background and reflecting on the window of the car. This casts the woman as not belonging, being the foreigner in her own country. The glass of the window seeming to become a shield, or container to maintain the last of Japanese culture from the attacks of Americanization. But this wave of Americanization was not always feared. If you lived in a country where your leaders had led you, young teenagers, off to fight a war you don’t believe in, on a side you think is wrong, you came to distrust them. So when the Americans flew in, they were welcomed with open arms, the American democracy became a model for Japan, and soon the government was controlling newspapers and magazines to explain and popularize the new democratic legal system. ‘Japanese conformity and homogeneity’, Tetsuo Kogawa states in his essay ‘Japan as a Manipulated Society, ‘can be seen as the production of conscious and unconscious control of

    Read More

  • Prostitution in the United States

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    Barry, Kathleen. The Prostitution of Sexuality: The Global Exploitation of Women. New York: New York University Press, 1996. Print.

    Read More

  • Japanese Injustice

    480 Words  | 1 Pages

    Perceiving mainland Asians(would orientals be a better or worse term?} as being below them, and all occidental and African peoples being even further below them. The Japanese actions are, by modern standards, universally unacceptable and a hindsight horror, but what would their atrocities look like if we altered our perspective to match those that committed them. The nigh genocide of the coastal Asian countries would look less horrible, and more like controlling the population, or the experimentation done by unit 731. To the Japanese these weren't human rights violations, but population control or simple animal testing, which drastically reduce the severity of their actions. Keeping in mind that Japan was, at this time, trying to find its place in the world, breaking a long history of on again off again isolationism. One could argue that Japan at that time was akin to a child who hadn't learned right from wrong yet. Now having moved past its supremely regimented hierarchical way of life that developed with Bushido in the prewar period, the prior analogy becomes more feasible, as they were simply trying to apply their own methodology to a world entirely foreign to said

    Read More

More about Japan’s Comfort Women Book Review

Open Document