What were the social ramifications for the "comfort women" of World War 2 after the war ended?

by musicninja91

Were most of them able to return home? If so, did they face social ostrachization in their communities? Were they able to start life anew and get married etc? (I'm also looking for primary sources on the subject if anyone has any recommendations)

poopoodomo

Hey, I'm actually translating a Anthropology paper about it right now from Korean to English. I can't cite the source (the author is an Anthropology professor at Jeonnam University) because it hasn't been published yet. However, I can give a few details.
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The issue of 'comfort women' (at least in South Korea) wasn't really common knowledge until the women who experienced being 'comfort women' for the Imperial Japanese troops started coming out about their experiences in 1991 (yes almost 50 years after the end of the war). Because of this, it wasn't widely researched until most of the so-called 'comfort women' had already passed away, making the collection of primary sources difficult (I'm actually translating a small collection of their testimonies for this paper).
. That being said, it is estimated that between 80,000 to 200,000 women were 'comfort women' and of those, 80% were Korean women. In the early stages of the 'comfort women' project, the Imperial Japanese troops hired, kidnapped, or tricked Korean prostitutes into becoming 'comfort women,' but this led to a spread STDs. Knowing that the Japanese troops started kidnapping 'young virgins,' women and girls [the women interviewed for the paper I'm reading were kidnapped or tricked and were aged between 13 and 19] raised with a conservative Confucian ideology who were 'saving themselves' for their future husbands. The majority of 'comfort women' were these young virgins, and for them, to lose their virginity before having a husband was a great shame.
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I do not have the exact numbers, so I can't answer your question fully, but many women did return home after the war. However, virtually all of them kept their experiences a secret due to the shame of being raped. Obviously, this trauma affected the majority of 'comfort women.' Of the 16 women who gave their testimonies for the research I'm translating, only 4 got married, 2 got divorced, two had children, and one was still married with children.
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I don't know what ostracization they may have faced from their communities, but they largely maintained their identities as 'comfort women' secret. As mentioned before, the issue of comfort women wasn't widely known until about 1991; this speaks to how much shame the women felt about their past experiences. Most kept their secret even from husbands, siblings, and especially from their children if they had any.
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Sorry for how poorly I wrote this post, it's 4 AM here and I should really be in bed but I decided I should probably answer this. The research I'm translating lists several sources, most of which are in Korean and none of which I've actually read, but I will put some of them here for reference.
Oogoshi, Aiko -- (2000) "Activities of Japanese Feminists and the Tribunal in Japan? Military Sexual Slavery" in Democratization Movements and Women, Gwanju: May 18 Institute.
Yang, Hyunah -- (1998) "Re-membering the Korean Military Comfort Women: Nationalism. Sexuality, and Silencing" in Elaine H. Kim and Chungmoo Choi (ed.), Dangerous Women: Gender and Korean Nationalism, New York: Routedge [This book is in my history of Korean nationalism course's syllabus and my professor said the chapter on comfort women in this book is essentail, I haven't read it but it seems rather well-cited]