Wartime sex servitude under Japanese authority's direct control

Historical documents revealed Japanese authorities planned and directly controlled a a system to force women in China and other countries into sexual slavery during World War II.

China's State Archives Administration (SAA) released a series of documents and other archived material originated from the puppet authority of "Manchukuo" in northeast China and the Nanjing-centered puppet authority of Wang Jingwei during the period from 1938 through 1945.

The latest documents include permissions given by the Japanese army in Shanghai to set up "comfort stations" in Shanghai's Pudong area.

Phone transcripts from the Anshan Branch of the "Central Bank of Manchuria" in 1945 showed Japanese Army Unit 7990 used military money for costs associated with forced sex slaves, also known as "comfort women". Amounts as high as 532,000 yen were approved by Japan's Kwantung Army headquarters. The transactions were clearly recorded in the archives.

Evidence also showed civilian homes were forcefully seized to set up "comfort stations" under the puppet "Manchukuo".

Moreover, a report in the Senior Police News by the Sixth Gendarmerie Regiment of the puppet "Manchukuo" authority in June 1944 recorded an "obvious tendency of early marriage occurred in Korea because of the forceful recruitment of single women as nurses and comfort women."

Monday's release is the third episode of an eight-part series of videos and archives documenting the suffering of sex slaves at the hand of the Japanese military over 70 years ago. The series of documents are available at the SAA's website.