What Happened

Japan colonized Korea in 1910. As its military expanded across Asia from the late 1930s, it turned to local populations in occupied territories — including Korea, Taiwan, and China — to coerce women into the comfort station system. According to the Association for Asian Studies, the most common recruitment method in Korea was deceit: false promises of employment as factory workers, nurses, or kitchen helpers. Agents would travel from city to city, procuring 40 to 50 young girls at a time. Toward the end of the war, the military used police to forcibly take women. Girls included were as young as 12 years old. According to remembercomfortwomen.org, the fatality rate among comfort women was approximately 87%.

Source: Association for Asian Studies — asianstudies.org · remembercomfortwomen.org