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The or RAA, was the largest of the organizations established by Japanese authorities to provide organized
prostitution
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
to prevent rapes and sexual violence by
Allied occupation troops on the general population,
[Schrijvers, Peter (2002). The GI War Against Japan. New York City: New York University Press. p. 212. ] and to create other leisure facilities for occupying Allied troops immediately following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. The RAA "recruited" 55,000 women and was short-lived.
Background
On August 21, 1945, Japanese authorities decided to set up a RAA for the benefit of Allied occupation troops. In fact at that time, the
Home Ministry
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministr ...
had already sent a directive to prefectural governors and police chiefs on August 18 ordering them to make preparations for "comfort facilities" in areas that the Allied occupation troops would be stationed. These facilities (which included dance halls, restaurants, and bars in addition to
brothel
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...
s) were intended to be staffed by women already involved in the "
water trade". However, because there were not enough women in the "water trade" and there were an abundance of women facing food scarcity, recruitment was broadened with newspaper ads that obscured the nature of the work while promising food, clothing, and shelter. Government officials used patriotic language in describing the comfort facility system, extolling the women who sacrifices themselves to be "patriotic dikes" preventing sexual violence against Japanese women and girls.
In Okinawa, Allied military troops are estimated by one Okinawan historian to have raped 10,000 Okinawan women during World War II.
Japanese authorities set up brothels to reduce sexual assault by Allied occupation troops. They thought it would be possible to reduce sexual violence by Allied occupation troops even slightly.
Some 50,000 women, most of them as prostitutes, worked for the RAA. The first brothel, named ''Komachien Garden'' and employing 150 women, was opened on September 20, 1945. RAA brothels were placed off limits in March 1946, after just seven months of operation, to stop the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases, and closed down shortly thereafter.
Establishment
Although arrangements in most of the country were left to local officials and police departments, in the case of the Tokyo area, which was to host the largest number of foreign troops by far, a different approach was taken. Nobuya Saka, Superintendent-General of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters, met with Hamajirō Miyazawa and Genjirō Nomoto, the heads of the , and asked them to help make arrangements for the soon to arrive troops. Miyazawa and Nomoto used their connections to gather together a group of representatives of the nightclub, bar, and brothel industries. These representatives then met with the police on the 21st where they were formally asked to establish "comfort facilities", but to conceal the government's role as much as possible. On August 23, these men formed the "Special Comfort Facilities Association" (renamed the Recreation and Amusement Association shortly later).
The RAA utilized the patriotic language of the war years in its operations, stressing the "selfless" nature of its employees. At the inauguration of the RAA (which was attended by bureaucrats and police officials), an "oath" was read:
The "Okichi" referenced was the possibly legendary maid of
Townsend Harris
Townsend Harris (October 4, 1804 – February 25, 1878) was an American merchant and politician who served as the first United States Consul General to Japan. He negotiated the " Harris Treaty" between the US and Japan and is credited as the d ...
, the first American consul in Japan from 1856 to 1861, who was pressured into becoming his consort.
The organization was funded through unsecured loans from the arranged by
Hayato Ikeda
was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years.
Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.- ...
, director of the Ministry of Finance's Tax Bureau. 33 million yen were loaned to the RAA, which then distributed shares to its members. The RAA established its first brothel on August 28: the Komachien in
Ōmori
is a district located a few kilometres south of Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan accessed by rail via the Keihin Tohoku line, or by road via Dai Ichi Keihin. Ōmorikaigan, the eastern area of Ōmori, can be reached via the Keikyu line.
Ōmori is one o ...
. By December 1945, the RAA owned 34 facilities, 16 of which were "comfort stations". The total number of women employed by the RAA amounted to 55,000 at its peak.
[
]
Recruitment
As noted above, the women staffing comfort facilities were initially intended to be those already involved in the " water trade" (a euphemism for the Japanese night-time entertainment business). In practice, there were nowhere near enough prostitutes available, especially in the Tokyo area. The government had cracked down on prostitution late in the war, and many women had fled or been evacuated to the countryside following heavy Allied bombing of strategic centers and residential areas. Tokyo's most famous red-light district, Yoshiwara
was a famous (red-light district) in Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1617, Yoshiwara was one of three licensed and well-known red-light districts created during the early 17th century by the Tokugawa shogunate, alongside Shimab ...
, had been reduced from a prewar population of 2,000 prostitutes to only a few dozen by the end of the war. Therefore, it was inevitable that efforts were made to recruit from the general population, a tactic that was authorized by the police.[
The RAA recruited widely, using carefully worded advertisements posted in front of their offices and in newspapers. These boasted of generous work conditions (free accommodation, meals, and clothes) while avoiding details concerning the nature of the work. Given the widespread poverty and food shortages at the time, and the large number of orphaned and widowed young women, the job offers appeared quite attractive. Most women left upon learning of the deception, but some stayed.][
In addition to prostitutes, the RAA recruited a large number of "dancers" who were paid to dance with soldiers. Over time, the distinction between "dancer" and "prostitute" became blurred.]
Heavy use was made of independent brokers to recruit women. These brokers, many of whom were affiliated with the yakuza
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...
, used less ethical recruitment techniques. The , a government organization for mobilizing girls and women ages 14–25 for work in factories, was a popular target as many of these women were left unemployed and stranded by the end of the war. Yuki Tanaka reports that groups of these women would be deceived and delivered to brothels.
Despite these deceptive recruitment practices, most women working in the comfort stations ultimately consented to work as prostitutes. There were also women who were unable to leave their brothels, however, because they had been sold by their impoverished families or because they owed money to the brothel. Some comfort stations used "company store
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared g ...
" tactics and to keep women in debt and unable to leave, something a contemporary GHQ official compared to "enslavement". Contracts forcing women to work at brothels in repayment of debts were eventually abolished by a SCAP order (SCAPIN 642) in January 1946, although some Japanese officials were skeptical of how well such a prohibition could be enforced.
Working conditions
When using the RAA brothels, GIs received a ticket (costing 100) (approx. 8 cents at the contemporary unofficial rate, ) upon entry which was then given to the women who serviced them. The women, who usually had between 15 and 60 clients per day, would take the tickets to the station's accounting office each morning where they would receive 50 for each ticket. This 50% rate was considerably better than that for prewar licensed prostitutes, who commonly only received 25% of their price. [ For example, on the first day, one Japanese worker had 47 American customers and received almost 2 US dollars.][
Women working in RAA facilities faced the ]sexual violence
Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, act to traffic a person, or act directed against a person's sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim.World Health Organization., World re ...
common to prostitution in the sex trade (especially under foreign military occupation). Women working as dancers were especially vulnerable targets for rape. Additionally, military police
Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...
and GIs sometimes demanded free service or refunds. The power inequality between Japanese police
The is a law enforcement agency under the National Public Safety Commission (Japan), National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office (Japan), Cabinet Office. It is the central agency of the Law enforcement in Japan, Japanese police syst ...
and Allied soldiers made it difficult for the women to complain.
Many of the victims were induced to create a "Labour Union", which then allowed them to be further targeted as the Korean war
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
developed.
Expansion
On October 14, the Japanese police lifted their restrictions on brothels and night clubs, a ''de facto'' endorsement of the non-RAA sex industry catering to Occupation troops. The RAA facilities had also been illegal, of course, but had enjoyed police protection for obvious reasons. By the end of November, there were 25 non-RAA comfort stations employing 1,500 women in Tokyo (compared to "well over 2,000" for the RAA.) A December 29 GHQ estimate placed the number of prostitutes in Tokyo at 6,000 (not counting street prostitutes, who far outnumbered the number of women working in brothels.)
GHQ and disease control
From the beginning of the Occupation, some Allied military officials cooperated with the Japanese government's system. According to the governors of Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, American commanders contacted them in September 1945 and requested the establishment of brothels for their troops, offering US military police help if necessary. American medical officers established prophylactic stations in red-light districts and inside the larger brothels that distributed tens of thousands of condoms
A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of inte ...
a week.
Despite these precautions, the problem of sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral ...
s (STDs; primarily gonorrhea
Gonorrhea, colloquially known as the clap, is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium ''Neisseria gonorrhoeae''. Infection may involve the genitals, mouth, or rectum. Infected men may experience pain or burning with u ...
and syphilis) became a serious public health issue. By early 1946, nearly a quarter of all US occupation forces were estimated to be infected, and nearly half of some units. The Australian 34th Infantry Brigade had a rate of 55% infection.
In response, GHQ imposed strict STD check procedures for prostitutes, placed certain brothels with high rates of infection off-limits to troops, and helped re-establish clinics and laboratories (many of which had been destroyed during the war) to diagnose infections.[Rates for Comfort Houses, November 2, 1945, ''Tokyo Shimbun'', In ''Press Translations Japan,'' Social series, No. 1, Item 5]
Pages 3-4
ATIS, G2, SCAP, November 5, 1945. ( Most importantly, the 8th Army authorized the free dispersal of penicillin to infected prostitutes despite a serious shortage of the drug in the US and orders from Washington that it only be given to Japanese "as a life saving measure."
End of the system
Not all those in the occupation forces accepted the widespread patronizing of Japanese-sanctioned brothels by US troops. Some unit commanders considered prostitution an "endemic problem that plagued their troops" and tried (with limited success) to prevent their men from fraternizing with the Japanese. By early 1946 military chaplains were condemning SCAP's cooperation, citing violations of War Department War Department may refer to:
* War Department (United Kingdom)
* United States Department of War (1789–1947)
See also
* War Office, a former department of the British Government
* Ministry of defence
* Ministry of War
* Ministry of Defence
* D ...
policies and the moral degradation of US troops it caused.
The complaints embarrassed Gen. MacArthur, head of the occupation forces, and SCAP issued an order (SCAPIN 642) on January 21 ending licensed brothels for being "in contravention of the ideals of democracy". The following day a GHQ public health official wrote MacArthur with his concerns that news of the STD problem and GHQ cooperation with prostitution would cause problems as they spread back home. SCAPIN 642 ended the RAA's operations, but did not affect "voluntary prostitution" by individuals. As such, non-RAA brothel owners were easily able to circumvent the order by, for example, "renting" space in their former brothels to "voluntary" prostitutes. Ultimately, GHQ responded by making all brothels and other facilities offering prostitution off-limits to Allied personnel on March 25, 1946.
The immediate effects of the end of authorized brothel prostitution was the sudden unemployment of thousands of women, many of whom went on to become "panpan" street prostitutes. The dispersal of prostitution made it harder for GHQ to control STDs and also caused an increase in sexual violence by GIs, from an average of 40 women a day before the SCAP order to an estimated 330 per day immediately after, however these figures cannot be independently confirmed.
By November 1946, the Japanese government had introduced the new system in which prostitution was permissible in certain designated areas.
Comfort Woman terminology
Because the RAA and related systems were inspired by Japanese wartime experiences, their structures and terminologies were based on the pre-existing wartime comfort women system. Brothels were referred to with the euphemisms "comfort stations" and "comfort facilities", and prostitutes were referred to as "comfort women". Because of this, many English-language and Japanese scholars of the RAA continue to use those terms in their research.
To what degree the two systems are actually comparable is a matter of debate among historians, however. Some, such as Michael Molasky and Yuki Tanaka
is a Japanese volleyball player who played for Kurobe AquaFairies. She served as the captain of the team from 2009.
Profiles
*The former name is Yuki Sugawara.
*Her younger sister is the same team, Kurobe AquaFairies.
*She can play at any posit ...
, stress the "striking" similarities between the two and refer to the RAA as "systematic exploitation". Chung-hee Sarah Soh
Chunghee Sarah Soh or Sarah Soh is an American professor of Anthropology at San Francisco State University. She is a sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in issues of women, gender, sexuality.
Her book '' The Comfort Women: Sexual Viol ...
, by contrast, notes that women in the RAA were provided with better living conditions than their wartime counterparts. Sarah Kovner states that a difference between the two systems is that RAA members could not be forced into prostitution for Allied occupation troops. Bob Wakabayashi writes though that coercive recruitment was employed in a manner similar to the wartime system
Ikuhiko Hata
is a Japanese historian. He earned his PhD at the University of Tokyo and has taught history at several universities. He is the author of a number of influential and well-received scholarly works, particularly on topics related to Japan's role ...
indicates that the two systems were comparable in both methods of recruitment and administration in spite of the difference of the presence or absence of intermediary people.
See also
* Comfort women
* Elizabeth Saunders Home
* Prostitutes in South Korea for the U.S. military
*Prostitution in Japan
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. While the Prostitution Prevention Law of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it", loopholes, liberal interpretations and a loose ...
*Rape during the occupation of Japan
Rapes during the occupation of Japan were war rapes or rapes committed under the Allies of World War II, Allied occupation of Japan, military occupation of Japan. Allied troops committed a number of rapes during the Battle of Okinawa during the las ...
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Recreation And Amusement Association
Occupied Japan
Prostitution in Japan
Japan–United States relations
Euphemisms
United States military in Japan
Comfort women
Military brothels