<p>I am a military brat. As a young child, I lived in Japan during the American Military Occupation. Here’s my understanding of what happened. It may not be accurate, but it’s probably more accurate than most accounts.</p>
<p>Japan occupied Korea during World War II. During the occupation, it forced many young Korean women into prostitution. Some of these were sent to Japan. They were raped to “initiate” them. Then some of them “serviced” more than 100 Japanese soldiers a day, each and every day.</p>
<p>At the end of World War II, it became apparent that the Japanese were losing. The Japanese government/military assumed that the US occupying forces would do what Japan had done in Korea. The Japanese military rounded up prostitutes. The numbers weren’t high enough. They went back out to find more unattached poor girls to make prostitutes. Many Japanese soldiers “initiated” poor Japanese girls, especially those without parents and most especially those who had committed petty crimes, theft of small items, etc. They were told they were going to play an important role. They would “save” respectable (read wealthy) Japanese women from being raped. </p>
<p>So, these “hospitality” businesses were set up by the Japanese government BEFORE surrender. When the US army occupied Japan, these young women did what they had been told they had to do. American military men assumed that these were prostitutes. Yes, many men visited these brothels—just as many military men did exactly the same thing in Germany where prostitution was legal. </p>
<p>McArthur and others looked the other way for a while…until they learned that some of the young women in these brothels were coerced into prostitution. Then the brothels were declared off -limits. (Very, very few of the German women in brothels were coerced into it. The brothels were never declared off-limits.) </p>
<p>Look, I don’t like prostitution. But quite seriously, very few American GIs raped Japanese women. The “comfort stations” were organized by the Japanese government and were modeled on those Japanese soldiers used in Korea. Indeed, some of the prostitutes were Korean women who had been imported to be used by Japanese soldiers.</p>
<p>It’s the Japanese government that organized the comfort stations and the Japanese government that coerced women into being prostitutes. They were actually quite proud of themselves right after the war since the number of Japanese women raped by American soldiers was a lot lower than the number of women Japanese soldiers raped when they occupied Korea and the Phillipines. </p>
<p>Oh…and as to prostitute licenses–in Germany, at least, they carried them. They proved that the women had been tested and found free of VD. I forget the rules, but prostitutes had to be regularly tested and if they had a VD they were treated until it was cured and couldn’t serve any clients while they were being treated. (Oh, those innocent, pre-AIDS days!)</p>