Educational Media Reviews Online

Prostitution was legal and accepted as an everyday part of life in Japan in the 1940s. Naturally, when Japan expanded its military operations, soldiers expected “comfort women” to be available. While some Japanese women patriotically volunteered, as the theatre of war expanded, perhaps 200,000 local women were tricked by offers of large sums of money or simply forced to provide sex services for Japan’s male soldiers.

A mere handful of these comfort women survive to this day. This film documents their continuing attempts to receive an apology from the highest level of Japanese government. An official apology from the Japanese parliament did not fully satisfy them. Post-war financial compensation did not placate the comfort women, who still seek additional reparations from Japan.

Hsiung documents the efforts of four comfort women as they press forward with their pleas for a top-level apology and additional compensation from the Japanese government. Their requests have been met with opposition from Japanese who view these women as low-life prostitutes angling for more money. This film could launch a discussion about the subjugation of women throughout history as sex slaves during war, and the subsequent denial by their captors. Why did women fall for offers of cash from their insincere captors? How can sex workers protect themselves from enslavement?