A newly published booklet detailing sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army has been published to serve as a bridge between the victims and those who have not had sufficient opportunity to learn about the history of such wartime atrocities. ‘Field Work - 'Comfort Women' of the Japanese Army,’ compiled by the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace in Tokyo, or WAM, is a general history of sex slavery - why it was launched, how it was managed, how ‘comfort women’ were procured and what happened to them after the war – and includes testimonies of former comfort women from 10 countries. The booklet also serves as a guide to WAM, which was established in August 2005 on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II as Japan's only resource centre on sex slavery. The museum greets visitors with large portraits of 155 women who have come out as former sex slaves. It also features various exhibits as well as video footage and documents relating to sex slavery. "We hope this booklet will contribute to handing down the historical truth to the next generation," Mina Watanabe, secretary general of WAM, said. According to the booklet, comfort stations were established to prevent Japanese soldiers from raping local women and from contracting sexually transmitted diseases. The military also aimed to boost the troops' morale by ‘assigning’ women to them. Women in Japanese colonies or occupied areas were recruited by force or coaxed into becoming comfort women, and were beaten if they tried to escape from the stations. Some whose bodies had yet to mature fully had their vaginas surgically enlarged by military doctors.
