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Sexual Violence
During the war, both Japanese and American soldiers were accused of committing acts of sexual violence. This took place mostly on Japanese soil, with the Americans and Japanese using sexual violence for personal pleasure, as well as asserting control and dehumanising the enemy.

Japanese Sexual Violence
In 1932, comfort stations were set up by the Japanese government for women to serve as sex slaves to the men of the Japanese military. Many women were taken from across the Japanese empire, including Australia, China, Japan, and the Philippines, but Korean women made up the bulk of the slaves. Whilst this initially started on a volunteer basis, many ended up being coerced into joining by promises of false job openings. This system was initially created to try and decrease the number of rapes within the Japanese military in their colonies, but it had an adverse effect.

After Japan’s defeat in 1945, high-ranking Japanese officials started to set up prostitution as a protective zone between the occupiers and the occupied to help secure Japanese sovereignty. This new branch of comfort women was provided as “gifts of the defeated” by the Japanese to the Americans.

American Sexual Violence
Whilst there is limited documented evidence of American troops committing mass rape during the Pacific War, there are multiple credible testimonies which allege that U.S. forces committed a large number of rapes during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. At least 310 cases were reported by citizens from the years 1945 to 1972, not including the considerable amount of sexual exploitation committed through the use of comfort women.

Many of the comfort women that the U.S. troops exploited were deliberately lower class to reinforce a structure of male superiority and channel their desires and interests. These women were meant to represent colonial subjects forced to work whilst also being labelled “sacrifices” by the Japanese government, to better attract American attention and desire.