Author: Mitsumasa Kobayashi, Governor of Kochi Prefecture
Recipients: Nobumasa Suetsugu (Minister of HomeAffairs) and Governors of each local district
Date: January 25, 1938
File: Documents for Approval, Office of the Minister of Home Affairs (1938), Vol. 1
Location: China, Kochi (Japan)
Keywords: Mobilization
Annotation by Hye-in Han, Ph.D. Researcher, Asia Peace and History Institute
Image link:
http://wam-peace.org/ianfu-koubunsho/pdf/K-PDF/K_P_001-3.pdf
ANNOTATION
This is a letter (no. 24) from the Governor of Kochi Prefecture on January 25, 1938 to the Minister of Home Affairs and the governors of each local district, that shows the overall situation at around the time when Japanese military authorities planned the “comfort” system and carried out the first wave of recruitment.
The document demonstrates the local government’s attempt to proactively manage the potentially illegal recruiting activities of the brokers, involving the indiscriminate mobilization of 3,000 women between the ages of 16 and 30, at the request of the military. On the surface, the letter’s purpose appears to advise other agencies to not issue identification certificates and other things for the people who are engaged in illegal activities. But in fact, it triggered the Ministry of Home Affairs to issue a new ordinance that is designed to control the reckless behaviors of the brokers. However, the same ordinance was not issued in colonial Korea, which indicates that the initially planned illegal recruitment methods were used in Korea without restraint.
Sources:
WAM Collection (Police_004)
Collection of the Asian Women’s Fund, Vol. 1, p. 25-26
Sourcebook by Suzuki, Yamashita, and Tonomura, Vol. 1, p. 124-138
#rercruitment #Kochi #Home_Affairs #Internal_Affairs
QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS
Explain the following words to your students before asking them to read the annotation:
- prefecture: an administrative division or unit in Japan
- proactive: (of a person, policy, or action) creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened
- indiscriminate: done at random or without careful judgment
- restraint: a measure that keeps something or something under control
- reckless: (a person or their actions) without thinking or careing about the consequences of an action
After reading the annotation, please answer the following questions:
1. What kind of document is this?
2. Who wrote it?
3. What year was it created?
4. What was the historical context in East Asia during the time?
5. Where was it created?
6. What's the title of the document? What does the title tell you?
7. Who's the audience of the document?
8. What's the main idea of the document?
9. What is the most important piece of information in this document? Why is it important to you?
10. What other questions do you have for this document?
11. How/Where can you find the answers?
*Questions for Students section was designed by Jing Williams, Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at University of South Dakota.