Author: Governor of Miyagi Prefecture
Recipients: Nobumasa Suetsugu (Minister of Home Affairs); Ministers of each Administrative District; and chiefs of police within the Districts
Date: February 15, 1938
File: Documents for Approval, Office of the Minister of Home Affairs (1938), Vol. 1
Locations: Shanghai (China), Miyagi Prefecture (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_001-6.pdf
ANNOTATION
As seen in the previous letter from the Governor of the Kochi Prefecture to the Minister of Home Affairs, this is a similar letter from the Governor of the Miyagi Prefecture to the Minister of Home Affairs and others, reporting potentially illegal recruitment activities. What is notable in this letter is that the target age group has changed from 16-30 to 20-35, indicating that the military has acknowledged the illegal aspect of the previous request and changed the recruitment condition to one that could be deemed legal. In the letter, the Governor of the Miyagi Prefecture requested that a similar situation should be implemented swiftly. 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.
The content of the letter is as follows: Murakami, a broker in the district, received a postcard with a request from another broker named Hasegawa in Fukushima Prefecture to recruit about 30 prostitutes, aged between 20 and 35, with advance money of 600 yen. Hasegawa confirmed that he has no intention to recruit women.
Sources:
WAM Collection (Police_010) WAM(警察_010)
Collection of the Asian Women’s Fund, Vol. 1, p. 53-54.
Sourcebook by Suzuki, Yamashita, and Tonomura, Vol. 1, p. 130
Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, A05032040800
#recruitment #Miyagi #Fukishima #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
- prostitute: a person, in particular a woman, who engages in sexual activity for payment
- broker: a person who buys and sells goods or assets for others
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 was the target age group of recruited "comfort women"? What is the target age now? What does the change tell us?
9. In which country did the recruiting happen?
10. What does the document not tell us?
11. Why do you think one broker (Hasegawa) asked another broker (Murakami) to recruit "comfort women" for him?
Now, it is recommended that teachers introduce JS-8. Matters Concerning Recruitment of Prostitutes for the comfort station of the Expeditionary Army in Shanghai. Jan 19, 1938, or JS-10. Matters Concerning the Control and Regulation of the Recruitment of Women Traveling Overseas to China. Jan 25, 1938, and then answer the following questions:
12. What information is JS-8 or JS-10 is not included in JS-12?
13. The "comfort women" deniers tend to push the blame on the recruiters and claim that the government or military bears no legal or official responsibility for the "comfort women" victims. Based on this document, do you think the claim is defendable? Why or why not?
14. What other questions do you have for this document?
15. 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.