"At Least 39 Sites," Including Teen Girls: "Comfort Stations" Found Even at Coal Mines

[Anchor]

The fact that "comfort women" existed not only in military units but also at industrial sites such as coal mines during the Japanese colonial period has largely gone unnoticed. Today (October 12), a Japanese media outlet reported that at least 39 such industrial comfort stations existed in Japan at the time, prompting calls for an active response from the government.

Tokyo correspondent Mun Junmo reports.

[Reporter]

At least 700,000 Koreans were forcibly mobilized to Japanese munitions industry sites during the Japanese colonial period.

The Mainichi Shimbun reported on its front page that there were at least 39 "industrial comfort stations" in Japan at the time, intended to manage male laborers.

The Japanese government encouraged related companies to use industrial comfort stations as a so-called "labor measure" to prevent Korean workers from fleeing. These facilities were mainly disguised as rest areas where Korean women worked or operated under the signboards of restaurants or bars.

The newspaper reported that some of the workers were young teenage girls.

A paper published in 1945 described industrial comfort stations as, simply put, "places to resolve sexual needs," noting that "about 10 Korean women should be stationed per 1,000 Korean workers to prevent escapes and boost production motivation."

The 39 confirmed sites were located around munitions industry facilities, including coal mines in Hokkaido and Fukuoka Prefecture, as well as the Mitsubishi Hashima coal mine, widely known as "Battleship Island." The possibility has been raised that even more existed in other locations, such as the Sado Mines.

This issue began to come to light through investigations of coal-mining regions in the 1990s, but it has received far less attention compared to the military comfort women issue.

During the parliamentary audit of the South Korean Embassy in Japan held today, criticism was raised regarding the South Korean government's passive attitude.

[Cha Ji-ho / Member of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee (Democratic Party of Korea): You only belatedly learned about this issue through today's newspaper report and did not even bring it up during today's audit. Will you officially propose launching an investigation to the headquarters (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and related ministries?]

[Lee Hyuk / Ambassador to Japan: Yes, I will.]

The Embassy in Japan stated that it will review ways to link the industrial comfort women issue with follow-up measures for the registration of the Sado Mines as a UNESCO World Heritage site to elicit additional measures from Japan, and report its findings by the comprehensive parliamentary audit at the end of this month.

(Photo: Yonhap News) (Video reporting: Moon Hyun-jin, Video editing: Kim Yoon-sung, Design: Byun Da-young, Park Tae-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.