I came across this picture today while checking out my electronic news media source. Wondering what these sailors were doing hanging around, I had to read the the article that accompanied the picture. "Comfort Station" is a nautical word that was not familiar to my vocabulary. The article that accompanied the picture is quoted as follows; "In this undated image released by the Yokosuka City Council in Japan, U.S. sailors gather in front of a Yasu-ura House"comfort station" in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo. Japan's practice of enslaving women to provide sex for it troops in World War II has a little-known sequel: After its surrender - with tacit approval from the U.S. occupation authorities - Japan set up similar "comfort stations" system for American servicemen."
I want it known right up front that I have spent some time in Yokosuka, but it was many years following World War II and have no recollection of such practices although they do have a very nice USO Lounge where you can get something to eat and listen to Lawrence Welk music.
I researched the subject of "comfort stations", General Douglas MacArthur shut these houses down in the spring of 1946, but only after tens of thousands of women were employed to provide "comfort" to U.S. troops. Under intense pressure, Japan's government apologized in 1993 (just 48 years after the last comfort station was shut down) for its role in running brothels around Asia and coercing women into serving its troops. The issue remains controversial today. In January, California Rep. Mike Honda offered a resolution in the House condemning Japan's use of sex slaves, in part to renew pressure on Japan ahead of the closure of the Asian Women's Fund, a private foundation created two years after the apology to compensate "comfort" women. The fund compensated only 285 women in the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan, out of an estimated 50,000 - 200,000 "comfort" women enslaved by Japan's military in those countries during the war. Each women received 2 million yen, about $17,800 in U.S. dollars. The fund closed, as scheduled, on March 31st of this year. Though they were free to do so, no Japanese women sought compensation from the fund.
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