The consolation unit: Comfort women at Rabaul

Hank Nelson*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    From late 1942, Australians knew that the Japanese had shipped women to Rabaul, where they worked in brothels catering for Japanese troops. Japanese captured on the Kokoda Track and elsewhere described the brothels, and New Guineans and who had been in Rabaul talked about them. Australian military and civilian prisoners saw the brothels, and a few of those Australians observed them over a long period. Japanese who served in Rabaul have left reminiscences about the brothels, and one Korean woman has testified that she worked in Rabaul. As result, there is scattered material on perhaps 3,000 comfort women in an Australian Territory, but when Australian reporters and commentators need to give the comfort women an Australian relevance, these women are never mentioned. Their experiences are not used to provide evidence on the recurring debates about whether the comfort women were coerced or free and whether they were recruited, shipped and employed by private contractors rather than the Japanese military or government.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1-21
    Number of pages21
    JournalJournal of Pacific History
    Volume43
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2008

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The consolation unit: Comfort women at Rabaul'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this