New York Times. Mindy Kotler – Nov. 14, 2014.
WASHINGTON — In 1942, a lieutenant paymaster in Japan’s Imperial Navy
named Yasuhiro Nakasone was stationed at Balikpapan on the island of
Borneo, assigned to oversee the construction of an airfield. But he found that
sexual misconduct, gambling and fighting were so prevalent among his men
that the work was stalled.
Lieutenant Nakasone’s solution was to organize a military brothel, or
“comfort station.” The young officer’s success in procuring four Indonesian
women “mitigated the mood” of his troops so well that he was commended in a
naval report.
Lieutenant Nakasone’s decision to provide comfort women to his troops
was replicated by thousands of Imperial Japanese Army and Navy officers
across the Indo-Pacific both before and during World War II, as a matter of
policy. From Nauru to Vietnam, from Burma to Timor, women were treated as
the first reward of conquest.