The fervor commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War has not yet subsided, and Japan's attempt to revive militarism has already begun to stir. Following its previous series of investigations into comfort women, during which Wen Wei Po revealed the historical fact that the Japanese Navy had established at least four "comfort stations" in Hong Kong, it is again launching this follow-up investigation based on Japanese military archives and related original documents.
Wen Wei Po's news investigation department successively published reports in July this year about the establishment of four naval "comfort stations" by the invading Japanese army on Jaffe Road, Wan Chai, which aroused the concern of readers in mainland China and overseas. A Japanese reader sent a "military secret" document from the Japanese army stationed in Hong Kong, which not only confirmed the aforementioned report of the newspaper but also mentioned new clues and information. After confirming the authenticity of the document, the department conducted another in-depth investigation and confirmed that the "comfort facilities" set up by the invading Japanese army in Hong Kong were far more complex than imagined.
According to the "Japanese relationship telephone directory" during the Japanese occupation period, the team of Kwong Chi-man, associate professor of the Department of History at Hong Kong Baptist University, took the lead in marking the four comfort stations near Jaffe Road on the Japanese-occupied Hong Kong website, but the relevant information was still limited to folk materials, and there was no Japanese military data to corroborate it.
The above-mentioned "military secret" document was written on May 4, 1942, and its content mainly involved the Japanese army's occupation, management, and division of Hong Kong's civil facilities. Judging from the writing habits, the document conforms to the official document style of the Japanese Meiji to Showa era. According to the name of the document, the department inquired and confirmed in the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records of the Japan National Archives that it was part of a document currently stored in the National Institute for Defense Studies of the Japanese Ministry of Defense.
On the third page of the aforementioned document, in the "Transfer" item, the "Comfort Facilities" category appears strikingly. The text states: "The Navy Club (Ying King Restaurant), the Navy Officers' Club (Luk Kwok Hotel), the Navy Comfort Station, and the Navy-designated Cafeteria will be transferred to management at an appropriate time."
This is the first discovery of a Japanese military document on the establishment of comfort facilities in Hong Kong during World War II. At the same time, it also means that the Japanese army established a huge and hierarchical comfort facility system in just five months after occupying Hong Kong.
The department compared the data on the Japanese-occupied Hong Kong website and found that the Navy Club (Ying King Restaurant) did not appear on the above-mentioned website, and the Navy Officers' Club on the website was not in the Luk Kwok Hotel.
In mid-July, Kwong stated in response to a Wen Wei Po inquiry that the information of the Navy Club (Ying King Restaurant) had been added to the Japanese-occupied Hong Kong website. As for the Navy Officers' Club mentioned in the document, the website marked its address as 10 O'Brien Road based on the information in the "directory" published in November 1943, and then combined it with an old photo believed to have been taken in September 1941, showing that the second branch of the Luk Kwok Hotel was opened at the intersection of O'Brien Road and Gloucester Road at that time. "I believe this can explain why the Japanese military document says that the Navy Officers' Club is in the Luk Kwok Hotel."
Under the guise
It is worth noting that the "comfort facilities" in the Japanese military documents, in addition to the places explicitly identified as naval comfort stations, also include clubs, cafeterias, and so on. It seems that "comfort facilities" are only for normal leisure purposes for the Japanese army. But is that really the case?
Su Zhiliang, professor of History at Shanghai Normal University, and Head of the Chinese Centre for 'Comfort Women' Research, said in an interview with the department that the comfort stations of the invading Japanese army had various names, including clubs, cafeterias, bars, gathering places, etc. There are cases in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Tianjin, Shandong, Hubei, Taiwan, Shanghai, Nanjing, Dongguan, Wuhan, and even other places to prove the existence of sexual slavery of women.
"So many comfort station names are deceptive."
In addition, the department found classification expressions such as "serving women," "geisha," and "prostitutes" in many publicly available documents of the invading Japanese army. Su believes that these titles are all "comfort women" in nature, but they depend on different scenarios.
"What they may receive is not money, but Japanese military currency. These notes can be circulated under Japanese rule, and once the war is over, they are just waste paper. Some Taiwanese comfort women have had such experiences. During the war, Japanese consuls in various places would count brothels and comfort stations, but it was not very clear or even ambiguous."
Su also noted that some "comfort stations" may be commercial in nature, but they are also subject to the control of the Japanese military.
"For example, comfort women have to undergo physical examinations, and the Japanese army will even send military police to check. The historical phenomenon of comfort women is very complicated."
So, is the same situation in Hong Kong's comfort facilities? Kwong believes that there is no further information to confirm this, so the actual function of cafeterias, etc., cannot be determined for the time being.
(Source: Wen Wei Po; English Editor: Darius)
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