In the 1970s, I saw the Japanese film *Bōkyō*. From it I learned that there were military prostitutes among the Japanese forces in Malaysia—that is, comfort women. Then were there any among the Japanese forces that invaded Burma?
In 2004, Tengchong County in Yunnan Province commemorated the sixtieth anniversary of the recovery of Tengchong. A special issue of *Heshun Township*, published by the Heshun Township Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, contained photographs and written accounts confirming that there had indeed been comfort women among the Japanese forces invading Burma.
There were two photographs. In one, among a column of Japanese prisoners, ten Japanese prostitutes sat together in a group. One after another, they hung their heads in dejection. Most were in their teens or twenties, wearing collarless, sleeveless shirts. In the other, three Japanese prostitutes stood before the camera. Two faced to one side, while one had her back to the camera. Four Japanese soldiers stood behind a doorpost.
The special issue included an article entitled “A Special-Service Company Was Quartered in My Home,” written by Jia Kun. He said that he was five years old at the time, and that everything he described was what he had personally seen and heard. In 1944, the headquarters of the Second Reserve Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was stationed at the Zhang Ancestral Hall in Heshun Township. The side rooms and upper rooms of his home, as well as the corridors everywhere, were likewise occupied by soldiers of the Expeditionary Force. The soldiers came and went every day, and he often saw Japanese prisoners who had been captured. Among them were people from Northeast China, Korea, and Taiwan. On one occasion, he saw many women. They were comfort women. They were housed in his family’s empty grain storehouse. Later, when their numbers grew, they were moved to the side rooms of the Jia Ancestral Hall.
He went on to say in the article:
> “Among the comfort women were people from Northeast China, Taiwan, and the city of Tengchong; there were also Koreans. The Koreans could not speak Chinese and communicated with gestures. The comfort women wore tattered clothes, and some carried children on their backs. They were in a most miserable state. Some fell ill, and my mother gave them medicine to take. This was the crime of the Japanese aggressors.”
Here we find clear proof that there were comfort women among the Japanese forces invading Burma. It is also one record of the tragic suffering of comfort women. Supporting materials for everything described above can be found in the Anti-Japanese War Museum in Heshun Township, Tengchong County, Yunnan Province.
In addition, “The ‘Shina District’ of Langon (Rangoon),” an article in *Selected Poems and Prose* by the Burmese Chinese poet Huang Chaoqing, contains two passages:
> “Dotted around the city were some overseas Chinese ‘military-designated eating houses’—that is, restaurants and dining rooms. The Japanese came bringing their Guangdong military prostitutes with them, while the Japanese military prostitutes attended to senior officers. There were comfort stations in many places throughout the city.”
> “Comfort women such as these set out with the army, and they were also stationed on the front lines in northern Burma. When the Japanese army retreated from Maymyo, one group of military prostitutes was forced to walk south along mountain and forest paths. On the way, some hanged themselves, while others changed their appearance and escaped in secret.”
From these two passages, we can see that wherever there were Japanese troops, there were comfort women. Burma was no exception.