Lee Ok-bun of Pusan remembers that day  54 years  ago as  if it  were yesterday. On that day, a stranger approached her as she was  playing with school friends, and told her father had sent him to take her  to
home. Lee never saw her father again.

The man was working for the Japanese colonial police, and his job was to induce  or kidnap  young Korean  girls for  the Japanese  Imperial Army's needs. Lee, then 12 years-old,  was first  sent to  a camp  in
Ulsan, south-eastern Korea.

After  3 months  there, she,  together with  200 or  300 girls,  were shipped off to  the port  of Shimonoseki  in Japan.  Some were  given intensive military training and education about Japanese history  and
the Emperor, then packed off to arms and ammunitions factories.

Lee had only two weeks of Japanese language training, after which she was sent to Taiwan. There she was assigned to a "consolation  centre" for Japanese soldiers in southern Taiwan. Hundreds of soldiers  would
line up at the centre each day,  and she  had to  take 20  to 30  men everyday. Lee estimates that  there were  about 10,000  of them,  and that only a thousand survived.

Lee is one of the few women  survivors of  Japan's military  brothels who have broken  their silence  and let  their stories  be heard.  In December 1991, three Korean women filed suit with the Tokyo  District
Court,  seeking  reparations  for having  been used  by the  Japanese Imperial Army to sexually service its officers and troops during  the war.

Among the women's other  demands are:  an official  apology from  the Japanese government, full disclosure of facts and  figures, that  the truth be told especially in history books and the establishment of  a
memorial.

The Japanese government at first denied  the existence  of the  women and the Imperial Army-organised brothels. Testimonies from both,  the women who survived and from the men who used  them, public  outrages,
and unearthed wartime  documents, later  forced an  apology from  the then Prime Minister Keichi Miyazawa.

In its quest for  a "Greater  East Asia  Co-Properity Sphere",  Japan expanded  its  military,  mobilising  millions  for the  battlefields during the Second World War. For example, the Japanese military force
in China alone was increased to 700,000 in 1941.

At the warfront, the Japanese soldiers would gang-rape  women of  the territories they occupied, thus  inflaming the  local population  and provoking anti-Japanese sentiments.

To counter this, unmarried women between ages 17 to  20 were  coerced into  the service of the Imperial Army. 20,000 Korean women were sent to serve the 700,000 Japanese soldiers in China.

"We were  full of  patriotic feeling.  Everything we  could give  for Japan, and for the Emperor," wrote a Japanese woman in a diary  which she left  behind. During  this time,  the army  directly managed  the
military  brothels  under  its recreation  division. Later,  Japanese private business fronted for the army  when public  criticism of  the brothels arose.

An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 women were dragooned by the  Japanese Imperial Army to cater to its sexual  needs at  the battlefront.  The majority of  the women  came from  Japanese colonies  such as  Korea,
Taiwan and Manchuria - with 80% of the women coming from Korea.

Other   women  came   from  Japanese-occupied   territories  in   the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries.  Japanese women from the poorer classes were also recruited, but  they
were reserved for officers and high-ranking civilian officials.

"The women are a 'royal gift' from the Emperor to the Imperial Army," wrote  Aso,  a  Japanese  army  doctor  in  his  report  "Methods  of Preventing  Venereal  Disease".  The  women were  shipped to  various
Japanese camps across Asia and the Pacific.

"Comfort houses", "houses of relaxation" and "consolation stations" - euphemism for military brothels, were set up by the Imperial Army  in Taiwan, Sakhalin, Burma, China, the Philippines, Malaysia,  Indonesia
and Papua New Guinea. The Imperial Army also  maintained brothels  in Japan  which  the  soldiers referred  to as  "public lavatories"  and "warehouses".

The  women  were  called jugun  ianfu san  (military comfort  girls), teishintai (women volunteers), or niku-itchi (21 to 1; apparently the number of men one  woman was  expected to  service each  day) by  the Japanese military that used and abused them.

Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945.  Various drafting  and conscription orders were issued by the colonial government from  1938 to 1945.

As a result, an estimated 2 million workers from the Korean peninsula laboured in the Japanese weapons and ammunitions plants from 1938. An additional  110,000 served  in the  Imperial Army  and Navy; another 120,000 worked for the military as civilian employees.

Women's drafting reached its  peak during  the years  1943-45. On  23 August 1944, Emperor Hirohito issued a directive for the  recruitment of  Korean women  for the  military brothels.  The Women's  Voluntary
Labour Law paved the way for a more systematic procurement of  larger numbers of Korean women for the military brothels.

The Korean women were  young, from  14 to  20 years  old. Old  school registers confirmed that  the youngest  were of  primary school  age, from 11 to 12. Most of them were daughters  of farmers  who had  been
ruined by colonial exploitation.

Some of them had left home to work in Japan or Manchuria and ended up in the brothels. The  women had  gone into  military prostitution  by conscription, or brute force, or through the promise of a job, wages,
and a chance of higher education.

The women were also manipulated with promises of eating white rice at every meal and earning lots of money. They  were told  they would  be serving  the Imperial  Army as  cooks, domestic  helpers and  nurses'
assistants. Some  did work  these jobs  before being  brought to  the brothels.

"School teachers in Korea were expected to send as many Korean  girls as possible to Japan, upon 'irresistible order from the emperor.' The teachers visited students' homes to persuade their  parents to  allow
the girls to join the teishintai (women volunteers). Heads of schools which   produced  high   numbers  of   teishintai  received   special promotions," said Ikeda Masao, a Japanese woman who  taught in  Seoul
during the war.

"It was like a 'slave hunt'. Escorted by 50 to  100 police  officers, we would swoop down on villages, forcing every man,  woman and  child out. We captured an estimated 950 women", recalled Yoshida Seiji, the
mobilisation  chief  of  the  Shimonoseki  branch  of  the  Yamaguchi Prefectural Patriotic Labour Association during the Second World War.  In 1942, he led 10 to 15 men to Korea to conscript men and women  for
work.

About a fourth  of the  women were  casualties of  war. In  addition, those who tried to escape were killed, as were  those who  contracted venereal disease. In an attempt to cover up this particular atrocity, the army massacred many of  the women  as it  retreated. Others  were merely abandoned, and not told about Japan's defeat.

Some of them were bomb victims in Hiroshima and  Nagasaki. After  the war, the women who survived were shipped to Shimonoseki and  Okinawa, where they were left to fend for themselves. Some were offered to the
United States occupational as "pan pan girls".

Those who went back to their homeland had to bury their past; many of those who didn't were shunned by their own  families. A  lot of  them changed their names, their birth registers and  life histories.  Some committed suicide, jumping off boats on their way  home, rather  than facing a homecoming of shame and humiliation.

When the jugun ianfu san broke into the headlines, many Japanese were caught  in  a  web  of conflicting  emotions. Many  were shocked  and outraged;  men  who  used  the  women  apologised   and  gave   their
testimonies; right-wing elements threatened those who publicly  spoke up about their complicity in procurement.

But then there are also those who dismiss the jugun ianfu  san as  an isolated incident, an aberration caused by the darkness of war.  This attitude   fosters   Japan's   collective   amnesia   regarding   war responsibility, and conveniently obliterates the thread of continuity in Japan's   systematic commodification of women's bodies for profit. For even before the jugun ianfu san was the Karayuki   san   and   at present,  the Japayuki  san. Asian  women's sexual  slavery in  Japan continues to thrive. Although the times and  circumstances differ,  a clear line connecting the jugun  ianfu san  to the  Karayuki san  and Japayuki san can be drawn.

The  Karayuki  san  (China bound  woman) were  daughters of  Japanese peasants who, during the early  Meiji period  (in mid-19th  century), were driven into prostitution overseas.  Propelled by  poverty and  a sense of duty to their families and their country,  the Karayuki  san journeyed as far as China, Siberia, Southeast Asia, and also to India and Africa, to work in Japanese-run brothels.

They contributed much to  realise the  national goal  of "Enrich  the nation; Strengthen the Army". Maraoka Iheji, a procurer, wrote in his autobiography that the Karayuki san sent their earnings back home  to Japan, and that the government immediately extracted  taxes from  it.  Among the  other benefits  reaped through  the Karayuki  san was  the setting up of outposts in Asia and the Pacific for eventual  Japanese colonisation.

In  an  ironic  twist, young  daughters of  women who  fled from  the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second  World War  are now  pouring into  Japan  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands.  Widely  known by  the derogatory term Japayuki  san (Japan  bound woman;  derived from  the term Karayuki san), these young women are almost exclusively employed as entertainers and  prostitutes in Japan's flourishing sex industry.  The women come  from Asian  neighbours like  Korea, the  Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia. Some  come from  as far as Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Chile.

Many parallels exist between the Karayuki  san, the  jugun ianfu  san and the present-day Japayuki san. In the  global economic  structure, the jugun ianfu san and the Japayuki san come  from the  marginalized countries  of  the  world  that  were occupied,  colonised and  still maintained some kind of a neo-colonial relationship.

All these women share the commonality of  being young  and poor.  The Karayuki san took local men in the overseas brothels. The jugun ianfu san serviced the soldiers of the  Imperial Army,  while the  Japayuki
san service Japan' s new army of corporate soldiers.

The everyday living and working conditions  of the  women remain  the same, even taking into consideration the context of their times.  The wages  are  low,  the hours  long, there  are no  medical or  welfare benefits,  days  off are  rare. Extra  work, such  as doing  laundry, cleaning is added to regular sex work. The jugun ianfu san were  even made to carry ammunition boxes in the midst of  battle. For  Japayuki san prostitutes, the daily quota of men to be serviced is even more - up to 25 to 35 men per day. The living quarters for the women  remain small and crowded.

It is easy to say that things remain the same, the exploitation  goes on, as indeed it does. To understand  the specific  character of  the Karayuki san, jugun ianfu san and Japayuki  san, it  is necessary  to reflect upon the development of Japanese imperialism and  militarism, how this system undercuts other peoples,  the lower  classes and  the women.

It  is  also  important  to  see  how  the  patterns  of plunder  and colonisation  parallel  the  patterns of  procurement and  subsequent enslavement of women in the sex industry. For herein lies the  threat that binds the Karayuki san, the jugun ianfu san and the Japayuki san together in sexual slavery. Herein lies  the basis  for Japanese  and other Asian women's true sisterhood and solidarity.

The Tenno sei (Emperor system) is central to Japanese imperialism and militarism. The Tenno (Emperor) was worshipped as a deity and  living god, thus infallible and all powerful.  The people  were taught  that the Tenno was the master of  the State,  not merely  its head.  Japan belonged to the Tenno, and the Japanese were the  Tenno 's  children.  During the Meiji period, the ruling classes used  this imperial  myth to hasten the unification of the people in order  to modernise  Japan and conquer Asia.

The Tenno sei is organised into a very rigid hierarchy,  with a  male as the central governing figure.  The Tenno  sei does  not allow  for diversity, its hallmark is homogeneity. Therefore, other peoples  and women are to be assimilated and colonised.  This   same   structure and  its complementary patriarchal, chauvinist mindset was replicated in  social  structures  -  from  corporations  to  families, even  to brothels and the sex industry.

In the sex industry, the pimp is  the Tenno,  and he  rules over  the women, the sex workers. But  even among  the ruled,  there are  finer stratifications  according  to  race.  In the  military brothels  for example, the Japanese jugun ianfu were reserved for the elite  corps, and the Korean  jugun ianfu  were paid  more than  the Chinese  jugun ianfu.

In this day of Japayuki, a similar hierarchical ranking is  followed, with the Japanese sex workers on top, followed closely  by the  white sex workers from the US and Europe. The bottom rung  is inhabited  by
the Japayuki, the women who primarily come  from Asia  and the  Third World.

There is a significant 75% - 85% drop in wages as one  goes down  the sex industry ladder. The Japanese sex worker gets around US$ 3,500  a month, an American woman is paid US$  2,500 per  month. The  Japayuki
usually receives no more than US$ 400 per month.

A significant feature in the traffic  of the  Karayuki, jugun  ianfu, and the Japayuki would be the organisation of the patriarchy and  the State as the dominant structure  for procurement.  The procurers  are
men  (pimping being  the oldest  profession); the  sex industry  (the business sector) co-operates with the State and  benefits from  State intervention.

In the case of the jugun ianfu san,  the State/Tenno  itself was  the primary  procurer.  It  utilised  the  power's and  resources at  its command to the fullest, such as legislation and paramilitary brigades, to systematically and methodically line up women for military brothels.

In the case of the present day Japayuki san, we  witness a  symbiosis between Japan and Third World governments. Collectively, they provide the legal bases - the ground rules of conduct in  the trafficking of women. These legal bases include consular agreements, the  regulation of wages, imposition of taxes, and so on. The  sex industry,  through the brokers and promoters - then steps in to recruit and dispatch the women.

During the time of the Karayuki,  Japan was  an emerging  imperialist power hungry for colonies. It needed to save up  capital and  develop technology  to  enable it  to raid  other territories.  All kinds  of enterprise, including  the flesh  trade, were  encouraged. The  money sent back by the Karayuki is a cornerstone of Japanese capitalism.

After the war, Japan busied itself with reconstruction and rebuilding its economy.

It pursued a policy of rapid economic development from the 1960s, and now  Japan finally  stands as  a major  economic force  in the  world today, capable of shaping and influencing events,  state leaders  and wars.

The "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" it  sought to  establish has finally been created in such global breadth  and dimensions  even Tenno Hirohito  never thought  possible. Japan's  economic power  has
enabled it to  break into  and join  the hitherto  exclusive club  of western imperialists - US,  Germany, Great  Britain and  France -  in moulding and  dictating the  flow of  capital, technology,  products, services and profits to all points of the world.

In the face of people's liberation movements and national revolutions however, it has become crucial for these economic giants' survival to realign and consolidate themselves a new - what  former US  President Bush called the "new economic order"  - to  collectively plunder  and profit.

The past few decades saw the complete polarisation of the world  into the First World and the  Third World.  The First  World continues  to provide capital and continues to dump its goods upon the Third  World market.

The Third World continues to provide raw materials, cheap labour  and a  ready  market  for  goods.  This  basic  economic orientation  had arrested  any  profound  economic  development  in  the Third  World,
spawning massive poverty and unemployment.

This situation in turn has spurred people to vote with  their feet  - an unprecedented exodus of  migrant labour  from all  over the  Third World. However, the international division of labour  assigns to  the Third World the  menial, backbreaking,  unskilled work  for the  men; domestic as well as sex work for the women.

Thus we find Asian and other Third World migrants all over the richer countries  of  the  world,  labouring  as farm  hands, dock  workers, construction  workers,  road  and  railway builders;  with the  women pigeonholed as maids, sex workers and mail-order brides.

Alongside timber, minerals,  coconuts, sugar,  bananas, cheap  labour from their countries, Third World  women have  themselves become  the ultimate  export  product.  The  so-called "new  economic order"  has efficiently trapped Third  World women  into submitting  to a  system that churns out a steady supply of women's bodies for profit.