Yang-gong-ju (comfort women for UN army in Korea)

There were a large number of comfort women for UN army in Korea during and after the Korean War. The Korean military comfort women were called as Yang-gong-ju (Western Princess).

Soon after the Korean War broke out in 1950, brothels for Korean Army and UN Army were established and many comfort women were recruited. The brothels were operated by the Government of Korea or the Korian Army. The brothels were closed in 1954, after the cease-fire of the Korean War. However, the comofort women remained around the military bases because the American Army continued to stay in the South Korea after the cease-fire agreement.

The girls were called as comfort women or yang-gong-ju (western princess). The term of comfort women (@<span lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">慰安婦@</span>) were used in newspapers while yang-gong-ju is used as a disparaging word against them.

The left figure shows the article on September 14, 1961 in a Korean newspaper - The Dong-a Ilbo. As can be seen, the term of comfort woman (慰安婦) is used. The article explains that Seoul Police began to accept the registration of comfort woman for UN and the number of comfort women for UN soldiers in Seoul is estimated at 819. From this article, it is clear that Korea knew that a comfort woman meant a prostitute. If they considered that a comfort woman is a sex slave, they must have not used the term for girls who provide sex services to UN soldires.

Source: Expose the lies.

A Dutch movie in 1986 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_Honor_(1986_film)) shows the relationship between UN soldiers and Korean military comfort women.

122 Korean women who worked in the "base village" near the base camp of US Army as prostitutes after the Korea War, brought a class action lawsuit in the Seoul Central District Court on 25th June, 2014, seeking to the national compensation for the violation of human rights under the strict control as comfort women for US Army by the Government of Korea.

It is said that the Government of Korea involved in prostitutions by forcing diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases to the comfort women for US Army.

According to an official document revealed by a member of the Parliament of Korea in November 2013, there were 62 base villages with 9,935 comfort women for US Army.

Korea critisize Japan for the Japanese Rule before 1945 by using the term of comfort woman. However, as they used the same term for yang-gon-ju during and after the Korean War, it is clear that they recognized that comfort women were prostitutes. The Government of Korea, UN, and USA have not apologized for the comfort women who worked for their army. If Korea and other international society blame Japan, they also need to focus on the comfort women during and after the Korean War.