Diary of a Japanese Military Brothel Manager

Diary of a Japanese Military Brothel Manager is a book of diaries written by a Korean clerk working in Japanese military brothels in Burma and Singapore during World War II. The Korean man, identified only by the surname Park, was born in 1905 and died in 1979, leaving behind diaries from the period of 1922–1957. A Museum in Paju obtained the 26-volume diaries from a secondhand bookstore in South Korea in the early 2000s. In 2013, An Byeong-jik, a professor emeritus of Seoul National University found the diaries at the museum and examined them jointly with two Japanese researchers, Kyoto University professor Kazuo Hori and Kobe University professor Kan Kimura. The diaries are written in a mixture of Japanese characters (kanji and katakana) and Korean alphabet. Park died before the issue of comfort women was a source of tensions between Japan and South Korea.

The diaries are considered to be authentic and to provide actual details of the brothels and some events in the lives of the comfort women at locations of Burma between 1942 and 1944. The diary offers an insider's view of some treatments received by the comfort women while they were kept as sex slaves by the Japanese army. According to the diaries, the comfort women in Park's unit were fed, clothed, housed and kept healthy. Their babies were born under medical attention, or their troublesome pregnancies were aborted in hospitals. Some were brought back into slavery after they married, despite their wish to live with their husbands.

Park also noted that in April 1944, a "fourth batch" of Korean comfort women arrived in Burma to serve the Japanese military, showing the continued operation of the program.

Reaction
Korean media reported that the diaries are evidences of the Japanese military's involvement in the forced mobilization of Korean women for sexual slavery, showing that the Japanese military was managing the brothels and the women directly by issuing orders.

Prof. An stated in Mainichi Shimbun, there is no description perceived to be forcible in the process of deployment of Korean comfort women in the diaries of 1943 and 1944. Rather, Korean women were recruited by flattery and trickery; they were told the work was to be in restaurants or similar, not in brothels. After they were transported to Burma, they were forced to provide sex to Japanese troops.

Synopsis
In Chapter 1 Park describes how he left Busan and came to Burma on August 20, 1942. He writes about working at a brothel called Kanpachi Club in Akyab, Burma, until January 16, 1943. In Chapter 2 he moved to Insein, Rangoon and worked at a brothel called Ichifuji-rō from May 1, 1943, to September 9, 1943. In Chapter 3 he reflects on the past year during which he moved on September 29, 1943, to Singapore and worked at taxi company. In Chapters 4 and 5 he describes working at a brothel called Kikusui Club from February 1, 1944, until December 16, 1944, when he left for home.

Release details

 * alternate link
 * alternate link