Chinese Comfort Women

Through personal narratives from twelve survivors, Chinese Comfort Women reveals the unfathomable atrocities committed against women during the Asia-Pacific War and correlates the proliferation of “comfort stations” with the progression of Japan’s military offensive. Drawing on investigative reports, local histories, and witness testimony, this book puts a human face on China’s war experience and on the injustices suffered by hundreds of thousands of Chinese women.

Peipei Qiu is Professor of Chinese and Japanese and Director of the Asian Studies Program at Vassar College. Su Zhiliang is Professor of History, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Communication, and Director of the Research Center for Chinese “Comfort Women” at Shanghai Normal University. Chen Lifei is Professor of Journalism, Chair of the Department of Publishing and Media Studies, and Deputy Director of the Center for Women’s Studies at Shanghai Normal University.

“This book is heart-rending and courageous. It gives voice, for the first time in English, to the Chinese women enslaved by the Japanese armies during the invasion and occupation of China. I finished it with a great respect for the victims whose stories are told here and for the historians who have brought them to light.” —Diana Lary, author of The Chinese People at War: Human Suffering and Social Transformation, 1937–1945

“The individual histories documented in this book are very moving, particularly because they include discussion of the family backgrounds of these women before the war and of their experiences in later life.” —Tessa Morris-Suzuki, author of Borderline Japan: Foreigners and Frontier Controls in the Postwar Era

“This book provides an excellent analysis of the scope, nature, and prevalence of comfort stations in China and documents the lived experiences of Chinese comfort women. It expertly knits together a range of invaluable primary sources hitherto only available in Chinese, with secondary documentation in Japanese, Chinese, and English.” —Nicola Henry, author of War and Rape: Law, Memory and Justice

Book Talk at HKU Libraries Reading Club
South China Morning Post - Accounts of Japan’s wartime sex slaves remembered in newly translated book.