logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2024
9 m

The 'comfort women' of World War Two

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Between 1932 and 1945, hundreds of thousands of women and girls across Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Referred to as "comfort women", they were taken from countries including Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia to be raped by Japanese soldiers.

Today, the issue remains a source of tension between Japan and its neighbours, with continuing campaigns to compensate the few surviving victims.

Dan Hardoon speaks to Chinese survivor Peng Zhuying who, along with her elder sister, was captured and taken to a "comfort station" in central China.

This programme contains disturbing content.

(Photo: People visit a museum dedicated to the victims, on the site of a former comfort station in China. Credit: Yang Bo/China News Service/VCG/Getty Images)

Up next
Aug 18
The battle of Mandalay in WW2
In March 1945, the British Fourteenth Army were advancing on the city of Mandalay in central Burma, now known as Myanmar, which was held by the Japanese Army. The army was made up of soldiers from across the British Empire, with units from the United Kingdom, India, East and West ... Show More
10m 59s
Sep 2025
The Chindits
During World War Two, an unconventional special force was formed. Known as the Chindits, they fought behind enemy lines in Burma, now Myanmar during 1943 and 1944 in the war against Japan.Their leader was the charismatic Orde Wingate, a British Army officer. This programme is mad ... Show More
10m 19s
Aug 2025
Nagasaki bomb
On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing at least 74,000 people. It led to the end of World War Two in Asia, with Japan surrendering to the Allies six days later. The Nagasaki bomb, alongside the Hiroshima bomb on 6 August, remain the ... Show More
10m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2024
The 'comfort women' of World War Two
Between 1932 and 1945, hundreds of thousands of women and girls across Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army.Referred to as "comfort women", they were taken from countries including Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia to be raped by Ja ... Show More
9 m
Jul 2024
Comfort Women (WW2 Sexual Slavery)
<p>Over 200,000 women were coerced or forced into sexual slavery in East Asia by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. These women, known as comfort women, endured unimaginable suffering and trauma. Few survived to tell their stories, but those who did have shared harro ... Show More
1h 14m
Oct 2022
#202: The Rape of Nanking & The Trafficking of Comfort Women
<p>They were called “Comfort Women,” but their lives would not be in any sense comfortable. They were kidnapped, tortured, and held hostage to be assaulted by military officials.</p><p>Soldiers had their own name for them; it was “public toilets.” Most of these women either died ... Show More
1h 22m
Nov 2022
S2 E5: 'Men Dodge Bullets, Girls Dodge Men'
The Blackout Ripper wasn't the only serviceman attacking women in World War Two. In cities, towns and villages women were being harassed and abused by men in the military - and the women who chose to join the armed forces weren't immune from such treatment. Those women who signed ... Show More
41m 52s
May 2014
The Sino-Japanese War
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45. After several years of rising tension, and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, full-scale war between Japan and China broke out in the summer of 1937. The Japanese captured many major Chinese ports and cities ... Show More
46m 41s
Aug 2020
The internment of Japanese Americans
Thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to prison camps after the USA entered World War Two following the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Whole families found themselves housed in barracks behind barbed wire fences. Former Star Trek actor, George Takei, was just a child when he was l ... Show More
8m 59s
Dec 2013
Prison Camp in WW2 Manila, Philippines
Thousands of foreign civilians were interned in camps when Japanese troops occupied the Philippines in World War II. Many of the inmates suffered from acute malnutrition. We hear the story of one boy, Desmond Malone, who was interned at the Santo Tomas camp in Manila.Photo: Ameri ... Show More
8m 58s
Nov 2018
Japanese Murders in Brazil
<p>How Japanese immigrants in Brazil fell out with each other after the end of the WW2, how Britain helped to get disabled people on the road in the 1940s plus life for Jews under Imperial Russia, the victims of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and the American embass ... Show More
50m 8s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami