Newly disclosed documents describe how Japanese troops used Dutch women in Indonesia as 'comfort women'

Issei Kato / Reuters A man wearing a headband with the rising sun mark is seen at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo August 15, 2013, on the anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.

At the request of a Kobe-based civic group, Japan’s national archive has disclosed previously secret documents that describe Japanese troops forcing foreign women into sexual slavery during World War II.

In one of the documents, a Japanese officer is quoted as saying “We asked the chief of the provincial police to select women at the camp for brothels,” describing the forced transfer of 35 Dutch women from a prison camp on Java to four brothels.

The issue of Japan’s enslaving of so-called “comfort women” during WWII has long been contentious, with PM Shinzo Abe’s previous and current government claiming it has found no proof of such a practice.

[Korea Herald]