According to several documents, Japanese army built a comfort house in Shanghai in order to prevent soldiers’ frequent rape of civilians. However, according to a testimony that ‘the Army’s comfort house used the navy’s comfort house as a model’, we know that a comfort house by the Japanese Navy was already built in Shanghai before March of 1932.

Around 1932, comfort houses were built around occupied territories and their quality changed at the end of 1937. These places lasted until the end of the war. As there became more occupied territories, and the war was extended into a longer period of time, Japanese navy and army started an organized policy to manage the comfort houses. At first, the policy was at an expeditionary army’s level, but it became more organized and eventually became a policy of the army’s headquarters.

In 1937, as the China-Japan war intensified, the Japanese military began building more comfort houses. After the Shanghai accident was over and Nanjing was occupied by the Japanese, comfort houses were built and maintained by the military’s line of command. During this period of time, the Japanese military and police were involved in the systematic draft of comfort women. Women were abducted by the Japanese military all around Chosun (old Korea), China, Japan, Taiwan and other countries.

By the end of 1938, more than 70 comfort houses were built around China, and there were more than 1000 comfort women. Most of these comfort women were from Chosun. A secret document, “Chosun counter plan” which was written after Japan started the China-Japan war in July 1937, has a clause saying that “Unmarried women in Chosun shall be used to supply the military’s special business” along with a clause to take men from Chosun to Japan to make them work in mines and armor factories. It was a system that the Japanese military was leading and the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japanese government organizations and the government general were actively collaborating on.

In July 1941, Japan made a plan to recruit 20,000 comfort women from Chosun, and put the plan into action. As a result, along with the help from the government general, Japanese military abducted about 8,000 women from Chosun and sent them to North-eastern China. The abductors used various methods. One popular way was to promise a woman a job that didn’t exist. Once she agreed to go along, she would be put to work in a comfort house.

In December 1941, as the war expanded to the Pacific War, the establishment of comfort houses increased. It is not an exaggeration to say that at every single battle field, there was at least one comfort house.

In January 1943, there were about 100 comfort houses in Northern China, about 140 comfort houses in central China, about 40 comfort houses in Southern China, about 100 comfort houses in South eastern Asia, about 10 comfort houses in the southern sea, about 10 comfort houses in Saghalien, totaling to about 400 comfort houses. Every army division had about 5 to 6 comfort houses, and the comfort women at those stations were usually from Chosun or Japan. As the war expanded, it was impossible for the military to recruit enough Japanese prostitutes and regular women from Chosun so they started to abduct girls from Chosun using numerous methods and made them as sex-slaves.

In 1942, a large number of women from Chosun were sent to the southern regions. In 1943, according to documents by the Japanese Military, there were 20 comfort houses in Juk-jung lee, and in 11 of the houses, most of the comfort women were 18 to 19 year old girls who had no previous experience in prostitution.

By the end of 1943, because it had become harder to mobilize goods and manpower, it was impossible to build comfort houses using private companies. Japanese military started building more comfort houses around Okinawa and Indonesia, and the number of comfort women recruitment increased. On top of recruitment from Chosun, Japanese military also abducted women from occupied territories.