ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the Japanese military 'comfort women' issue has been dealt with under the San Francisco System. From 1937, when Japan embarked on full-fledged war with China, the Japanese army began setting up comfort stations in other parts of China. The Japanese government and military were fully and systematically involved in planning, establishing, and operating the 'comfort women' system. During World War II the Allied nations were already aware of, and had begun to collect information on, Japanese military 'comfort women'. Korean women took the lead in the campaign to publicize the 'comfort women' issue in the 1980's. Some prosecutors submitted exhibits as evidence to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Nevertheless, the Tokyo Trial neither found the military 'comfort women' system to be a war crime nor defined such a system as sexual slavery. Provisions for war compensation in the San Francisco Peace Treaty (SFPT) were extremely limited and generous to Japan.
