Comfort Women is a term referring to a group of women taken and sexually enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII. Most of the women were from Korea, China, and the Philippines. The exact numbers of women enslaved are unclear. Historians estimate anywhere from 20,000-410,000 women were kept in sexual slavery. About three quarters of the women died.
Many of the surviving women live in Korea and are referred to as Halmoni, or grandmothers, and are public figures. There is a nursing home in South Korea, House of Sharing, that is specifically for women who were enslaved as Comfort Women in WWII. There are memorials to the Comfort Women in a number of countries across the world.
Currently it is estimated that there are 4.5 million people who are victims of sex trafficking in the world.
Affirmation
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Gentle Call to Action
Learn more about past and modern slavery. There are ways to support organizations that are working to prevent trafficking as well as provide rehabilitative services to those who have been victims of trafficking.