The Imperial Japanese Navy "employed" wartime sex slaves, euphemistically known as "comfort women," as "auxiliary nurses" immediately after Japan's defeat, according to an official British document recently obtained by a Japanese historian.
The document supports arguments that Japanese forces were deeply involved in the management of the sex slaves, researchers said. The document is a Japanese naval instruction that the Allied forces deciphered.
"Relative to naval 'consolation establishments' in Singapore, as of 1 August (1945) the employees (Japanese) have been given employment in (naval) Hospital No. 101. The larger number of the girls have been made auxiliary nurses. Please take steps similar to the above," the document says.
In the document dated Aug. 18, 1945, the chief of staff of Japan's 1st Southern Expeditionary Fleet issued the instruction to Japanese naval units in several locations in Southeast Asia.
Hiroshi Hayashi, a modern historian and professor at Kanto Gakuin University in Yokohama, found the document in Britain's National Archives.
Modern history researchers said these women were most likely hired as nurses and given the status of civilian employees in the military.
Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a professor of modern Japanese history at Chuo University in Tokyo, said the navy might have been trying to hide the existence of the sex slaves by "re-employing" them as nurses.
The document may well be the first seemingly official text to indicate the sex slaves were made to work as nurses after the war.