The Gender and Peace Studies course at the University for Peace focuses on how gender is
intricately intertwined in every aspect of our lives. Throughout the course we have discussed the complex
definition of “gender” and its relationship with family, science, war, human trafficking and prostitution,
as well as religion. In entering this course, I had little understanding of the large role gender played in our
lives. However, as I found myself seeking understanding on different global issues involving women, I
realized that the only way for me to have a true understanding of how and why these acts of violence and
oppression continue to happen in today’s society was to seek out the underlying premise of these issues,
which was gender. One is the “comfort women” issue, which I have become very involved in as an active
volunteer after a visit to the House of Sharing, a museum dedicated to sexual slavery, and residence to
former “comfort women”. Only when I have a gained a deeper understanding of gender’s role in the
world, will I feel that I am able to help in searching for ways to resolve these atrocities.
During the second Sino-Japan war, the Japanese invaded the Chinese capital of Nanking in 1937.
Now known as the “Rape of Nanking”, the Japanese inflicted a mass amount of violence as they looted,
set fire and brutally attacked and raped the people of Nanking. Officials of the Japanese military were
nervous that if acts like this continued, international attention would be brought and that they would be
met with an increased defense as they continued to work their way through South East Asia. This
incident was the catalyst which ignited the expansion of the comfort station system (Rosello.Pg 160),
initially set up in 1932 with official documents stating Shanghai as the first station. The reasoning for this
was to raise morale among troops, maintain discipline, and the prevention of violence of looting, arson,
rape, STD’s, and espionage. (Yoshiaki. Pg 56) It is estimated that 50,000 to 200,000 women from more
than nine countries in South East Asia were persuaded, tricked, and abducted into this system of military
