More evidence of Japanese WWII brothels

BEIJING - A World War II-era phone directory of Japanese nationals living in China, made public on Friday, contains evidence of the Japanese military brothels in which many women were enslaved.

The directory, printed by Japan Goldwind Press in Shanghai in 1941, was published on the website of China's State Archives Administration (SAA), which is serializing evidence of Japanese WWII wrongdoing in the run-up to the 70th anniversary of the end of the conflict.

In the directory, at least 10 Japanese nationals living in Shanghai and its suburbs are listed as the managers of "comfort stations," a common euphemism for the military brothels.

Other archival material previously published by the SAA has accounts of the Japanese army forcing Chinese and Korean women into prostitution.

An estimated 200,000 women, euphemistically called "comfort women," were forced into sexual servitude by Japanese troops during WWII.

After its defeat in 1945, Japan destroyed many records of the practice.