Research by Professor Soh Finds Up to 200,000 World War II Victims of Human Trafficking

CURBED SF -- On Friday the city dedicated a new public art installation honoring World War II’s “comfort women”—the crude term given to civilians, from countries like China and Korea, taken prisoner and forced to work at brothels serving Japanese soldiers.

A 2001 paper by San Francisco State University Professor Sarah Soh for the Japan Policy Research Institute estimates that between 50,000 and 200,000 women were the victims of human trafficking during the war.

“The Japanese government has steadfastly maintained that the San Francisco Peace Treaty and various bilateral agreements between Japan and other nations have settled all postwar claims of compensation,” writes Soh.