Inquiry of the League of Nations into Traffic in Asian Women and Colonial Joseon: The Response by the Japanese Government and Colony Invisibilization

Abstract

The first objective of this paper is to examine the roles played by the Government-General of Joseon, one of the colonial powers, in the process of the Japanese government’s response to the League of Nations’ Commission of Inquiry into Traffic in Women and Children in the East. On the one hand, the modern state-regulated prostitution system in Japan shows different aspects depending on the time, region, and political characteristics of the region within the sphere of influence called ‘the Empire,’ but existing studies have a tendency to neglect this fact. This negligence intersects with the methods of history denialists who deny the damages caused by ‘state-regulated prostitution’ and ‘comfort women.’ Substantial truths can be concealed amid the ‘authorized ignorance and strategic disregard’ of historical facts. The second objective of this paper is to reveal that such an attitude, which causes difficulty in discussing the historical character of the state-regulated prostitution system and the ‘comfort women’ system of the Japanese army, is shown by the inquiry of Japan by the League of Nations’ Commission and the response of the Japanese government. In other words, it is a contemplation on how the Commission of Inquiry, the Japanese government, and the Government-General of Joseon invisibilized the colonial state-regulated prostitution system, which was strongly associated with human trafficking even compared with Japan. This paper aims to disclose the fact that while Japan struggled to gain recognition in the international society as a late-starting imperialist nation, it steered away from the human trafficking problem of Japanese colonies from an imperialist point of view.