#202: The Rape of Nanking & The Trafficking of Comfort Women

They were called “Comfort Women,” but their lives would not be in any sense comfortable. They were kidnapped, tortured, and held hostage to be assaulted by military officials. Soldiers had their own name for them; it was “public toilets.” Most of these women either died in captivity from murder, disease, or from the sheer violence of their assaults. But don’t be fooled by the name, sometimes comfort women were girls as young as 11 years old. Why? Well, wartime always brings out the superstitions in soldiers, and it was believed that assaulting a virgin brought soldiers strength and power. And they would need that strength to go out and kill over 200,000 citizens in the city of Nanking. This might be one of the darkest cases we have covered in a very long time. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices