A Military Tribunal for Dutch Comfort Women

After the defeat of Japan, in early January 1946, Lt. General Sir Philip Christison, the Allied commander, decided to organize military tribunals against Japanese war criminals. "The military court to be established is a Dutch court, because the Netherlands is the sovereign state in Indonesia. Therefore it is not valid to establish a British military court," Soeloeh Merdeka newspaper wrote on January 4, 1946.

To carry out the plan, at a meeting in Singapore, the Dutch and British made an agreement which stipulated that very important matters would be examined by the British court. The rest, depending on the case; if it was about British interests, the British court would examine it, and if it was related to the interests of the Dutch, the Dutch court would examine it.

"If the English court will examine a case that concerns the interests of both parties, namely England-Dutch, then two Dutch delegates will be seated on the English court panel and vice versa," Penjoeloeh newspaper wrote on January 10, 1946.

Being excluded from the arrangement, the government of the Republic of Indonesia as “a sovereign state" lodged a strong protest. In its statement quoted by Soeara Merdeka newspaper on January 10, 1946, the Union (which refers to the Allies) had deviated from its habits in managing and organizing matters concerning the interests of the Republic. "The Union is no longer neutral in the politics between Indonesia and the Netherlands, even though on December 27, 1945, the Commander-in-Chief of the Union has officially announced that the British would only disarm and return the Japanese and take care of the prisoners, both military and thugs." The word "thugs" refers to "civilians".

However, Indonesia's objection was ignored. The Dutch even went ahead with the plan by establishing court martials in Jakarta, Makassar, Ambon, Semarang, Surabaya, Bandung, and other regions. The legal basis was Staatsblad No. 46 and 47 of 1946, respectively on the power to try war crimes and the implementation of the war crimes law.

Nevertheless, the only war crimes tribunal held for what the Dutch government termed "forced prostitution" was the Batavia Temporary Court Martial or the Batavia Trial in 1948. In fact, this was the only military tribunal for ianfu cases out of the approximately 50 military tribunals held by the Allies in various parts of Asia between 1945 and 1951.

The Semarang Incident

At first, the instructors of the Army Cadet School in Semarang, Colonel Okubo Torno and Colonel Ikeda Shozo, investigated how to deal with the venereal diseases afflicting many of the cadets at the school. Then, it was decided that they need to use comfort women, particularly European women taken from a nearby internment camp.

Lt. General Nozaki Seiji, the school's headmaster, agreed to the proposal as long as he received permission from the 16th Army Headquarters in Jakarta and the military government. In early February 1944, Nozaki visited Headquarters to discuss the matter. The result was that permission would be granted only if there's an official request and the Dutch women did so voluntarily to avoid legal issues.

Okubo subsequently ordered his subordinate, Major Okada Kenji to submit a formal request to Headquarters. Okada also visited Bandung to study the brothels there which also used Dutch women. A few days later, permission from Headquarters was granted.

There were four brothels in Semarang designated for cadets and officers, namely Hinomaru, Seiunso (or Futabaso), Semarang Club, and Shoko Club. The details were left to Captain Ishida who was in charge of "recruitment" from internment camps around Semarang, and a select group of individuals under him who would work as managers at the brothels.

On February 23, 1944, two Japanese military personnel and six civilians arrived in Ambarawa and took lists of all women aged 17 to 28. Three days later, nine women were transferred to Semarang and, along with other women from nearby camps, were forced to sign a "statement of willingness". The women were forced to serve from March 1, 1944. 

In April 1944, on an inspection trip to Java, the staff officer at the War Department in Tokyo, Colonel Odajima Tadashi, who was responsible for the supervision of both civilians and prisoners of war in the camps, met one of the heads of the Ambarawa 9 internment camp, whose daughter had been forcibly taken. Odajima immediately informed Jakarta, Singapore, and Tokyo, and recommended the closure of the brothels in Semarang. Upon hearing this, 16th Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moichiro Yamamoto ordered the closure, and the Dutch women were returned to internment camps. 

"Among other factors, the prompt official response indicated that Japanese authorities were aware that forcible recruitment of women for the purpose of prostitution was a violation of international law. In fact, the Japanese government signed international treaties banning traffic in women and girls in 1925; however, a provision in the international treaties permitted the signatories not to apply the laws in their colonies," Chunghee Sarah Soh, anthropology professor in San Fransisco State University, wrote in her book The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. 

That explains in part why the Semarang incident did not affect the operation of other comfort stations in Indonesia using trafficked women from Korea and Taiwan as well as local women." 

Three years after Japan lost the Pacific War, the Dutch military investigated and prosecuted the case of forced recruitment of Dutch women in Semarang.

A Discriminatory Tribunal 

In February 1948, the Batavia Trial was held. The court charged several Japanese officers and "comfort stations" operators with war crimes against 35 Dutch women who were living in Indonesia, were imprisoned in internment camps, and in 1944 were forced to be sex slaves for the Japanese.

There were approximately 20 Japanese on trial. Colonel Okubo committed suicide in 1947 before the trial took place. Okada Kenji was found guilty as he was well aware that, not just a few but many women didn't want to be prostitutes, so his orders for recruitment amounted to kidnapping. He was then sentenced to death. "On Saturday morning he served his sentence in Glodok," Pelita Rakjat newspaper wrote on November 29, 1948.

Colonel Ikeda Shozo was also sentenced to death, but during his trial he feigned insanity, resulting in the trial being postponed. He was ultimately sentenced to 15 years of prison. According to Pelita Rakjat, September 14, 1948, he was "the last Japanese involved in the forced prostitution case in Semarang who has now also been convicted."

Another officer received a ten-year sentence, while two medical officers were sentenced to 15 and 7 years in prison respectively. Captain Ishida was sentenced to two years in prison. Four "brothel" managers were sentenced to between 5 and 20 years in prison. On the other hand, a Japanese non-commissioned officer and a civilian officer from the military government were found not guilty.

For some unknown reason, the trial of Lt. General Nozaki Seiji, who was responsible for the case, was conducted separately in February 1949, a year after the trials of his juniors. Prosecutors sought the death penalty but the judge eventually sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

The Batavia Trial set a precedent that helped shape future international law on rape and forced pregnancy. Unfortunately, the trial was discriminatory, even racist, because it ignored ianfu in Indonesia and other Asian countries who suffered the same fate in far greater numbers.

"Obviously, it was the action of a victorious nation-state protecting the human rights and personal security of its nationals in a colonial setting as a matter of national interest. It underscores the common deprivation of human rights of people under colonial rule," Chunghee Sarah Soh wrote in “Japan’s Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors”, in JPRI Working Paper No. 77, Mei 2011, published on jpri.org.

The story of Indonesian ianfu as well as ianfu from other Asian countries was only brought to light in the 1990s.