This article describes some school girls from Seoul No. 2 Girls’ High School taking a day trip to an Imperial Japanese military camp in April 1943, where they planted a flower garden and then entertained Japanese soldiers at a “comfort party” by dancing, singing, and acting in plays. What’s notable is that the word “comfort” in “comfort party” is the same one used in the words “comfort women” and “comfort station”. Of all the words that they could have used to describe this party, why was this particular word used, especially given that it could be associated with “comfort women” in the minds of young Japanese soldiers?

The “comfort party” started with dancing to the music of “Oh, My Warrior Friend (Waga Senyu)” (Youtube link: https://youtu.be/M_lFQP9WHNg). Perhaps they would have used some traditional Japanese folk dance moves given the style and tempo of the music. The Kabuki play that they acted in, “Shuzenji Monogatari” (link to summary: http://www.kabuki21.com/shuzenji_monogatari.php), has a scene where a daughter of a poor family runs off to become a mistress of a young Shogun warrior, so there would definitely have been some physically intimate scenes between the Korean school girl playing the daughter and the Japanese soldier playing the young Shogun warrior. The encore song that everyone sang at the end of the “comfort party”, “Go to the Ocean (Umi Yukaba)” (Youtube link: https://youtu.be/wXSCoKqy8MI), is a rousing and upbeat military song that is apparently still popular and well-known in Japan today. The military songs glorify the death cult of State Shintoism, so they are very controversial.

Looking through many wartime issues of Keijo Nippo newspaper, it occurred to me that they feature Korean school girls quite a lot in the photos, to the point where it feels like a sort of fetishization. I’ve already shown how the school girls have been introduced to seemingly innocuous activities like making cigarettes for Japanese soldiers to slowly get them conditioned to seeing Japanese soldiers as their friends and even their future marriage partners. Indeed, the Imperial Japanese government policy at the time explicitly mentioned young Korean girls as priority targets for their assimilation campaign, even building special internment camps for this purpose, and their explicitly stated goal was to have them marry and start families with Imperial Japanese soldiers to produce the next generation of assimilated Imperial Japanese subjects. They did a lot of other activities that I have not had the chance to document yet on this subreddit: manufacturing military uniforms, sending songs and poetry in care packages to the troops, etc., that I intend to share later.

(my translation)

Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo) April 29, 1943

Maidens plant a flower garden of sincerity at the [redacted] military camp

As the soldiers dig up the ruddy ground with pickaxes, school girls of the military nation use their shovels to lightly break up the clumps of soil into fine pieces, sow the flower seeds, and tread on them softly with their feet to prevent them from drying out. The soldiers’ spring, the maidens’ flower garden. Early in the morning of April 28th, 1943, 200 fifth-year students of Seoul No. 2 Girls’ High School, led by their teachers Tanaka and Nakao, arrived at the [redacted] military camp in [redacted], where they were greeted by Tanaka’s cautionary words: “Plant each seed with the sincerity of an Imperial Japanese woman”. At 9:30 a.m., the maidens in their school uniforms divided into four groups looking dignified with their aprons on. They set about their task exuding sanctified sweat. The maidens finished sowing the eight or so squares of seeds with all the delicacy of a maiden’s heart. At 11:00 a.m., they listened to greetings from Commander Nishimura of the military camp and a lecture on modern weapons. Then the maidens wiped off their sweat, washed their hands, and tasted the lunch boxes that they had brought with them. Then, at 2:00 p.m., the maidens moved on to the soldiers’ comfort party, where they performed a dance to the song “Oh, My Warrior Friend (Waga Senyu)” to open the party. They went on to sing duets and solos. They acted over ten parts in plays such as “Shuzenji Monogatari”. The day ended with a chorus of “Go to the Ocean (Umi Yukaba)” sung by the guests and hosts alike to close the comfort party, and the visit ended at 5 p.m. Photo: Seoul No. 2 Girls’ High School students making a comfort visit to [redacted] military camp.

Source: https://archive.org/details/kjnp-1943-04-29

Reddit Link: In April 1943, Seoul high school girls went to an Imperial Japanese military camp to plant a flower garden, then entertained Japanese soldiers at a “comfort party” by dancing, singing Japanese imperial military songs, and acting in Kabuki plays : korea (reddit.com)

(my transcription in modern Japanese orthography with punctuation marks added and modified for clarity)

京城日報　昭和十八年四月二十九日

〇〇陣地に乙女が真心の花畑

兵隊さんがツルハシで赭土の地面を掘り返せば、その後から軍国の女学生達が、シャベルも軽く土の塊を細かに砕いて、花の種を蒔いて、乾燥を防ぐため足で柔らかに踏みしめていく。兵隊の春、乙女の花畑。京城第二高女五年生二百名は廿八日早朝田中、中尾両先生に引率されて〇〇の〇〇陣地に到着、『一つ一つの種子を植えるにも皇国女性の誠心で…』という田中先生の訓話があって、九時丗分からいよいよ制服の乙女達は前掛け姿も凛々しく四組に別れ、聖汗の奉仕についたが、八升余の種子を乙女の繊細な心尽くしで蒔き終えて同十一時同陣地西村中隊長の挨拶並びに近代兵器に対する講話を聞き、汗をふき手を洗って各自持参の弁当に舌鼓打ち、同二時から兵隊さんの慰安会に移り『噫！我が戦友』という舞踊を皮切りに二重唱、独唱、劇『修禅寺物語』等十数柄を演じ、最後に『海ゆかば』を主客ひとしく合唱して楽しい慰問の一日を終え、同五時引き上げた。【写真＝京城第二高女生の〇〇陣地慰問】