Sex and the Single Warrior.

• Author: HOWELL, LLEWELLYN D.
• Position: Soldiers and rape - Brief Article

"RAPE, PILLAGE, AND BURN" has been a warrior ethic since time immemorial. It was used to describe the behavior of the Mongol hordes in their centuries-long sweep through southern and western Asia. It described the war actions of Romans and Europeans into the Middle Ages. We have heard of it in the conduct of colonial armies and revolutionary forces everywhere. The Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo reminded us that this primitive behavior--usually rape--is still evident and functioning in the actions of men in groups into the 21st century. Rape remains an operative part of military strategy as well.

Rape behavior subtly dominates the subtext of headlines and stories in several critical international disputes today. Two of these are in the decades-old dispute between Japan, on the one hand, and China, South Korea, and North Korea on the other, and in the effort to establish an International Court of Justice that will try war crimes, many of which include organized rape.

Here is the problem with the Japanese. Among the multitudinous acts of extreme violence perpetrated during World War II were many instances of rape and sexual bondage. They were just some of the numerous heinous crimes committed in the name of war and conquest, but stand out in both magnitude and perversity. Two sets of events are prominent in this regard. In The Rape of Nanking, the well-regarded book by Iris Chang, Japanese soldiers are described as being let loose in the streets of Nanking, China, in 1937-38 to rape any and all women as part of an effort to degrade and destroy not only the city, but its society. Any women, from the very young to the old, were targeted. "Little girls were raped so brutally that some could not walk for weeks afterward. Many required surgery, others died.... The sufferings by women were often accompanied by prolonged consequences, as many were impregnated by the Japanese soldiers."

In the detailed report, The Rape of Nanking: An Undeniable History in Photographs, authors Shi Young and James Yin detail more than 369,366 persons killed and as many as 80,000 women raped. Reports they uncovered indicate that "abnormal and sadistic" behavior was associated with many of the rapes, some of which were photographed by Japanese soldiers.

These rapes by conquering troops were accompanied by the drafting of many women--mostly Koreans, but also Filipinas, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesians, and Dutch--as sex providers for Japanese occupying forces during the war...