I bet there’s no country where people talk about their own soldiers raping women.

[raccoon]

Anybody here grow up in Germany or Russia? In the US we heard of Russian and Nazi soldiers raping women in countries they invaded, but never heard of American soldiers raping. My guess is that in your case it was the opposite.

Consider the following.


A Letter to Ken Burns about 'The War: An Intimate History'

Suki Falconberg PhD—10/2007

This is a rape-survivor's response to Ken Burns' PBS documentary "The War" which glorified WWII American soldiers whilst ignoring their brutal and murderous treatment of women.

'THE WAR,' MR BURNS, is the Yokosuka rape queues in August 1945, with GI's lined up for blocks, two abreast, to get at the Japanese girls enslaved in 'comfort stations' for them — with the full cooperation of the American and Japanese authorities. Destitute, vulnerable girls were raped into unconsciousness as the men joked and laughed and jostled in line, waiting their turn. Some girls bled to death. Some committed suicide — that is, the lucky ones who could escape. Not one 'comfort girl' has told her story — due to shame. Why did you not tell this particular 'intimate history' of 'The War,' Mr. Burns? Especially since 'usage' of the girls was almost 100%. Why has the small detail that almost every GI in Japan, 1945, was a rapist escaped you? Why his this big 'dirty secret' of war never been covered?

'The War,' Mr. Burns, is the men who lined up to use the prostitutes on Hotel Street in Honolulu: women were raped 100 times a day — a different man entered the girl every three minutes. Why should I mourn these rapists when they were killed in the attack at Pearl Harbor? They slaughtered the bodies of these women in a fashion far more brutal than any bombing could ever be.

'The War,' Mr. Burns, is the widespread rape of French girls by GI's after they 'liberated' Paris. Rape by American soldiers was so common that Eisenhower actually had to acknowledge it was happening, although he did nothing to stop it.

'The War' is the public parks in Palermo, where pimps considerately laid out mattresses so the GI's could fuck starving Italian girls comfortably, for a dollar or two a turn.

(snip)

I looked at your so-called 'companion volume' to the series. The index carries not one reference to rape, prostitution, military brothels, or the sexual suffering of millions of woman. How can you overlook, ignore, dismiss a 'fact' so enormous? As if these women simply never existed…

War never 'liberates' women. War sexually destroys us. It has never been otherwise. Briseis had no say in her fate as a 'captive' woman. No one asked her what she thought of the arrangement. No one has asked the Filipina women trafficked onto the fifty U.S. bases in Iraq what they think of their lot as the GI's line up for their five-minute shot inside them.


http://energygrid.com/society/2007/10sf-thewar.html

[seabeyond]

1. we dont talk about it. we deny, pretend it isnt happening and make excuses, boys will be boys

but there isnt a whole hell of a lot of talk about it. rape of our women is insignificant

[thunder rising]

2. If we're going to study perverted history, how come nobody ever covered "bull queer" slave owners;

like the male rape side of the situation.

[raccoon]

4. I was wondering when somebody was going to post something like this.

Yes, males get raped. And it is not acceptable for anyone to rape another person.

But when an army invades another country, it's a GIVEN that women are going to be raped. It's not an anomaly, it's a given. In any century, any country, it's the same thing.

[mitchum]

28. I wrote a play about one in Charleston..."Something Wicker This Way Comes"

[wtmusic]

3. prostitution is a lot of things, but it's not rape

"almost every GI in Japan, 1945, was a rapist"

Exaggerations never help a cause.

[hedgehog]

10. Rape doesn't always look like rape. In the case described, the victims

were gathered by other people and held for the pleasure of the GIs. One may also question the willingness of a woman forced to choose between starving and prostitution. (what about mothers who prostituted themselves to save their children?)


BTW- could someone bring this up the next time we have a thread explaining how sex workers freely choose their profession?

[wtmusic]

11. No doubt rapes occurred

but this kind of hyperbole is the product of someone blinded by passion.

Passion can be a great motivator but in this case it detracts.

[tazkcmo]

5. I bet you're wrong

Don't think Amrican soldiers are more prone to these assaults than other soldiers. Animals are in every army. The Japanese abducted many women to serve as sex slaves for their troops. I believe you hear more about ours because one, we have a more open society and freer flow of info (coming to a rapid halt!) anf two, we're in more wars cuz of I/M Comp.

I have no links or "proof" but do know that war brings out the worse in humans of all countries.

[raccoon]

7. I never said American soldiers were more prone to rape women in countries they are invading

than soldiers of any other country. Or any other century. Or any other millenia.

Women in any country unfortunate enough to be invaded are raped. Any army, any country, any century, doesn't matter, it is a GIVEN.

[janet118]

17. Freer flow of information?

I believe you hear more about ours (rapes, sexual exploitation) because one, we have a more open society and freer flow of info . . .

I never heard about the episodes involving our soldiers and Japanese "comfort girls" . . . and most of the tales about American soldiers and the girls/women of France and Italy were of the romantic sort. Please show me a news article/magazine story about American soldiers being part of a mass sexual exploitation/rape of Japanese women that was condoned by their superiors. If it was reported in any major news outlet, it died a lonely death there.

Prostitution is indeed a form of slavery in all but a few very rare cases. Perhaps, this OP is exaggerated. But perhaps it isn't. Remember, much of women's history is hidden, minimized or prettified.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Back in 1945 Japan, it was still legal to sell one's daughter into prostitution

It was how farmers and merchants survived lean years. Most of these girls were sold in their early teens and dead before they reached the age of 25, unless they could find some client to buy them from their pimp and either marry them or set them up as a mistress.

I remember hearing that the U.S. authorities set up an agreement with the Japanese authorities to make prostitutes available to the U.S. troops, supposedly to reduce rapes of "nice" women, but in fact, most of the prostitutes in Japan at the time were de facto slaves, and young slaves at that.

[raccoon]

31. I am surprised to hear it. But then I know jack about Japan pre-1945.

As do/did most Americans.

On Ken Burns' program, there was an American vet who survived the Bataan death march. He said he wish they hadn't surrendered to the Japanese, that they should have fought to the death, because the Japanese had no respect for anyone who surrendered.

I doubt if the American military knew anything about that beforehand.

[xchrom]

6. americans do not absorb self incriminating

actions into our national psyche.

we know that slavery happened -- and yet we don't allow that to accept it, to change us, .

we know that 50 million uninsured americans are suffering -- but we do not allow that to affect us.

don't confuse a kind of surface discussion of soldiers raping women as a kind of soul searching moment for us.

[gratuitous]

8. Very true

Yet we're at the forefront when it comes to holding other countries accountable for many of the exact same things we've done. And we've done one thing that nobody has ever done: Dropped nuclear bombs without warning on civilian populations that couldn't fight back and couldn't get away. Someday our country may have to answer for that, the way we've tried to force other countries to answer for their atrocities.

[OwnedByFerrets]

9. Glad to be the fifth..nt

[yodermon]

12. War IS rape.

always has been.
http://www.psychohistory.com/htm/eln06_war.html
The glorification of it, I find disgusting.

[raccoon]

13. Thanks for the link. nt

[Romulox]

14. Good point. The idea that there is a "civilized" way to force young people to shred one another

with fragments of molten metal has always puzzled me. :wtf: Rape is obviously just another aspect of the dehumanization and violence that defines war.

[spoony]

15. well put n/t

[AngryAmish]

16. Rome

The rape of the Sabine women

[TahitiNut]

18. Golly. I wonder how it is that I spent nearly two years of my life in the Army ...

... and never raped anyone. According to some, it had to involve every soldier yet I never once even suspected anyone that I served with. It's beyond strange that the experts in this are people who never served yet have all kinds of "evidence."

[SlingBlade]

19. War IS rape as yodermon said

It is not heroic, It is not honorable, it is not good in anyway

Call it a police action, an interdiction, a policy or whatever you like

There is nothing noble about it, Nothing salvageable and all will admit
that it is the civilian populations, Especially women and children who will
do the lions share of suffering.

War should be outlawed, It is the ultimate failure of mankind
Until that day comes we will continue hiding behind the mask of
patriotism and nationalism while waving our little flags to the tunes
of the sappy and mindless lyrics of the war profiteers and opportunist
who lead the parade to mans most disgusting enterprise.

I understand your pain

War IS rape, Period

[timtom]

20. Superb post!

I did not know these things.

Thanks for the clarification and heads up.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

21. Patriarchy is a factor in the equation that cannot be ignored.

Patriarchy is ubiquitous in America. Male soldiers reared in patriarchal families are not likely to treat women anywhere any better than they treat their "own."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Violence is extremely common in the family; wife battering and incest provide two instances of this principle. If spousal abuse were included in the FBI's figures on assault, its incidence would increase by over 20 times.
Patriarchy lies at the core of wife battering."
--Erich Goode, Ph.D, in DEVIANT BEHAVIOR

[KharmaTrain]

22. Reminds Me Of What The Brits Said About US Troops in 1944

...when my father was stationed there prior to D-Day..."they're oversexed and over here"

War is the ultimate insanity...even a "just" war.

[INDIA]

27. That's abusurd. "Oversexed" meant they were in consensual relationships with British girls.

Not that they were RAPING them. What a stupid post.

[tuckessee]

23. The Red Army raped TENS OF MILLIONS of women (old & young) in 1944-45

It was encouraged policy as revenge against the German devils. Check out Ilya Ehrenburg, a writer for the RA newspaper.

Every Red Army soldier was encouraged to grab a "blonde plum" as a well earned spoil of war.

The Red Army was such a raping machine that they also raped liberated Russian female POW's and slave laborers.

Needless to say, Poles, Hungarians, Rumanians, etc also suffered the same fate.

Women were raped in hospital beds. Thousands were literally raped to death. From 6 to 106, if one was a female rape was likely. Children who tried to protect their mothers were killed.

As much as people hate to admit it, rape (and looting as well) was rare among the German Wehrmacht. Much too disciplined for such behavior.

The truth is, more French women were raped by American troops during a year of liberation than were raped by Germans in four years of occupation.

I know a Marine who fought on Okinawa and in the early days (before major contact had been made with the IJA troops) and he says he could tell which way American units went by the trail of lifeless, spread eagle corpses of raped & murdered Okinawan women.

[Thothmes]

24. True up to a point

The Red Army maintained iron control of its personnel all the way across Eastern Europe. If soldiers were caught raping Poles or Czechs, they were tried and sent to punishment battalions or executed. It was only when the Red Army approached Germany and Austria, that the Politrucks (sic) let the soldiers know that the rules would change once they were over the borders. The Soviet govt always denied that the mass rapes happened in Germany.

[tuckessee]

25. You're correct. The front line RA soldiers were usually very disciplined.

Not much looting, not much rape. The problem started when the rear echelons arrived.

I do think the Russians raped Poles & some others (like Hungarians) with comparable fervor as to what they exhibited towards the Germans.

Recently, I read Rising '44 about the Home Army's rebellion in Warsaw and it contained quotes from many recently declassified Soviet documents in which far-sighted NKVD officers were alarmed about the extent of rape of Poles and what effect it would have in the post-War era.

[Thothmes]

30. Corneilus Ryan pointed that out in his history of Soviet capture

of Berlin.

[Psyop Samurai]

29. Thank you for posting this. .nt