Another piece for the historians here:-
ttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050618f1.htm
Singapore's Japanese prostitute era paved over
By TAKEHIKO KAJITA
SINGAPORE (Kyodo) Clean, safe and green, Singapore is one of the
most
favored destinations for modern Japanese women who want to work
and
play hard.
Some of the streets that formed the former Japanese red-light
district in Singapore remain in a huge commercial complex
called
Bugis Junction.
In Japan, women often find it difficult to get into key
corporate
positions and face pressure to quit once they get married or
give
birth. So the city-state's female-friendly working environment
is
quite attractive to them.
"In Japan, it's almost impossible for women aged over 30 to find
a
full-time position. But it's easier to get one here," said
Mayo
Omura, a 32-year-old accountant at the local unit of
Hewlett-Packard
Co.
She and many other Japanese women interviewed for this article
seemed
well-informed about present-day Singapore -- who to speak to
for
business, where to go for leisure, and what to buy at which
shops.
What an overwhelming majority of them don't know about
Singapore,
however, was the countless Japanese women who worked here as
prostitutes between the late 19th century and early 20th
century,
women who were referred to simply as "Karayuki-san."
"I suspect the days of Karayuki-san have become distant
history,"
said Kazuo Sugino, secretary general of the Japanese Association
in
Singapore.
Karayuki-san were Japanese peasant girls -- mostly from the
Shimabara
Peninsula in Nagasaki Prefecture and Amakusa Islands in
Kumamoto
Prefecture -- who were sold into the flesh trade in colonial
Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Japan, the world's second-largest economy, was a poor country
a
century ago, and women were one of its major exports, along with
silk
and coal.
Karayuki-san, together with other Japanese women who served
as
prostitutes elsewhere, including Siberia, Hawaii, Australia and
some
parts of India and Africa, were said to be the third-biggest
foreign
currency earner for Japan at the turn of the 20th century.
Former "Karayuki-san," or Japanese prostitutes, are buried under
a
number of small tombstones at Japanese Cemetery Park in
Singapore.
The existence of Karayuki-san in Singapore dates back to 1877,
when
there were two Japanese-owned brothels on Malay Street with
14
Japanese prostitutes, official Japanese data show.
Malay Street and the nearby streets of Malabar, Hylam and Bugis
later
grew into a big red-light district.
Singapore's official records suggest 633 Japanese women were
operating in 109 brothels in 1905. The number is believed to
have
been well over 1,000, if unlicensed prostitutes are included.
Combined with the far larger Chinese-dominated red-light district
and
other similar districts catering to different ethnic groups,
Singapore was known as one of the centers of the sex industry in
Asia
in those days.
As Singapore started to develop around the 1870s, immigrants
--
mostly men -- rushed in from China and India to toil at
rubber
plantations and tin mines or as rickshaw pullers. To maintain
social
order, British colonial rulers tolerated prostitution at
designated
brothels, bringing in Chinese and Japanese women in droves.
As Japan's international profile rose with victories in the
Sino-
Japanese War in 1894, the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and its
having
sided with the victors of World War I, Japan began to view
Japanese
prostitutes working overseas as a national shame.
In addition, successful Japanese business operations in
British-ruled
Malaya, now Malaysia, lessened the need for foreign currency
earned
by Karayuki-san. So the then Japanese Consulate General in
Singapore
banned Japanese brothels in 1920.
Consequently, many Karayuki-san were forcefully repatriated to
Japan.
But many others managed to stay in Singapore or move to other
parts
of Malaya, illegally selling themselves.
Four decades later, a young Japanese woman who settled here
after
marrying a Singaporean one day encountered a former Karayuki-san
by
chance and was shocked to learn about the tales of Japanese
women
working abroad.
"I was saddened to realize that I had known nothing about
Karayuki-
san," said Yuko Gan, who later became a charismatic tour guide
well-
versed in Singapore's history.
She has since found more former Karayuki-san, listened to them
and
told the stories of their lives to Japanese tourists.
"I believe I grew as a human, thanks to the encounter with
former
Karayuki-san. Thinking about their plight fills me with courage,"
she
said. "Up until 15 to 20 years back, four or five former
Karayuki-san
survived in Singapore. But not any more."
Gone with the Karayuki-san is the Japanese red-light
district.
Ironically, the entire district is now a giant commercial
complex
that houses a department store run by Seiyu Ltd. and a
shopping
center operated by Parco Co., both Japanese companies.
Malay, Malabar and Hylam streets remain, but they are now
merely
passages under the roof of a structure called Bugis Junction,
a
popular spot with young Singaporeans that also houses movie
theaters
and the Hotel Inter-Continental.
Traces of Karayuki-san are more evident at Japanese Cemetery
Park,
where countless -- and largely nameless -- Karayuki-san are
buried
along with other Japanese.
Rumiko Motoyama, a 37-year-old bridal consultant who spent her
early
teens in Singapore, came back in the late 1990s to what she
calls
her "second hometown." She visits the cemetery every summer
during
Bon, the Buddhist festival for the dead, to pay tribute to
the
deceased Japanese in Singapore, including Karayuki-san.
"I respect the Karayuki-san. They lived hard in unfamiliar
places
where they couldn't understand local languages. They must have
been
so strong," she said.
"As a Japanese living in Singapore, I'm grateful to the
Karayuki-san,
because I feel their hardships form a cornerstone in my mind on
which
I can live happily now," Motoyama said.
This year, which marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World
War
II, is a good opportunity for Japanese to hark back to the past
and
look to the future.
One can draw a lot of lessons by taking a glance at the
history
between Japan and Singapore, especially Japan's 1942 invasion
and
occupation up to 1945.
Ordinary Japanese know little about the killings of ethnic Chinese
in
Singapore by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war years.
Sugino of the Japanese Association wants Japanese to face up
to
history involving their own country and other parts of Asia in
order
to strengthen friendly ties.
"It is important that those planning to live in Singapore from
now
study the present and past of Singapore and develop a clear
understanding of Singapore, including Karayuki-san and the war,"
he
said.
The Japan Times: June 18, 2005
