There is a Japanese term, Kara-yuki-san. The "Kara" has the kanji of Tang (as in Tang dynasty.) It's a pretty old term to mean Japanese who travel to China, either for employment or business. But more likely, it meant Japanese who who was persuaded/forced/cheated into prostituition in China. That the direction of similar human traffic is Today largely reversed, it is obvious this term was used many years ago.
Most of the girls would be from poor villages in Kyushu. Human traffickers scoured the countryside, bring them across the straits to Shimonoseki in Honshu. From here, they will be shipped to China. Others may end up in the Nanyang regions, today's Singapore and West and East Malaysia. Even here, the Japanese prostitutes were considered second-rated. The Chinese coolies here would seek out Chinese prostitutes, and possibly one from the same home town. For those who lacks the fund, they will go to the cheaper Japanese one.
But some years before the War, as Japan grew in power, a royal decree from the Emporer put a stop to this. The decree mandated that it is not longer legal for Japanese to work oversea as prostitutes.
To me, this is the most significant event to mark Japanese's arrival at the world stage. More so than Pearl Harbor, or their victory against the Russian, or the Shimonoseki Treaty.What more powerful statement can a strong country made than to tell the world that their women are no longer available for export as sex slave. My theory is that things would have turn out much better for everyone in East Asia if the Japanese realized this back then, that there is no need for the strong to turn aggressor to show their strenght.
It is partly because of my little fascination of this piece of history that brought me to Shimonoseki. The Orient Ferry will take me by sea over to Qingdao in China. To most people's surprise, it is a short 27hr journey. The short crossing is probably why Shimonoseki was chosen by the human traffickers back then.
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