Recreation and Amusement Association - Founding

Founding

Prior to August 1945, the Japanese Government had not seriously contemplated an Allied occupation of Japanese home islands, as they had assumed the Japanese people would fight to extinction rather than accept such terms. Following the acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, the Japanese leadership suddenly found themselves having a matter of a few days to consider the consequences of hosting enemy troops on Japanese soil. Japan's leaders were well aware of the conduct of their own invasion and occupation forces in the war, as well as the many rumors of the depravations of invading soldiers in Europe. For the Japanese, it was therefore natural to assume the incoming American soldiers would behave no better than their own troops had. However, the Japanese Government also considered the use of so-called "comfort women" to have been a great "success" in channelling the urges of their own soldiers in the countries they occupied, and therefore resolved that a similar program could similarily channel the urges of American troops in Japan.

The RAA was created on August 28, 1945 by the Japanese Home Ministry and a civilian organization through joint capital investment (50 million yen each), officially to contain the sexual urges of the occupation forces, protect the main Japanese populace from rape and preserve the purity of the Japanese race. The official declaration of 19 August 1945 stated that "Through the sacrifice of thousands of 'Okichis' of the Shōwa era, we shall construct a dike to hold back the mad frenzy of the occupation troops and cultivate and preserve the purity of our race long into the future..." Okichi was the name of a maid of Townsend Harris, the first American consulate in Japan from 1856 to 1861, and who, according to legend, was pressured into an amorous relationship with Harris, only to be ostracized following his departure. The name was thus used as a metaphor for the young women who were employed as prostitutes to the men of the occupation forces. It was presumed that such women would thereafter never have a "respectable" life in Japanese society, but their sacrifice would preserve the sexual sanctity of other Japanese women.

In September, the system was extended to cover the entire country. Allied GHQ (General Headquarters) commandeered these institutions (22 places of prostitution) on September 28.

Unlike wartime "comfort women" forced to serve Japanese forces, most employees of the RAA were Japanese women, mostly prostitutes and others recruited by advertisement as well as through agents. However, there are testimonies from some women saying that they were coerced into service as bonded labor, and some Japanese sources even assert that the centers were in fact set up by GHQ's demand.

The price for a sex act was 15 ¥Yen (US $1 in 1945, US$ 9.77 in 2012); soldiers paid beforehand and received a ticket and a condom in return.

In January 1946, the RAA was terminated by an order to cease all "public" prostitution; this was replaced by the akasen (赤線?, red line) system. The ban is traditionally attributed to the efforts of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. General Douglas MacArthur declared all places of prostitution off limits in an attempt to counter the spread of sexually transmitted diseases on March 25, 1946 as by then more than a quarter of all American GIs in the Japanese occupation forces had a sexually transmitted disease.