This essay explains why prostitution could not have been sustained in Japan’s home islands during wartime, where only the elderly and women remained. It examines the economic logic behind following troops to battlefronts, Japan’s regulated prostitution system, and the military discipline rooted in samurai tradition.

2016-03-19
That brothels could not possibly survive in the home islands, where only elderly men and women remained, is self-evident.
That military forces are authoritarian is the same in every country throughout the world.
That soldiers committed looting and violence in territories they invaded and conquered is also the same everywhere in the world.
At that time, Japan as a state had established an organized system of prostitution.
It was only natural that brothel operators considered doing business with the Japanese military.
Put bluntly, all of their customers had gone off to the battlefield.
There was no way for their businesses to survive except by following those customers to the battlefields—that is, to Japan’s overseas advance areas.
That brothels could not possibly survive in the home islands, where only elderly men and women remained, is self-evident.
The Japanese military was the army of a people who inherited the tradition of the samurai.
It is no exaggeration to say that discipline was always given priority.
If soldiers who possessed the spirit of the samurai were to repeatedly assault women in the areas they advanced into, it would be a disgrace to the Japanese people and to the Japanese military.
To be continued.