s of femininity to keep women in line. She (1998) quotes one of Taseko's early supporters, who wrote that "she functioned appropriately as a wife plus 'she studied books, wrote poetry and while promoting the basis for a happy home life created an elegant and elevated environment'" (p. 334). Only later was she coopted as a feminist heroine, but many continued to focus on her activities within the home to justify whatever she was able to accomplish outside it.
The second issue that speaks to an examination of women in Japanese history is that of prostitution. As Tonomura and Walthall ( ) write, "The government viewed prostitution as a business . . . [and] a political scientist or economist might even be forced to see prostitution as a 'public good'" (p. 11). Certainly the Japanese government's establishment of "comfort facilities" to serve the occupying troops in 1945 was seen as a way to prevent a greater social horror. Tanaka (2002) quotes instructions sent by the national police to individual prefectures for setting up facilities, recruiting women to work in them, and managing public knowledge of what was being done "by explaining . . . that this scheme will be implemented for the purpose of protecting Japanese citizens" (p. 134).
That the women recruited for this work were sometimes forced into it completely against their will is a fact that officials at the time considered irrelevant. Yet this enforced prostitution has recently been examined in some detail and universally condemned. Tanaka (2002) argues that the Japanese treatment of women during and immediately following the war "became the largest and most elaborate system of trafficking in women in the history of mankind, and one of the most brutal" (p. 167). Its roots in Japanese history, the details of its implementation during this period, and the impact it continues to have on Japanese society and the people involved are all aspects of the subject that bear mor...