Soon Ja, a sixteen-year-old Korean girl, is forced into sex slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army on the cusp of WWII. She is transferred between stations as a ‘comfort woman’ and suffers mentally and physically through daily abuses. Surviving however she can, Soon Ja finds herself spying for the anti-Japanese resistance.
THE COMFORT BEARER is an absolutely heartbreaking but ultimately beautiful story. The immense amount of abuse that Soon Ja experiences is incredibly difficult to read yet despite the horrific nature, the author was able to tell Soon Ja’s story with such empathy that I felt compelled to keep turning pages, desperately hoping that Soon Ja’s torture would end.

THE COMFORT BEARER is a compassionately written book that highlights the horrors of human trafficking. I’d highly recommend.

Thank you to Cathy Patrenos for the finished copy. ( )

It’s often said that history is written by the victors, and it is no less true here. This facet of the Japanese empire’s invasions of the Asian mainland has been hidden for years.

This is the story of one 16-year-old Korean woman’s fate: her family believes, as she does, that she’s going to Japan to work in a new silk factory, earning wages that will help her family prosper. Instead, the Imperial officers take her to Manchuria, where she becomes a “comfort bearer”—their innocuous term for a sex slave.

This story is told in first-person point of view, and we follow Soon Ja through several years, as she’s taken from station to station to service Japanese soldiers, who believe that if they have sex the night before a battle, they will be invincible. One of the saddest parts of the story is the suicide of one of Soon Ja’s only close friends, who cannot bear one more day of the abuse they are subjected to.

Although there are times when the plot becomes repetitious, this book is tragic, complex, and well worth reading. Not only for the history, but because these atrocities are still taking place in our world today and are largely ignored. It will definitely give the reader a deeper understanding of human trafficking and why we must put an end to it at all costs.

I highly recommend THE COMFORT BEARER. ( )

Soon Ja, a young Korean girl, is taken from her home to become a comfort woman for the Japanese Army. A sex slave, Soon Ja is forced to service soldier after soldier. When she meets someone working for the resistance, she quickly offers to pass on any information she can learn from her regulars.

This was an absolutely heartbreaking novel. It was very painful to read at times. What a horrible situation for Soon Ja and the other girls forced into sexual slavery. I think this is a very important book, and would encourage everyone to read it. ( )

I really can't add much to the previous reviews, which are all very much in keeping with my impressions of this book. I know little of the Japanese occupation of China and Korea, and having read this would like to learn more (tentatively, because it is horrific). Soon Ja's strength is almost superhuman in the face of what she experiences in the course of this novel. ( )

This is an amazing story about a horrific event. Actually, it's an on-going event just with different players in different parts of the world. This book could be very very triggering...you've been warned.

Few people probably know that Japan occupied parts of Korea before WWII. It was not a "friendly" occupation. At the same time Japan was fighting in parts of China. The idea, at the time at least, was that soldiers fought better if they had sex before a battle. Enter Comfort women. While some of these women were actually Japanese volunteers, a great number were women effectively kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. This is the story of one of these women. ( )