Recreation and Amusement Association

The nihongo|Recreation and Amusement Association|特殊慰安施設協会|"tokushu-ian-shisetsu-kyōkai" (RAA), or more literally "Special Comfort Facility Association", was the official euphemism for the prostitution centers arranged for occupying U.S. armed forces by the Japanese Government after World War II. Citation
url=http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkxMJjoZIp60Aj2xXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWgwN285BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkAw--/SIG=1381ppl45/EXP=1216864137/**http%3a//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042501801.html
title=GIs frequented Japan's 'comfort women
author=Eric Talmadge
date=April 25, 2007
publisher=Washington Post
accessdate=2008-07-02] .

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) to contain the sexual urges of the occupation forces and protect the main Japanese populace from rape. The RAA's own slogan was nihongo|"For the country, a sexual breakwater to protect Japanese women"|お国のために日本女性を守る性の防波堤.

In September, the system was extended to cover the entire country. GHQ commandeered these institutions (22 places of prostitution) on September 28 because rapes by the occupation army soldiers were frequent.Tadasu, Nakanishi. "Nagoya Senran Monogatari", Tokyo Bungeisya: 2005. ISBN 4-8355-7606-3] Yoshihiko, Amino. "Tyuuse no Hijin to Yuujyo", Tokyo Koudansya: 2004. ISBN 4-06-159694-2] dubious

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.Yoshihiko, Amino. "Tyuuse no Hijin to Yuujyo", Tokyo Koudansya: 2004. ISBN 4-06-159694-2]

The price for a sex act was 15 yen; 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. [citation
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0QbpgxYNhB8C
title=The Body in Postwar Japanese Fiction
page= [http://books.google.com/books?id=0QbpgxYNhB8C&pg=PA42&dq=Recreation+and+Amusement+Association%E3%80%80GHQ+off-limits&sig=-Z8sKbA-ROX2a1zppKghH3wCwSM 42]
author=Douglas Slaymaker
isbn0-41-532225-1
publisher=Routledge
year=200] 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.cn|date=July 2008

ee also

*Comfort women
*Prostitution in Japan

References

Further reading

*Downer, Lesley "Women of the Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha", Broadway, 2001. ISBN 0-7679-0489-3 ISBN 0-7679-0490-7
*Molasky, Michael S. "American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa", Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0-415-19194-7 ISBN 0-415-26044-2
*Tanaka, Yuki "Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the U.S. Occupation", London, Routledge: 2002. ISBN 0-415-19401-6.
*Yoshimi, Yoshiaki "Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II", Columbia University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-231-12032-X
*Dower, John W. "", New York, Norton: 1999. ISBN 0-393-04686-9
*Tadasu, Nakanishi. "Nagoya Senran Monogatari", Tokyo Bungeisya: 2005. ISBN 4-8355-7606-3
*Yoshihiko, Amino. "Tyuuse no Hijin to Yuujyo", Tokyo Koudansya: 2004. ISBN 4-06-159694-2