By 1938, Japan had invaded much of China and taken control of Nanjing, killing more than 42,000 civilians. The Chinese government never fully surrendered, and the war continued on a smaller scale until 1945. During World War II, the Japanese military forced women from different countries to work as comfort women for the Japanese soldiers. Trafficking in women is a form of sexual slavery in which women are transported across national borders and sold into prostitution, sex tourism, or migrant workers. Women have been kidnapped or brought under false pretenses, thinking they were being given work. An extreme case of this institutionalized sexual violence against women was the comfort women of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Through research and testimonies from World War II comfort women survivors and former Japanese veterans, I attempt to show how this affected the intersection of colonial power, gender, and class. I argue that gender development contributes to the construction of Japanese colonialism and that the comfort women system helped Japan as an imperial state rise to power. Ideas of masculinity and femininity helped maintain the Japanese military system, and comfort stations impacted Japan's military expansion of its colonies. Starting in the 1930s, comfort stations were established in China and they were mainly private. comfort stations. The reason for the comfort centers was to try to prevent Japanese soldiers from raping local women, which did not completely work. The Japanese only began building larger comfort stations after the Rape of Nanking, also known as the Nanking Massacre. In December 1937, the Japanese captured Nanking and...... middle of paper...... the Japanese military facilitated specific forms of gender identity, in which being a soldier meant being a real man. Men often think that to achieve manhood, they must perform military service in the army, particularly in combat. Although it was hard being in the military, soldiers say it made them a man, and in some cases, life in the military was easy compared to the hardships they went through just trying to earn their living. The effects of the discipline that the army imposes on soldiers can vary depending on the social origin of the recruits; they come together to produce a dominant model of manhood. It also includes rape, pillage, and arson, intended to demonstrate their power or bravery. However, I argue that military versions of masculinity are deeply contradictory, in that feminization and masculinization are implemented simultaneously...