"Translator Colligan-Taylor introduces Yamazaki's work in its sociohistoric context, relating the sexual
exploitation of Asian women to the growing flesh trade in Southeast Asia and Japan today. Yamazaki's oral history
was critically acclaimed when published in Japan in the early 1970s and is still in print there. A well-written
study suitable for history and women's studies curricula."
-- Library Journal
M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Web Site, September, 2000
Summary
This is a pioneer work on karayuki-san, poor rural Japanese women sold into overseas prostitution between the
1860s and 1930s. Sandakan Brothel No. 8 presents the life story of a former karayuki-san, Osaki, as related to
the author. Persuaded as a child of ten to accept cleaning work in Sandakan, North Bornea, Osaki is soon forced
into prostitution. Thousands of other young Japanese women shared a similar fate in the brothels that were established
throughout Asia in conjunction with the expansion of Japanese business interests. In spite of her anger and revulsion,
Osaki sends all her earnings home to improve the lot of her older brother, only to be rejected by him and his family
upon her return to Japan. She is later rejected by her son, as well, who does not want his mother's social stigma
to interfere with his prospects for marriage and work. Yamazaki views Osaki, as the embodiment of the suffering
experienced by all Japanese women, who have long been oppressed under the dual yoke of class and gender. This sad
tale could not be more relevant for present times. The translator's introduction provides a socio-historic context
for understanding the sexual exploitation of Asian women before and during the Pacific War and for the growing
flesh trade in Southeast Asia and Japan today. Young women are being brought to Japan with the same false promises
which enticed Osaki to Borneo eighty years ago.
Yamazaki Tomoko has devoted her life to documenting the history of the exchange of women between Japan and ther
Asian countries since 1868. She has worked directly with karayuki-san, military comfort women, war orphans, repatriates,
women sent as picture brides to China and Manchuria, Asian women who have married into Japanese farming communities,
and Japanese women married to other Asians in Japan. Now in its 24th printing in Japan, Sandakan hachiban shokan
received the Oya Soichi Prize for Non-Fiction Literature in 1973, and was made into a movie by producer Kumai Kei
in 1974. It has been translated into Korean and Chinese.
Table of Contents
1. A Prologue to the History of Women at the Lowest Level of Society
2. A Chance Encounter--My First Trip to Amakusa
3. My Attempts at a Second Trip
4. Life with Osaki
5. Osaki's Story--the Life of an Overseas Prostitute
6. Many More Voiceless Voices
7. Ofumi's Life
8. Oshimo's Grave
9. Okuni's Birthplace
10. The Home of Gagnon Sana
11. Farewell Amakusa
12. Epilogue--Karayuki-san and Modern Japan