Editing Occupation of Japan (section)

=== Prostitution ===
{{See also|Recreation and Amusement Association}}
[[File:Yasuura House.jpg|thumb|Allied servicemen visit the [[Special Comfort Facility Association]] (SCFA).]]

With the acceptance of the Allied occupation authorities, the Japanese organized a [[brothel]] system (the euphemistically named "[[Recreation and Amusement Association]]," or RAA) for the benefit of the more than 300,000 occupation troops.<ref name=Talmadge>{{cite web |last1=Talmadge |first1=Eric |title=U.S. troops used Japan brothels after WWII |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/us-troops-used-japan-brothels-after-wwii/ |newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]] |date=26 April 2007 |publisher=Via the Associated Press |access-date=25 February 2021}}</ref> Many Japanese civilians and government officials feared that the Allied occupation troops were likely to rape Japanese women. "The strategy was, through the special work of experienced women, to create a breakwater to protect regular women and girls."<ref name=Talmadge/> A large contributor to this system being hastily implemented was the experience of the prior [[comfort women]] system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yoshimi |first=Yoshiaki |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/49395493 |title=Comfort women : sexual slavery in the Japanese military during World War II |date=2002 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-12033-8 |oclc=49395493}}</ref>

In December 1945, a senior officer with the Public Health and Welfare Division of the occupation's General Headquarters wrote regarding the typical prostitute: "The girl is impressed into contracting by the desperate financial straits of her parents and their urging, occasionally supplemented by her willingness to make such a sacrifice to help her family", he wrote. "It is the belief of our informants, however, that in urban districts the practice of enslaving girls, while much less prevalent than in the past, still exists. The worst victims ... were the women who, with no previous experience, answered the ads calling for 'Women of the New Japan.'"<ref name=Talmadge/>

MacArthur issued an order, SCAPIN 642 (SCAP Instruction), on January 21 ending licensed brothels for being "in contravention of the ideals of democracy". Although SCAPIN 642 ended the RAA's operations, it did not affect "voluntary prostitution" by individuals. Ultimately, SCAP responded by making all brothels and other facilities offering prostitution off-limits to Allied personnel on March 25, 1946.<ref>{{harvnb|Tanaka|2003|p=162}}</ref> By November, the Japanese government had introduced the new {{nihongo|[[akasen]]|赤線|"red-line"}} system in which prostitution was permissible only in certain designated areas.<ref name="Lie 1997, p. 258">{{harvnb|Lie|1997|p=258}}</ref>