Futsukaichi Rest Home (二日市保養所, Futsukaichi Hoyōjo) was a specialized medical facility located in the town of Futsukaichi (present day-Chikushino, Fukuoka), Japan, set up in 1946 by the Ministry of Health and Welfare after World War II. It operated for several years and performed abortions before they were legalized in 1947, and treated sexually transmitted diseases (STDs, such as syphilis or gonorrhea) in victims of rape who had escaped from Manchuria or Korea.
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Background
After the end of World War II, Japanese citizens who had migrated to occupied areas had to return to mainland Japan. During the repatriation from Manchuria or Korea, returnees sometimes became victims of massacre, pillage, forced labor and rape. A survey conducted by the "Busan" relieving office for Japanese, from December 1945 to May 1946 revealed that among 885 women surveyed, about 10 percent had fallen victims to sexual assault (90 rape victims and 19 STD-infected individuals).
Establishment
In postwar Korea, the medical staff who had belonged to the Keijō Imperial University School of Medicine offered medical services for Japanese refugees. In December 1945, the medical team was integrated with "The aid society for overseas Japanese", an extra-departmental body of the Ministry of Foreign affairs. As soon as the society sent medical staff to repatriation ships, they recognized that there were many rape victims and approached the Japanese government offering to set up a special medical facility for treating sexually-assaulted women. Abortion was illegal in Japan at that time, hence the need for a facility that provided the service to victims was accepted as an extra-legal measure. In response to the demand, Futsukaichi Rest Home was opened on May 25, 1946.
To protect the women's identities, the facility was located in Futsukaichi, a rural hot-spring area near Hakata port in Fukuoka, where the largest amount of repatriates arrived. The building was diverted from the rest house for "Patriot women's society." It had two floors with small compartments available to help protect patients' privacy. Two doctors and ten nurses (including three midwives) from the aid society staffed it. Similar facilities were placed at the Kyushu Imperial University School of Medicine, National Fukuoka Sanatorium, Kurume Medical School, National Saga Sanatorium, and Nakahara Army Sanatorium in Saga Prefecture.
Facility operation
One of the major issues faced by the society was how to make the facility known to the victims. The society handed out flyers in repatriation ships, but carefully selected their wording. The flyer said: "To Miserable Women, Attention Please!; Women whose bodies have been damaged by an illegal violence or assault, and suffer from disorders... we will pick you up and treat you before you return to your home". For women who had already returned to Japan, an advertisement with the same text was placed in influential newspapers. Later, any repatriated women aged 15 to 55 were required to go to the government office immediately after arriving in mainland Japan.
During the facility's one-and-a-half year working period, the medical team carried out over 500 abortions and treated over 500 patients for STDs. Because of the shortage of medication, patients sometimes had to accept operations without anesthesia that was potentially lethal. The rest house operated until fall 1947, just before the Japanese government put the Eugenic Protection Act in effect in 1948 which allowed women in poverty to have abortions.