One of the most tragic stories of WWII is that of the "comfort women", a polite name for the forced kidnapping or coercion of women and girls by the Japanese Army to "comfort" their soldiers. As in many war crimes cases, "comfort" is a euphemism, for this was just a polite term for "sexual slavery" on a mass scale. Though records exist in Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea, they are partial and only tell part of the story that Japan, to this day, is reluctant to talk about openly. However, it should be said that over the last two decades, they have made a greater effort to both admit their armies' guilt, apologize and make some restitution – though many of the surviving comfort women believe it was not enough. Time has gone by, and most of the victims of this atrocity have passed on, but their memory remains in the national identity of countries occupied by Japan during WWII.