Rōmusha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rōmusha (労務者) a.k.a “Japanese Corvée”, is a Japanese language word for "laborer". In English, it usually refers to non-Japanese who were forced to work for the Japanese military during World War II. The U.S. Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million rōmusha were forced to work by the Japanese military during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War II,[1] many of whom experienced harsh conditions and either died or were stranded far from home. However, the term was not defined precisely by either the Japanese or the Allies and estimates for the total numbers of rōmusha sometimes encompass both the unpaid laborers a.k.a kinrōhōshi, as well as native auxiliary forces, such as troops of the Japanese-allied Indonesian volunteer army Pembela Tanah Air (PETA) and voluntary transmigrants to other islands in Indonesia.[2]