Rōmusha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rōmusha (労務者) (compare corvée), is a Japanese language word for a "paid conscripted 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 rōmushas were forced to work (often at low pay) 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. With the term imprecisely defined by both the Japanese and the Allies, estimates of the total number of rōmushas may include the kinrōhōshi (English: unpaid forced laborers), 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]