panpan girl

Panpan girls (Japanese: パンパンガール, Hepburn: panpan gāru), also pom-pom (パンパン) or pansuke (パン助), were Japanese women who were either coerced or voluntarily engaged in sex work with Allied soldiers during the occupation of Japan. As the government (with the aid of police) set up unlicensed brothels, some women engaged in sex work to secure everyday officially provided necessities. Panpan girls were generally looked down upon by Japanese men, and cultural renditions of panpan girls have seen the phenomenon as a challenge to masculine identity. The reality of panpan girls is likely different from their cultural identity; since the end of the occupation, the term has shifted somewhat in understanding.