22. In this, they are perhaps like their real-life counterparts. I want to stress that this book is concerned solely with fictional prostitutes and their representation in literature and other art forms; the tragic issue of the “comfort women” exploited by Japan during WWII, for example, is mostly beyond the scope of this book, but this is not in any way meant to marginalize the women. It is just that, unfortunately, those women are real; whatever emotions the female characters examined here may provoke, they are not. The way the issue of “comfort women” intersects with Tamura Taijiro's story, “Nikutai no mon,” will be examined, however, in chapter 3.