Young Japanese women known as joko endured brutal sixteen-hour shifts inside the sweltering Tomioka Silk Mill inhaling toxic fibers to single-handedly finance the rapid…

A closer look

Japan's dramatic rise to a global superpower was paid for in silk threads and severe lung disease. During the Meiji era, the government built massive mechanized textile mills to compete with the West. They aggressively recruited young rural women, pitching it as a noble patriotic duty. In reality, the joko faced horrific exploitation, starvation wages, and rampant tuberculosis in unventilated factories, literally sacrificing their own health to buy the battleships that secured Japan's empire.