Author Chen Qian-Wu was “volunteered” into the Japanese army at twenty years of age and served in the military juggernaut that brought much of Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific under Japanese control. Hunting Captive Women draws inspiration from Chen’s own lived experiences from that period of his life. The short stories within plumb issues such as the disparate treatment of Japanese and Taiwanese conscripts, the terrors of aerial bombings and faraway battlefronts, homosexuality in uniform, and the army’s pitiless exploitation of captured “comfort women”. Apart from its firsthand realism, Chen’s honest interpretation of the inequity, danger, and depravity surrounding him through the compassionate lens of a colonial subject give this work lasting relevance and value.