The Comfort Women in the Philippines

The Comfort Women in the Philippines

On December 7th 1941 on Pearl Habor Japan occurred the Philippine for 1942-1945. The Philippines is have a traumatic experience and the government have no power against with Imperial Japan occupied the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II . The most victims of the Japanese is the comfort women. The woman kidnap and rape of a week or a month with the many Japanese soldiers. The probably victims is a thousand women and girls taken and put into military sex-slave camps.

Here is the testimony of the former comfort woman.

Estelita Dy, 88, has not forgotten the three weeks in hell she spent locked in a military brothel in her native village Talisay on the Negros Island, during which she was repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers when she was just 14.

"I tried to fight back when I felt pain. The Japanese got angry, held me by the head and pushed me to the table. When I regained consciousness, the Japanese was gone. A woman told me, next time, not to fight back because you might get killed," Estelita - part of a group of six comfort women still alive - told EFE.

Estelita is one of over 200,000 sex slaves which the Japanese empire maintained for its soldiers during their campaigns in the Pacific, Korea, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. An estimated 1,000 Philippine women ended up in the "comfort stations".

Subjected to forced labor before imprisoned in a military brothel, Estelita said she was lucky to be able to form a family and managed to survive selling rice pastries, and with the support of her husband and five children, who accepted her past and helped her fight for justice and truth.

Not all Lolas had the same luck. Many hid their past for the fear of being despised.

"During the Japanese time, if they knew that you are a Filipino who was with the Japanese, they called you a traitor," Lila Pilipina director Sharon Cabusao-Silva, told EFE.

For decades the issue of comfort women was suppressed in the Philippines, until Rosa Henson - remembered as Lola Rosa now - recorded her testimony in a book, "Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny", in 1992.

Rosa encouraged other comfort women to come forward.

From its modest office in the Quezon district, Lila Pilipina is fighting to ensure that the stories of these women are not forgotten and they get justice and compensation.

"It's a very difficult struggle for Filipino comfort women because none of the governments past or present have been very supportive," Cabusao-Silva said.

The activist said successive governments have been silent on the issue due to generous investments, loans and aids by Japan - one of the main benefactors of the Philippines. Even a statue paying homage to comfort women was removed from Manila in April due to pressure from Tokyo.

In January 2016, the victims came out on the streets to protest during Japanese Emperor Akihito's Philippines visit.

In 2015, comfort women in South Korea were given "sincere apologies" by Japan and received around $8.5 million in damages after an agreement between Seoul and Tokyo, which was criticized for not seeking the opinion of the victims.

"In the Philippines we don't even have that. Our governments have completely turned their back on us," said Judith Villanueva, the daughter of Lola Virginia, who died in 2015 at the age of 85, without getting the justice she fought for.(By Sara Gomez Armas)

Maria Rosa L. Henson was born in Pasay City on 5 December 1927. She was the extramarital daughter of a bid landowner and his housemaid. When she was 14 years old, the Pacific War broke out and the Philippines were occupied by the Japanese. In February 1942 she was first raped by Japanese soldiers. While she went to fetch firewood with her uncles and neighbors for her family, she was caught and raped by three Japanese, one of whom seemed to be an officer.. After two weeks she was again raped by the same Japanese officer, while fetching firewood. She felt a strong anger toward the Japanese military, and joined the HUKBALAHAP, an anti-Japanese guerilla group. A year passed. In April 1943 she was arrested by Japanese at a check point in the suburbs of Angeles and taken to the garrison. There she was forced to be a comfort woman. She spent the next nine months of her life in this way. In January 1944 she was saved by guerillas. After Japan's capitulation, she married with a soldier of the Philippines army. She had two daughters, but her husband joined the communist army and died. She worked as a charwoman or a factory worker. In 1992 she decided to come out after hearing the radio program. She was the first Philippine woman who spoke out about her own distress. In 1996 she was one of the three women who became first recipients of the AWF project. Maria Rosa Henson passed away on 18 August 1997.(Interview taken in 1996 of Copyright(c) Asian Women's Fund. All rights reserved)

GABRIELA asked Duterte anew to reject Japan's demand to remove the statue. GABRIELA and Lila Pilipina (League of Filipino Women) have earlier urged the Philippine government to ignore Japan's request.

Duterte told MindaNews that the Japanese government did not demand the removal of the statue but expressed regret.

Duterte said he informed Noda that he "cannot stop the relatives or even the comfort women still living from their freedom to express what they are expressing through the statue."

"That is a constitutional right which I cannot stop. It's prohibitive for me to do that," MindaNews quoted Duterte as saying.

Moreover, Duterte told MindaNews that removing the statue is up to Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, adding that the issue "has not been raised to national policy" and that the government was (blind and deaf) about its installation."(Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-17 20:53:44|)

At the present time, have and no apologies for comfort woman. The former comfort woman some of their paas away without getting justice. The Gabriella a national alliance woman's organization in the Philippines still fight for justice of the former comfort woman.