PH ‘comfort women’

According to Sharon Silva, coordinator of non-profit organization Lila Pilipina (League of Filipino Grandmother), which helps Lolas seek justice, more than 1,000 Filipino women were forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese aggressors when Japan occupied the Philippines from December 1941 until its defeat in August 1945.

In 2012, the day of Aug. 14 was designated the International Memorial Day for “Comfort Women” by the 11th Asian Alliance Conference for “Comfort Women.”

Among the Filipino victims, 174 became members of Lila Pilipina, while around 90 others grouped themselves as Malaya Lolas (Free Grandmothers) when they all made public their experiences in the 1990s.

The Lolas are now in their 90s, and many of them are sickly and poor. Silva refused to tell the number of alive victims, fearing that the fading group might be flagrantly ignored by the Japanese government.

The Lila Pilipina office in Quezon City, a suburb of the Philippine capital, is a small memorial hall for Lolas. An entire wall is covered with photos of grandmothers, silently complaining about the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese troops.

Silva told Xinhua that the atrocities the Lolas suffered were horrible.

“In the case of Lola Estelita, she was a 13-year-old girl when she was caught by a Japanese militarist and brought to a house, where she became a ‘comfort woman’ for about three weeks,” said Silva, adding that another victim even witnessed the massacre of her family right in front of her eyes, before she and two other sisters were taken to a garrison.

The horrific sexual violence left the Lolas with nightmare memories, lifelong disabilities, and severe trauma, both mentally and physically.

“They never got jobs. Some of them never got legally married. Most of them never traveled. Some of them never had kids,” said Silva.

“Many of them never really got out of poverty,” she added.

For Silva, a dwindling number of Lolas means they may not be able to wait for a formal and sincere apology from the Japanese government even till their deaths.

“They demand justice. First and foremost, an apology from the Japanese government. Also, this history must be reflected in the history textbooks for young people to learn and remember it,” said Silva.

In December 2017, a memorial statue of “comfort women” was inaugurated on the banks of Manila Bay, drawing strong protests from the Japanese government.

Four months later, the statue was removed under Tokyo’s constant diplomatic pressure, and the artist who built it was even threatened.

According to Silva, another “comfort women” memorial statue in Laguna Province was also ordered to be removed just three days after its installation due to pressure from the Japanese government.

In recent years, some forces in Japan continue to deny the forced recruitment of “comfort women,” apparently in an attempt to whitewash Japan’s history of aggression. Silva worries that Japan has been instilling twisted history into the heads of the young generation by adopting history-distorting textbooks, leaving them with incorrect historical views of Japan’s role in WW2.

“I think it has long been trying to circumvent the peace clause in Japan’s pacifist constitution, which forbade them to send soldiers abroad for war purposes,” said Silva.

“There should be no more war,” she added, saying some Lolas always tried to talk to young people, especially young women, to be vigilant against all kinds of colonial wars so that their tragedy will no longer happen again.