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FORUM March-April 2012 Image on left by Arlyn VCD Palisoc Romualdo, image on right from http://newshopper.sulekha.com/philippines-japancomfort-women_photo_1595035.htm
The Bahay ng mga Lola features a wall of photos honoring the Lolas.
Seven-decade struggle By Arlyn VCD Palisoc Romualdo
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olunteers were preparing materials—posters and flyers—at Bahay ng mga Lola (Grandmothers’ House) for the Labor Day rally. Despite the flurry of activity, someone could be heard doing laundry at the back, seemingly oblivious to the sweltering heat of the midday summer sun. That person, whom I met later, was Lola Lita. She was a comfort woman. She had such an easy smile that no one would have guessed Lola Lita was ever a victim of rape and sexual slavery. “I feel weak when I am not working,” she said as she wiped her hands. “I may be 82, but I am still strong. I can still do the laundry by hand.” She said she lives in Malabon, but for the time being, decided to stay at Bahay ng mga Lola, a temporary shelter for and resource center on comfort women of Liga ng mga Lolang Pilipina (League of Filipino Grandmothers) or LILA-PILIPINA. She talked about her childhood in Talisay, Negros Occidental—that they lived in the hacienda of Emiliano Lizares, where her father was a farmer; that she and her mother worked near the landing field at Tangub. She did not talk about her ordeal right away, preferring to complete the backdrop first. “At the town center, in front of the plaza, there was a church with a well, where I would often see the gardener get water for the plants. This was between 1943 and 1944. The Japanese, they were not so bad when they first arrived, but when the American forces continued to grow stronger, I saw how evil the Japanese soldiers could become.” She sighed and explained, “They would grab anyone and accuse him of being a guerilla. That well in the church I talked about earlier, the Japanese soldiers would bring their prisoners there and cut off their heads and throw the heads in the well.” She closed her eyes for a few minutes and it seemed that she was lost in her memories. “I will tell you what happened to me. I was 14 when I was abducted by Japanese soldiers and kept in their garrison. There were around ten of us there. My first night, a soldier grabbed me and I fought back. I struggled against him, which made him very angry. He pushed me then bashed my head against the wall. Everything just went dark after that.” Lola Lita then recalled how, when she regained consciousness, a fellow captive named Linda advised her to “stop fighting them. Just let them do what they want and they might keep you alive.”
Lolas continue to seek justice “I was 14. What do you know at 14? There were other women with me but I felt alone. I was scared, but I decided to follow Linda’s advice. I was in that garrison for two weeks. I was raped over and over again. It seemed like such a long time, but it was only two weeks. I could hear the fighting outside. I knew the Japanese were losing, but I did not dare go out. You know how I knew it was safe? I heard people shouting, ‘Victory, Joe!’”
Personal struggle, private hell Lola Lita went back to her family, who were happy because they had assumed that she was killed. She did not tell anyone that she was held against her will, and sexually abused for days. “I was too ashamed to even tell my family,” she tearfully admitted. She tried hard to act as if everything was alright, that things were back to normal. “I went back to school. In three years, I finished grade six. I was already 17 then. I could not stand being there. The shame was eating me up. The repeated rape kept haunting me. It would not leave me alone. The memories kept playing in my mind and would not let me forget. I needed to leave. I needed to go far away from there.” Lola Lita and other survivors of sexual abuse and slavery during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, some as young as 11 when they were raped, kept their experiences to themselves or within their families for fear of being ridiculed and misjudged. For fifty years, their internal struggles gnawed at their being, their demons known only to themselves. In her book, Disconnect: The Filipino Comfort Women, clinical psychologist Cristina Rosello says that “victims were blamed for the abuse they experienced… and were rejected even by their own families.” She adds that “without any source of security, the women left their villages and sought anonymity in cities…. Immeasurable pain was endured alone.”
Going public, exposing the truth Maria Rosa Luna Henson or Lola Rosa was the first Filipina who went public with her story. September 12, 1992 was the day she called the newlyestablished Task Force for Filipina Victims of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan also known as the Task Force on Filipino Comfort Women (TFFCW)\ In War Crimes on Asian Women: Military Sexual
Slavery by Japan during World War II published by the TFFCW, Lola Rosa narrates how, a few months earlier, she heard Lidy Alejandro of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) on the radio encouraging comfort women to fight for their rights. But it was not until September 3, when she heard Nelia Sancho of the TFFCW on the radio, saying that the task force was looking for Filipino comfort women and that two Korean comfort women were in the Philippines, that Lola Rosa decided to come forward. The existence of comfort women was first exposed by Koreans a year earlier during the Asian Women Human Rights Council (AWHRC) Regional Meeting and Conference on Traffic in Women in Seoul. Since then, many others have surfaced to tell their stories. Documented cases are in the hundreds but the real number is believed to be around a thousand. Those who have exposed their truths and realities were inspired and relieved that there was finally a collective and organized effort and they no longer needed to face their battles alone. With support from the TFFCW and other organizations, the survivors of WWII military sexual slavery and abuse were empowered to take on the public struggle for justice.
The long and arduous journey For five decades, their individual struggles hid behind silence and secrecy. Who knew the public struggle would take decades as well? Since the TFFCW was convened on July 13, 1992 by the AWHRC-Philippine Section with the BAYAN Women’s Desk; GABRIELA Commission on International Relations, Commission on Violence Against Women and Commission on Women’s Human Rights; Kanlungan Center Foundation; Batis Center for Women; Women’s Legal Bureau and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines Women’s Desk, justice remains elusive. There were 18 comfort women at the time the case was filed in the Tokyo District Court on April 2, 1993. They were Henson, Anastacia Cortez, Tomasa Salinog, Estelita Morandante, Rosario Nopueto, Francisca Austari, Julia Porras, Sabina Villegas, Rosita Nacino, Juanita Jamot, Maria Fe Santillan, Simplicia Marilag, Cristita Alcober, Justinia Villanueva-Pilo, Victoria Canlas Lopez, Purificacion Mercado, Rufina Fernandez and Felisa Decandulo. These women were the plaintiffs in the class suit against Japan, asking its SEVEN-DECADE STRUGGLE, p.13