I want to build a monument bigger than Lady Liberty herself. I want her
to have wings and magic fairy dust. I want her to be able to fly around the
globe and light up the sky as bright as the supermoon. I want her to be a
singing monument, with a pitch so high and light and true butterflies will hear and know. I want her to transport Japanese officials back to that war and make them
sit like flies on walls of "comfort stations." I want them to see the girls -- girls not big enough to grow hips to hold men, or
breasts to feed their hunger. I want them to witness the
atrocities of war, these crimes against humanity and then I want to see if they
are irritated. Hell, I am irritated. Let the monument rise, loom larger than
life, cast a glow across all our faces.
Or maybe I will build my very own monument that nobody can tear down. I will use syllables and lines. I will use white space. I will build on images. I will grow the monument on details born of Lola Precilla, Narcissa, Cristeta and all the LILA women. It will be a house with a foundation built on truth and each brick will be the story of one of the 200,000 women and girls used in that war. From the windows will shine their light and everyone will see. I will erect a monument taller than the tallest Pinay. With a voice so plain and a story so big this monument will shadow that same supermoon, blind us all, strike the culprits down. No more hiding. No more silence. No more twisting truth. The monument will be a book so big not even the Library of Congress will be able to hold it. And the history so clear that even the dead will finally close their eyes. Will rest in peace. And maybe then, there will be healing.
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