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Thanks To All Who Post the Fight for Comfort Women on their Blogs!

April 16, 2007

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An Excerpt From Maria Rosa Henson's autobiography, COMFORT WOMAN: Slave of Destiny

Maria Rosa Henson, or Lola Rosa, was the first Filipina Comfort Woman of WWII to come forward publicly on September 12, 1992 . Because of Lola Rosa, many other Filipinas who had been living with this secret for over 50 years found the courage to come forward and finally speak their truth, finally ask for their apology, finally free themselves from the stories. Here is an excerpt from her book, COMFORT WOMAN: Slave of Destiny (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, 1996). This passage occurs in 1943. She's 16 years old and she has just been abducted and placed into a garrison, a former town hospital close to Magalang, Pampanga near Manila. Without warning, a Japanese soldier entered my room and pointed his bayonet at my chest. I thought he was going to kill me, but he used his bayonet to slash my dress and tear it open. I was too frightened to scream. And then he raped me. When he was done, other soldiers came into my room and they took turns raping me. Twelve sol

Unveiling

Jennine Ventura, M. Evelina Galang and host Sophia Hussain at Lolas' House launch, AAWW, NYC. As Gabriela New York's Jennine Ventura and I took the stage at Asian American Writers' Workshop on Friday, September 22, to launch LOLAS' HOUSE: Filipino Women Living with War, another work of art was also being launched. Unveiling of the "Comfort Women" statue in San Francisco . When I began my research in 1998, I could not find any text books with the women's stories. I could not find a memorial to their legacy anywhere. I could not find a photograph of the women, save a single black and white photo of four surviving Korean "comfort women," and one smiling soldier. On Friday night, as I read from my book, a book that took eighteen years of researching, interviewing, transcribing, translating, writing and revising, I was well aware of the historical significance of this day. I was sharing the day with artist Steven Whyte, who was also laun

Summary of Circumstances of My Sufferings: Prescilla Bartonico

Lola Precsilla Bartonico was born on January 6, 1926 on the island of Leyte, Philippines. Here is an excerpt from Lola Prescilla’s testimony to the Japanese government: One day in the late months of 1943 when I was about 17 years old, the Japanese soldiers captured us as we were hiding in one of the air raid shelters. We were only two women in that group who were all my relatives. They started raping my cousin while the other soldiers tied up the men. I was about 17 years old then. Then they tied me and one soldier raped me. I wanted to resist but I was too afraid to for fear of getting killed. After, they brought us to the town of Burauen and I was brought to the elementary school which they converted into garrison. We arrive in there late afternoon. I saw around 15 women who were also raped like what they did to me. After that, I was brought to the Home Economics Building and saw two women inside. Then my suffering started at the hands of the Japanese soldiers. We were bei

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