ITang

Born in Sulawesi, Indonesia, Drafted year: 1945, 15y/o estimates, for 3 months

They were mainly Indonesians,

but there were women from other places, too.

There were about 40 people,

one in each room.

I went out to the market to buy some things. Suddenly, Japanese soldiers came and dragged me to Malimpong. Many women were dragged

to a huge barak (a house made of bamboo, sometimes it means “comfort station”). They were mainly Indonesians, but there were women from other places, too. There were about 40 people, one in each room.

I had to serve at least five soldiers a day. There was no condom, no treatment. Japanese soldiers managed the place, and some soldiers wore long swords. I was released three months later, when the Japanese soldiers left. It was about 30 kilometers from there to my home, and I walked home. My parents asked where I had been.

I told them I was taken by Japanese soldiers and I was afraid. My mother said it’s not my fault because I was forcibly taken away.

I married a man from the same hometown, and my husband knew what happened. My entire body is painful because of what the Japanese soldiers did to me.

I wish they give me help for everything. I need a lot of help as I’m sick and wounded.

* She cannot walk because she was injured in an auto accident in front of her house in 2015. She crawls on the floor in the house. Even after the surgery, she didn’t recover completely. She has to use a hose to urinate. She goes around her children’s homes to stay, and but the current house she lives in has no room for her that she put a mat behind the kitchen cabinet and made a ceiling with cloth.

Fausta Gomez

Born in Arayat, the Philippines, Drafted year: 1943, 12y/o, for a month

The villagers did not like me

because they knew I had been raped.

I married a man from another village.

My father passed away early, and I was working as usual to help my mother sell banana leaves at the market. In the afternoon, Japanese soldiers came and forced me into a truck. There were three women and many Japanese soldiers.

I was taken to Arayat Central School, which was being used as a military base. Each of the women was confined to a different room. I couldn't see them, but I could hear them crying.

In the evening, 2 Japanese soldiers came in and started beating and undressing me. I cried and resisted to stop. It was painful.

The soldiers didn’t come the next day. Later, the soldier who raped me came every night, but did not abuse me. During the month or two while I was kept in the base, I constantly protested to send me back home. He may have felt sympathetic that he told me to go home.

When I returned home, the house had been burnt down and my mother was sick in bed with a fever at my neighbor's home. I was in shock for a few months. The villagers did not like me because they knew I had been raped. I married a man from another village.

I want the Japanese soldiers would repent for the cruel acts they did to me. I want justice to be recovered before I die. And I want an official compensation.

* During our conversation, an old man was watching us from behind. I asked later who he was, and I was surprised to hear that he was her husband. I was impressed how her family shared and relieved her pain.

WEI Shao-lan 韦绍兰

WEI Shao-lan

韦绍兰

Born in Guangxi, China), Drafted year: 1944, 24y/o, for 3 months

I was pregnant with a Japanese soldier's baby,

and the baby was born.

My mother-in-law said this baby was a bad luck

and wanted to kill it after birth,

but let it live.....

I had already been married with a one-year-old daughter when Japanese soldiers came to the village. I was captured by the Japanese soldiers with my daughter on my back. Four other women and I were forced into a military truck.

Two of them resisted and they were shot to death. I was worried about my daughter so I just had to get in the truck.

I cannot forget the first time I was raped. The Japanese soldier lay down my child on the ground, and didn’t care if she cried while he did it to me.

I could not fight back out of fear that the soldier might hurt my baby or kill me. Four to five soldiers came per day.

About 3 months later, I ran away in the middle of the night with my child on my back who was asleep. When I came home, my father told me not to blame myself, because it wasn’t my fault.

My daughter had a stomach ache, but I couldn’t take her to the hospital because we didn’t have money. She died after three months. At the time, I was pregnant with a Japanese soldier's baby, and the baby was born.

My mother-in-law said this baby was a bad luck and wanted to kill it after birth, but let it live because it was a boy that she thought he could grow up and work.

* The villagers despise the mother and son(Luo Shanxue罗善学) for a ridiculous reason that he looks like a Japanese soldier. He couldn’t go to school regularly, and the two of them make living doing odd jobs in the village. Even now, it is obvious that their relatives look down on them.

LEE Su-dan 이수단

LEE Su-dan

이수단

Born in South Pyonggan, Korea, Drafted year: 1940, 19y/o, foar 5 years. left in Dongning. China

I thought I would be paid money and clothes

for doing chores in Manchuria.

I received 480 won as an advance payment

for a 3-year contract,

which I gave to my step mother.

It was a Japanese informant who took me away. He was wearing a uniform and a sword. I thought I would be paid money and clothes for doing chores in Manchuria. I received 480 won as an advance payment for a 3-year contract, which I gave to my step mother.

When I arrived in Manchuria, it was not a factory but a brothel type of place. The owner was a Japanese couple, and they called me Hidomiひどみ.

8-10 soldiers came a day. When soldiers bought the ticket, the owner gave them condoms.

A military doctor examined for sexually transmitted disease and found that I had a serious venereal disease.

I was sent to a hospital in Dongning东宁 and treated there for 10 days. When I was discharged from the hospital, I came back to find a “Do not enter” sign on my door.

All the cost for the medical treatment and the money I couldn’t make during the time became my debt.

After the war ended and liberation came, I decided not to go back because I didn’t think I’d feel comfortable in my hometown. I married a Chinese man near here.

He was so violent that all the neighbors told me to get a divorce. I couldn’t bear to live with him anymore, so I left and came to this nursing home alone.

* Since she couldn’t bear her own child, she became obsessed with baby. As she became schizophrenic, she put a picture of a baby in her room. The director of the nursing home gave her a baby doll. She treated it like her own baby that she talked to it and slept with it in her arms.

Martina Madeira Hoar

Born in Casabauk, East-Timor, Drafted year: 1942, 12y/o, for 3 years

I was about 12 years old,

and there were lots of young women.

I was a Japanese soldier’s wife.

A lot of soldiers came every day.

My parents were farmers. I was home alone when the Japanese soldiers came. I ran away out of fear. Meanwhile, my parents came back and they caught my parents. They made threats to take me away which they did immediately.

I was about 12 years old, and there were lots of young women. I was a Japanese soldier’s wife. A lot of soldiers came every day.

They did not hit me. I stayed there for 1 year like that before they told to me to go home.

After returning home, Japanese soldiers would come from time to time and ask for me. When my parents refused, they were beaten up and I was taken away. I had to go because they would beat my parents if I didn’t.

There was no doctor, no treatment and no medicine even if I got sick. They only fed me. I was released two years later when the war ended.

I don’t know when my sister was taken. I found out about it later. We were living apart because we had different fathers. I only heard about it after we started living together. I got married but I have no children.

When I look back what happened at the time, I get a headache. I have back pain and cough a lot. I wish I could fix the old house.

* She met her sister in 1975 and has been living with her in their relative's house since then. She is reluctant to talk about her past in front of other family members. It probably was extremely difficult for her to show her pain to a stranger who is also a foreigner, she said she was a Japanese soldier’s wife, to describe what she went through.

Dg Tija

Born in Sulawesi, Indonesia, Drafted year: 1945, 16y/o estimates, for 5 months

because I could’ve been killed if my father found out.

According to the culture of Gowa,

a woman must die if she experiences such thing.

My father did not know this until he passed away.

Around the time I was junior in the middle school, Japanese soldiers came to Ujung Pandang. First, they took my father, and ten days later, they took me away by four soldiers unbeknownst to my father.

There were about ten other women. I was usually raped by 3 soldiers a day. Sometimes two additional soldiers came.

I did not know what to do when they did that to me. I cried and told them I wanted to go home, but I couldn’t go and they continued to do it while I was crying. If I resisted, they tied my hands to a tree.

I started bleeding down there, but there was no treatment or medicine. Japanese soldiers gave me strange medicine after sex. I thought it was contraceptive.

There were women who died there. I felt listless when I heard a girl was sent back home after becoming sick, but she died a week later.

5 months later, Japanese soldiers left. I didn’t tell my father what happened to me

because I could’ve been killed if my father found out. According to the culture of Gowa, a woman must die if she experiences such thing. My father did not know this until he passed away.

I can’t even breathe well, and my whole body hurts when I get up. If the pain is too great, I go to see a doctor to get treatment and medicine. Then, I feel better. I want to keep on taking medicine.

* The house is so old it’s falling to one side. She has several children, and she lives with her fifth daughter, Salla.

Lucia Luriz

Born in Arayat, the Philippines), Drafted year: 1942, 12y/o, for 2 months

Sometimes I get nightmares

when I hear Japanese on TV.

The Japanese government should be held accountable

for what happened during the war.

I was hanging the laundered clothes on a clothesline when three Japanese soldiers came and grabbed both of my arms. I was scared because I could not understand what they were yelling in Japanese.

I was forcibly dragged to Arayat Central School. I was locked in a room alone. After a while, my sister Maria was also dragged there. Two soldiers came in the room,

and I tried run away from them in the room, but I was caught and beaten. When the first soldier raped me, I bled heavily and felt so painful. When the next soldier did it, I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, my clothes were wet with blood. My sister named Valeriana was also captured and in the same room, and she seemed to have gone through the same pain. Soldiers came back the next day.

My body was still swollen but they didn’t care. I cleaned during the day, and I was raped three or four times a week at night.

I told what happened to my husband when we got married. He accepted everything about me.

Sometimes I get nightmares when I hear Japanese on TV. The emotional and physical damages caused by sexual assault cannot be calculated in money. The Japanese government should be held accountable for what happened during the war.

* On one side of her room, halfway up the dark stairwell, there is a crucifix and a statue of Jesus for praying. It was beautiful and sad at the same time to watch her pray in the light pouring through the large window.

REN Lan-e 任兰娥

Born in Sanxi, China), Drafted year: 1944, 13y/o, for 15 days + 2 months(2times)

I don’t think Japan is the only problem

when it comes to this issue.

The Chinese government is the problem as well.

What I've been through is never a good thing.

I don’t want to talk about it,

because I am ashamed.

My father and a cousin were soldiers of the Eighth Route Army. A traitor had snitched on us, and the Japanese soldiers came to my house. They set a fire on my cousin's head, and my mother and I went on our knees and begged the soldiers not to abuse him.

But they dragged me into a room and raped me, and hauled me to Nangouchun南沟村.

There were two other women there.

One woman fought back and got stabbed to death, and the other women was so shocked that she became mentally ill. I, being the only one left, was raped by more than ten soldiers every single day.

I was released only after my family gave the traitor money and food. When I was dragged away the second time, there were 10 women there. This time, I ran away in a chaotic pitfall when the Eighth Route Army attacked the Japanese military base. After I got out, I hid in the attic every time the Japanese army came to town.

I don’t think Japan is the only problem when it comes to this issue. The Chinese government is the problem as well. What I've been through is never a good thing. I don’t want to talk about it, because I am ashamed.

In the past, there were times when some people brought me clothes and gifts. When my neighbors asked me why they gave me gifts, I didn’t tell them the truth.

* She had died once in 2013, but she woke up in the shroud after one hour. She forgot how to speak and could not say a word for a long while. She thinks she will not die again, because she has already died once.

PARK Cha-soon 박차순

PARK Cha-soon

박차순

Born in North Jeonra, Korea), Drafted year: 1942, 19y/o, for 3 years. left in Xiaogan, China

There were too many soldiers and women

but not enough rooms that they divided

the rooms in the middle with sheets

so the women could serve the soldiers

in each side of the room at the same time.

Officers came during the normal days,

My family was so poor that I grew up in my grandparents’ home near Jeonju(전주). I was working at a distillery at low wages but was sold to a brothel in Kyoungsung due to a debt with the owner. Then, I was sold again to a Chinese “comfort station.” I went through Nanjing南京, and arrived at Wuchang武汉 in Wuhan.

There were too many soldiers and women but not enough rooms that they divided the rooms in the middle with sheets so the women could serve the soldiers in each side of the room at the same time. Officers came during the normal days, but on Sundays, I had to serve about 20 soldiers. The Japanese managers distributed all the necessary items.

The rule was very strict that we were only allowed to go outside in a group.

After the war, they gathered women near the Japanese concession site.

I was scared and ran away with the help from a local. I wanted to go back home, but I did not know how to get back. I didn’t have parents there anyways, so I decided to stay there because I was ashamed of what I went through.

I got marrieåd in Xiaogan孝感, but I couldn’t bear a child. I adopted a little girl and raised her. In 1970, I had a surgery to remove my uterus, probably due to what I went through in the past.

* She had a step daughter, but she didn’t care about her. Twenty three volunteers and sixty five donors from Korea, Japan and China worked together to build a room for her who was living in a warehouse without a ceiling. I was glad to see her being happy and grateful that her winter will be warmer now.

Fransisca Marcedu

Born in Suai, East-Timor, Drafted year: 1942, 19y/o, for 3 years

Japanese soldiers called me Tomikoトミコ.

They never gave me any money or medicine.

I was just like a horse or a dog.

What I’m saying is all true.

I don’t know when it was, but Japanese soldiers came and asked my parents for me. I said that I didn’t want to go, but the soldiers forced me away.

From the morning till the evening, different soldiers constantly came in. When one was done, the other immediately came. I had to do it, because they said they would kill my parents if I didn’t obey.

Japanese soldiers called me Tomikoトミコ.

They never gave me any money or medicine. I was just like a horse or a dog. What I’m saying is all true. My meal was corn, instead of rice. I was with two other girls named Dafumako and Dou.

I hadn’t started my period before I went there, but after a year it began. I was there for about three years. The Japanese soldiers went home so I was able to come home, too.

When I think about those days, I get headaches. The tattoos on my arms and legs were done by a Japanese soldier. He asked me to get tattoos first when he was with me in the comfort station. I don’t remember what it said. (The writing is blurred. Only the pattern is visible.)

* She was able to have a conversation with me in 2014 but now she doesn’t remember me. Conversation is nearly impossible now. She cannot leave the room without help. She always carries a large leather-looking bag like a treasure. It contains the things she needs, such as hair combs and betel nut.