Lucia Luriz

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.

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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.

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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.