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  • Essay / The lives of comfort women during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines

    The preparations made by the Commonwealth government for the country's independence were interrupted when the country was drawn into World War II. The Japanese treacherously invaded the country. For the next three and a half years, they imposed sovereignty over the Philippines. Before 1939, the democratic nations of the world saw how Germany, Italy and Japan committed aggression against all small and weak nations due to their imperialist goals and ambitions. With the war in the Pacific escalating, Philippine leaders began preparing the country and its people for war. The military preparation of Filipino youth has intensified. The United States sent additional troops and military equipment to the Philippines. Life was difficult for the majority of Filipinos during the Japanese era. There was a shortage of food, medicine and other basic necessities for the population to survive. As a result of this situation, food rationing began to be practiced in the cities. However, food shortages became very acute, especially at the end of the Japanese occupation, when farmers were forced to leave their farmlands to escape Japanese brutalities. This was extremely problematic, especially in areas where there were guerrillas. An atmosphere of fear and anxiety reigned, particularly for fear of being suspected of joining or supporting the clandestine resistance against the Japanese authorities. This was compounded by the proximity of government agents and associates who announced to the Japanese the existence of the guerrillas and their supporters. Torment and unlawful disappearances have become commonplace in many parts of the country. In addition to the above, the Filipinos could not escape the brutality and sexual desire of the Japanese soldiers. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In the past, prostitution in Japan was obvious and open. The Japanese government and military even implemented a similar program aimed at serving the Japanese armed forces. The Japanese army set up comfort stations to prevent venereal disease and assault from Japanese soldiers and to comfort their soldiers. Imperial Japanese Army military correspondence demonstrates that the purpose of encouraging comfort centers was to prevent aggressive actions committed by Japanese Army personnel and, therefore, to prevent the rise of the aggression among the inhabitants of the possessed regions. However, according to Japanese historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi, comfort stations did not solve the first two problems, but made them worse. Yoshimi asserted: “The Imperial Japanese Army feared most that the soldiers' latent discontent might explode into riot and revolt. That’s why she provided women.” Comfort women refer to thousands of young women of various nationalities who became sex workers for Japanese troops before and during World War II. Women were threatened and forcibly seized against their will in order to provide sexual services to the Imperial Japanese Army. Research shows that Japanese military sexual activity involved systematic planning and forced enlistment of approximately 20,000 Asian women in Japanese-occupied areas. This operation began after the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. The Japanese military provided its garrisons with so-called comfort centers, which served as brothels withsex slaves for the exclusive use of their men. This was the case in the Philippines, Korea, the South Sea Islands, Malaysia, Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) and Manchuria (northeast China). In December 1941, Japanese military forces landed on the island of Luzon, an American territory. Manila immediately surrendered and a military government was introduced on January 3, 1942. The Filipinos mounted a hostile guerrilla war and organized an opposition team to restrict Japanese rule in the country. A number of women were raped and abducted by violent means from garrison buildings, then confined there and forced to provide sexual services. Such victims may be considered comfort women. In many of these cases, their fathers or husbands were killed in front of their wives and other family members. At that time, Japan was a signatory to the International Arrangement and Conventions for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children and was prohibited from sending Japanese comfort women unless the women were elderly prostitutes. 21 years and over. Yet when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1941, they brought with them a few Korean comfort women. Needing more women, they rounded up Filipinos to become sex slaves. Many of the captives were teenagers and had little knowledge about sex. They were taken from their homes and brought to comfort centers without knowing what work awaited them. This military task was intended to satisfy the Japanese and maintain their military performance. Comfort stations have been installed in many places across the country, including Manila, Pampanga, Iloilo, Aklan, Sorsogon and Masbate. In these stations, women went through hell. According to the Philippine government's final report, many Lolas were forcibly taken away by Japanese soldiers from their homes. A few were taken from their homes while a few were working; or run an errand for their parents. Many of them were still single but there were other married women. Their length of detention varied from three days to more than a year. About 25 percent of them were confined for four months or more, while 17 percent were detained for three months and 16 percent for one month. All the Lolas were allegedly raped throughout their detention. More than 70 years have passed since the end of World War II, but the damage of Japanese colonialism and war is still fresh in several East and Southeast Asian countries. Despite her enormous historical contribution to our country, the Philippines, one cannot forget the scars and wounds she caused to all Filipino families. The first book is The Harrowing Story Of Filipina Women Enslaved In Japan's Wartime Rape Camps (2017) written by Dominique Mosbergen. It mainly explained how these Filipino women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during World War II. The author was able to interview M. Evelina Galang, 55, a Filipino-American novelist, essayist and educator. Galang said she wrote a book about the nation's greatest traumas. This is the story of how women finally broke their silence in the wake of war and terror; a testament to their courage and long-buried grief. The said book is a collection of stories she has collected over years of travel and interviews. Since 1998, she has recorded more than 40 hours of interviews with 15 “lolas”. This article aims to tell and tell what Mr. Evalina Galang hascollected over the years she immersed herself in the world of abused women. He was specifically discussing how women were treated. Taking into account their experiences, the author has included highlights of their miserable lives under Japanese rule. One of those interviewed was Prescilla Bartonico, who was 17 when she was captured by the Japanese. The year was 1943. Bartonico and a young cousin were cowering in an air-raid shelter on the Philippine island of Leyte with family members and neighbors; the sounds of gunfire and bomb explosions pierced the still air. Bartonico and his cousin were captured by the Imperial Japanese Army. They grabbed Bartonico's cousin and dragged her to the ground. The girl screamed, kicked and scratched the soldiers' faces. Three soldiers took turns raping her before killing her. For the next three months, Bartonico was imprisoned in a military garrison in the town of Burauen, Philippines. She said she was raped several times a day, “by five to eight” men. According to other accounts, young women were kidnapped from their homes in countries under Japanese imperial rule. In many cases, women were lured by promises of work in factories or restaurants, or by opportunities for higher education; once recruited, they were incarcerated in comfort centers both within their country and abroad. Hearing these stories, Galang said these “comfort women” were mostly 13, 14 or 15 years old. They weren't really women, they were girls. What I loved about her work was that she really immersed herself throughout the study. She literally put herself to the test to hear the painful stories of the comfort women. It was shown how determined she was to fight against the Japanese government because apparently, according to Galang, the Japanese government is doing their best to erase history. They say there is no proof, but she heard the evidence herself. She even touched him. “When I spoke to the Lolas, they would take my hand and touch their wounds – places where they were hit by soldiers or cut by knives, cigarette burns, bumps, scars and bruises. ", Galang said. The testimonies in the book provide deeply applicable lessons in this era – a time when large numbers of women are being assaulted and discriminated against in the Philippines, even in America where schools and universities are fighting the scourge of sexual brutality. Although the article reports important research interviews on the experiences of comfort women, I think it still lacks quantitative support to support this argument Although it used type sources. interview, the author could have incorporated figures to validate what the interviewees had said The following work is Anything but Comfort written by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo from the seventh volume of the book Kasaysayan: The History of the Filipino People. She has been a journalist for over 30 years, writing special features, features and a “Human Face” column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Ceres' written works have won awards and citations. She has also contributed to several major book projects. Many of his stories appear in his book “Journalist in His Country.” “This book focused primarily on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. It was detailed in the sense that it covered important events happening in the country. Similar to Galang's style, Doyo also included the interviews she obtained in her work, but the majority of herwork dealt with the status of Filipino women during this period when the Japanese were in the country. It was described how in 1993, with the help of the Filipina Comfort Women Task Force, 46 former Filipina comfort women, all between the ages of 60 and 70, filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government for obtain reparation and compensation. The Japanese government apologized and promised “gifts of atonement” – a billion-dollar, ten-year program for Asian victims. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and working group, however, criticized the plan as insufficient and recommended more immediate measures for rehabilitation and restitution. Lucia Misa from Bulacan also shared her heartbreaking story. She was 15 when Japanese soldiers entered her home. The soldiers stabbed Lucia's parents and, when her sister refused to accompany them, they cut off her breasts and disemboweled her. Lucie was taken to the garrison and held prisoner for three months. Every day she was raped by at least five soldiers. Another woman, Juanita Jamot, was pregnant when 15 Japanese soldiers burst into their rented room at Grace Park and took all the men away. She and four other women were raped, then taken to a building in Divisoria where they were held as sex slaves. The article cited several cases of abuse by Japanese soldiers and sufficient evidence to support the matter. The 1994 ICJ mission that reviewed documents and conducted interviews reported: “Life in the “comfort centers” was hell. Although Japan was among those who approved the 1907 Hague Convention guaranteeing regular troops in the affected regions and was therefore bound by it, the Imperial Japanese Army violated many provisions. Unfortunately, later councils that attempted atrocities, such as the Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo Tribunal), focused on the mistreatment of prisoners of war (POWs). Innocent civilians, like women used by the military, faced no consequences. Evidence like this helps reinforce the author's main point. Another source for this comparative analysis is Of Pain, Courage and Survival written by Emere Distor. This article describes the life of Maria Rosa Henson or "Lola Rosa". This was an interpretation of her work written to unravel the pain and struggles faced by many women in the past during the Japanese occupation. Lola Rosa was an outspoken, intelligent and courageous woman who overcame great obstacles to become a champion of justice for the most secretive and silent victims of World War II. Her widely read autobiography, Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny, published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in 1996, is touching. honest account of her life and times and is the only autobiography ever written by one of the more than 200,000 sex slaves held by the Japanese in Asia. Comfort Woman is a finalist for this year's National Book Award for Best Biography. Rosa Henson or “Lola Rosa” classically depicts the cruelty of poverty and helplessness. Yet, in the midst of pity, all things considered, Lola Rosa exudes strength. In her collection of memoirs, Lola Rosa, survivor of the outrage of the Japanese war, leads. readers to visit his life through the book with its own distinctive depictions and portraits of individuals and occasions long gone. Her story begins as the daughter of the owner's illiterate mistress, Julia. Rosa's mother,..