Josai University Educational Corporation Issues Surrounding the Wartime "Comfort Women" Author(s): Hayashi Yōko Source: Review of Japanese Culture and Society, Vol. 11/12, Violence in the Modern World (Special Issue) (DECEMBER 1999-2000), pp. 54-65 Published by: University of Hawai'i Press on behalf of Josai University Educational Corporation Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42800182 Accessed: 29-04-2015 11:51 UTC

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Issues

Surrounding "Comfort

the

Wartime

Women"

Hayashi Yõko

lawyerand has servedas HayashiYõko is a practicing to the advisor TokyoRape CrisisCentersince its legal in Her 1983. specialitiesincludeinternational inception humanrightslaw,labor,andfamilylaw. Apartfromher and privatepractice,she has servedin governmental is At she non-governmental organizations. present Civil Union. General of the Liberties Secretary Japan She was formerlya chairperson of the advisory Committeeof the Asian Women's Fund, a quasiorganizationfoundedby the Japanese governmental to government compensateformersex slaves (the socalled comfort women)duringWorldWar Two. She is the authorof Hatarakuonna tachino saiban [A case book on sex discriminationin the work place, co(GakuyüShobõ,1996). authored]

Association. In doing so, she firmlyrejected the expression"comfortwoman." During World War Two, the Japanese Imperial Army established "comfort stations" for the purpose of "preventing rape and sexually diseases." The brothelswere located in transmitted the vicinity of battlefields,where soldiers could enjoy having sex with "comfortwomen." For the soldiers, this system provided them with the "comfort"of women, yet forthe women involved, many of whom were abducted from their home countries, it was nothing but rape and sexual enslavement. Most of the women who were forciblydetained and repeatedly raped were young girls between eleven and twentyyears old. Many of the Filipina women were kidnapped while theywere washing clothes at the river, working in the fields, or walking to the local market.Many of the Korean women were induced by officials of the colonial governmentwith promises of good pay, to take workin Japanesefactories.All theseyoungwomen lefthome neverimaginingthattheywould become jügun-ianfu or comfortwomen for the Japanese ImperialArmy.Many of these girlswere so young thattheydid noteven know themeaningof sex. Historians estimate that fewer than 30 percent survived the ordeal throughthe end of the war. Afterthe war, the Japanese soldiers abandoned the

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Background "I refuse to be called a comfort woman. Although the word suggests somethingrelated to affectionor warmth,in reality,'comfortwomen' were subjected to the systematic rape of the Japanese state as well as its armed forces."1 In December 1992, a Dutch woman who was captured and systematically raped by Japanese soldiers in Indonesia during World War Two testified at the InternationalPublic Hearings on Japan's Responsibilityin World War Two, which was organized by the Japan Federationof the Bar

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Yoko Hayashi comfort women. In some military outfits, the comfortwomen were summarilyexecuted; some were ordered to commit suicide along with the Japanese soldiers. In other countries, they were killed in trenches.Many of themwere abandoned in jungles by the ImperialArmy and had to return home by themselves with great difficulty.2The survivorshad to live in patriarchalsocieties with serious physicaland psychologicalburdens.It took these women nearlyfiftyyears afterthe war ended to speak out about theirexperiences.3 The authoris aware thatthese victimsof sexual slaverydo notwant to be called "comfortwomen." However, as this word has been widely used in a historical context both in Japanese (jiigun-ianfu) and English,theauthorwill use it in thisessay. The authorwill firstillustratehow the issue of comfort women has developed as a political agenda for Japan and the countries concerned. Then the responses made by the women's movement, the Japanese government, and the international community, particularlythe UN, will be examined. the authoraims to introducethe plightof Finally the Filipina comfortwomen, which is littleknown to thepublic. Who Are Comfort Women?" It is said thatcomfortstationsoriginatedduring the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) when the Japanese ImperialArmyestablishedarmybrothels to allow its soldiers to buy sex. Afterthe Russian Revolution,when theJapaneseArmywas stationed in Siberia (1918-1925), then-Russia,brothelswere opened at each of the barracks, where soldiers could visitforrelaxationon weekends.5 In those days, although the Meiji government had enacted an ordinancecalled the"Emancipation of Prostitutes"in 1872, prostitutionwas deemed legal under police regulation.Young women who came fromrural areas, mostly daughtersof poor and were farmers,became victims of trafficking, forced to work at brothels in cities. It was those women who were sent to battlefield comfort stations.As historianSuzuki Yüko duly pointsout, "the governmentalpolicy on comfortstations in foreign countries was an extension of its policy

towardregulatedprostitution inside Japan." it is believed thatit was afterthe Today, widely Nanjing Massacre in 1937 thatthe JapaneseArmy became more aggressively involved in "hunting comfortwomen." Historical documents indicate thatit was Colonel Okamura Yasuji who invented the system. He was stationed in Shanghai where the Japanese Army fought against the Chinese Armyimmediatelyafterthe ManchuriaIncidentof 1941. He wrote in his memoirs: "A few incidents of rape cases occurredat the time of the Shanghai Incident, and thereforeI asked the governor of Nagasaki to send a group of comfortwomen (to Shanghai)."6The penal code thenin effectalready providedthatrape was a criminaloffense;thus,for those whose responsibilityit was to manage the army,it was necessary to preventcrimes such as rape. It is evident that the army's administrative body furnishedsoldiers with comfortwomen in order to "dispose of their sexual desires" and to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). However, it is ironic that the army,once it was accompanied by comfort women, did not stop committingrape.7 During the aggressive war against China, the Japanese Army employed the so-called "three sparkles policy "(sankõ-sakusen), that is, "kill everyone,deprive everyone,and burn everyone," which led to cruel massacre. At the time of the Nanjing Massacre, many Chinese women were raped and thenkilled by the Japanese soldiers, to hide evidence of their crimes. As the Japanese crimes were so atrocious, the soldiers' administrative body of the armyfeltit necessaryto be more directlyinvolved in the comfortstations, as well as to increase the numberof facilitiesand staffthereof.The memoirsof Aso Tetsuo, an army doctor, states that in 1928 he examined approximatelyone hundred comfortwomen in a comfortstationlocated in the suburbsof Shanghai. It is believed thatthiswas the firstcomfortstation directly operated by the army. According to Dr. Aso, about 80 percentof thewomen were Koreans, while the restwere Japanese. The armycontrolled thestationby prescribingregulationssuch as (1) its exclusive use by soldiers and armyemployees; (2)

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Yoko Hayashi the compulsory use of condoms and payment of admission fees; and (3) a time-limitfor usage of the station, i.e. thirtyminutes for each soldier. When the army moved locations, these women were also transported.Dr. Aso recalls, "Although army regulations had a provision on the of soldiers and horses, therewas no transportation on women. Therefore, in terms of provision transportation,these women were disguised as commodities."8 As thehistoricalfactsabove show, one reason it has been extremelydifficultto figureout the exact numbers and the real state of affairs of comfort women is because theywere not treatedas human beings. Having conducted gynecological examinations on comfort women, Dr. Aso concluded that the majority of Japanese comfort women were middle-aged, had been prostitutes before theywere drafted,and some sufferedfrom sexual diseases, while the majority of Korean comfortwomen were "young and inexperienced." Thus, in 1939, he advised the council of army doctors"to bringKorean women to the battlefields thereafter."In his memorandumaddressed to the council, he states, "Generally speaking, the youngera prostituteis, the betterher quality. We must reconsiderbringingpromiscuous prostitutes. Such older women are not appropriateas a giftto theimperialsoldiers.'" As Japan's aggressive war against China proceeded, the Japanese Imperial Army started draftingwomen in villages in Korea, which was then a colony of Japan. It is estimated that the numberof those women draftedwas between fifty and two hundredthousand.The exact figureis still unknownto thisday. The officials of the Kantõ Army Department, the departmentin charge of Manchuria,the northeasternregionof China, establisheda standardthat the army needed "one comfortwoman per thirtyfive soldiers," and implemented the idea by aggressively draftingyoung women from Korea. Some of thewomen were deceived by agentsof the armywho offeredthemjobs cleaning and cooking at the barracks;otherswere more forciblydrafted. It is reportedthatcryingwomen were abductedand

put into trucks while their family members, threatenedby knives, looked on. Yoshida Seiji, who was then the Director of Mobilization of the Patriots Association in Yamaguchi Prefecture, recountshis task of abducting comfortwomen in his books includingWatashi no senso hanzai (My own war crime; 1983). However, the credibilityof his publications have been questioned by some scholars.10 In addition to Koreans, women fromTaiwan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies (present-dayIndonesia)areas eithercolonized or occupied by Japan- have come forwardto speak about theirvictimizationas sexual slaves during World War Two. Among them, Korean, Filipino, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Dutch women have filed lawsuits against the Japanesegovernmentin Japanese courts.So farno order for compensation has been renderedexcept in one courtdecision."

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The Women's Movement It can be said that the existence of comfort women has been known to the Japanese public in general for some time. Since the 1970s, several books have been writtenon comfortwomen by male authors such as Senda Kakõ and Kim II Myeon.12 However, it was mostly the women's movement in various Asian regions, particularly that of South Korea, that broughtattentionto the comfortwomen. The women's movementsingled out this issue and highlighted it from a human rightsviewpoint,eventuallymakingit a diplomatic agenda forthe countriesinvolved. In South Korea, comfortwomen were called "teishintai" (drafted women/girls),which refersto people who service the military.In 1990, ProfessorYun Jeong Ok, a female scholar from Ihwa Women's University, wrote a series of articles on comfo»1women. The articles, which were a product of more than ten years of Professor Yun's research, received a tremendous response from readers. As it was publishedin May of 1990, at thetimethatNo Te-u the Korean president was to visit Japan, it encouraged activists to demand thatthe Japanese government claim responsibility for its

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Yoko Hayashi colonizationof the Korean peninsula. Many have observed a link between the Korean people's awareness of "drafted women" and the factthatKorean women have finallystartedtalking about theirpersonaland sexual experiencessuch as domestic violence and sexual violence against women in police custody. A woman scholar studyinggender at Ihwa Women's Universityhas pointedout thatbecause the centralissue is one of women's human rights,society needs to change its perceptions;it is incorrectfor Koreans to perceive the drafted women as "victims who lost their v iginity"or "who were strippedof theirloyalty"(to in response theirhusbands).The Japaneseparliament, to the developmentsin Korea, startedengagingthe issue. In June1990, replyingto a questionregarding comfortwomenby Motooka Shôji, an M.R fromthe Social-Democratic Party(SDP), a bureaucratfrom theLabor Ministryansweredthatit was impossible for the Japanese government to investigate the matter, as the so-called comfort women were obtainedby civic entrepreneurs. This answer provoked people both in South Korea and Japan.The most visible and astonishing outcome was thata comfortwoman survivorcame forwardpubliclyand contactedThe Council on the Women's Voluntary Service Corps (WVSC), oiganized by ProfessorYun. The sixty-eight-yearold survivorKim Hak-Sun told the press that she decided to speak out as she was so disgustedwith the lies of Japanese bureaucrats. Her appearance encouraged othersurvivors.Those survivorswere eventually organized by WVSC and started requesting certain actions of the Japanese includingthefollowing: government, (1) Admit to the historical fact that Japan forciblydraftedcomfortwomen and took them to the battlefield, and apologize officiallyfortheabove facts. (2) Fully investigate the system under which comfortwomen stationswere operated and publicize it. (3) Financiallycompensatethe comfortwomen survivorsand theirbereaved families. (4) Continue talking about these facts, and do notrepeatsuch atrocitiesin thefuture.

Significantly, national movements in each countrywhere comfortwomen existed have strong links with the international community. International events such as the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights (1993), the fourth WorldConferenceon Women (Beijing Conference; 1995) and the UN General Assembly entitled "Women 2000" (New York Conference; 2000) have played importantroles in addressingthe issue of comfortwomen. One of the most prominent achievements of support groups was the UN Human Rights Commission's appointment of a special rapporteuron violence against women in 1994. The reportthat Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan lawyer, submitted in March 1996 focused on comfortwomen as an addendumto her In her report,she advocates that regular report.13 "In accordance with the approach adopted by relevant international human rights bodies and mechanisms,comfortwomen be considereda clear case of sexual slavery and a slavery-likepractice." In conclusion, she recommended the Japanese governmentdo thefollowing: (a) Acknowledge that the system of comfort women violated international law and accept legal responsibility for that violation. (b) Pay compensationto individualvictimsand set up a special administrativetribunalfor thispurpose. (c) Ensure that a full disclosure of related documentshas been made. (d) Make a public apology in writing to individualwomen. (e) Raise awareness of these issues by amendingeducationalcurricula. (f) Identifyand punish perpetratorsinvolved in the recruitmentand institutionalization of comfortstations.14 The Response of the Japanese Government Thanks to the call fromthe civic movementin South Korea, the Japanese governmentdelivereda name list of approximatelynine thousandKoreans who were draftedduring World War Two to the Korean governmentin March 1991. In December

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Yoko Hayashi 1991, threeformercomfortwomen and thirty-two male Koreans who had formerlybeen Japanese soldiers or representedtheirbereaved familiesfiled a lawsuit against the Japanese government requesting twenty-million yen per head for individual compensation by the state. In January 1992, Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki of Chüo Universityfound documentsevidencing the direct involvement of the Japanese Army in the establishment, maintenance, and operation of comfortstations.It was about the time thatPrime Minister Miyazawa was to visit South Korea. A massive group of demonstratorssurrounded the Japanese Embassy in Seoul seeking an "apology and compensation," and the events were broadcastedin Japan.Given thissituation,theChief Cabinet SecretaryKatõ Kõichi, made a statement thatadmittedthe Japanese Army's involvementin the comfortwomen issue for the firsttime. Then on 17 January1992, while visiting South Korea, Prime Minister Miyazawa at last expressed officially his personal regret about the comfort women. However, the Japanese governmentstill insisted that althoughit admittedthe involvement of the Japanese Army,therewas no evidence that thewomen had been forciblyrecruitedor subjected to forcedprostitution againsttheirwill. listened to such assertions by the Having government,Shimizu Sumiko, who was an M.P. from the Social-Democratic Party, and others, called foran officialinvestigation.In July1993, an investigation by the Japanese government was carriedout in South Korea, but not in otherareas. On 4 August 1993, the day the Miyazawa administrationresigned,the Japanese government issued a statementthroughChief Cabinet Secretary Kõno Yõhei. The statementacknowledged thatthe recruitment of comfort women was often conducted by means of deceit and coercion, generallyagainst the woman's will, and that such conduct injured the honor and dignity of many women. Later in August 1993, the Hosokawa administration, which broke the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) more than forty-year rule after World War Two for the first time, officially acknowledged that World War Two

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was "an aggressive war," and referred to its responsibilitiesarisingfromthewar. Though Prime Minister Hosokawa's attitudetoward World War Two was progressivein comparisonto the LDP's, which includes ultra-nationalistswho insist there was no wrong doing on the partof Japanin World War Two, he resigned withoutimplementingany concretemeasures. In August 1994, around the time of the 50th anniversaryof the end of the war, Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi stated unequivocally a "profound sense of remorse" and offered "apologies" for the sufferingof formercomfort women. In the statement,he announced that the governmentand the Japanese people would seek nation-wide participation in spreading such sentiments.The Project Team of the rulingparties coalition (the LDP, SDP, and Sakigake) contemplated the realization of this idea and, in December 1994, it suggested that a fund, in cooperation with the Japanese people, be established, which would support activities to obtain honor and dignityfor the formercomfort women. Following the recommendation of the Project Team, the Asian Women's Fund (AWF) was established in July 1995, with Hara Bunbei (formerchairman of the House of Councillors of the Japanese Diet) as its president.As the author will touchupon later,opinionswere divided among supportgroups as to whetherthe establishmentof AWF could be viewed as a step forward.The main cause of the division stems fromAWF not being intended to accept legal responsibility for the Japanese governmentand its people; it seeks to fulfilla moral obligation.Some also criticizeAWF, saying that the Japanese government is to be blamed, and thatit is not fortheJapanesepeople to accept legal, monetary,or moral responsibility. In the lawsuit thatthe comfortwomen filed,the plaintiffsrelied on internationalhuman rightsand humanitarianlaws as theirlegal basis. The major to which the Filipino case refersis legal instrument The Hague Convention of 1907, which Japan ratified in 1912; Japan was bound by the same when it began attacks in the Philippines in 1941. The Hague Convention of 1907 is categorized as

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Yoko Hayashi the definitiveinternationallaw on wartime,and its regulationsprovide that the warringparties shall respect and honor the rights of a family, the individual,personal property,and religious beliefs and practices (Article 46 of the regulation). In a patriarchalsociety, the rape and sexual abuse of women constitutes a serious violation of family life. If the law is breached, Article 3 provides: "belligerent parties that violate the provisions of the said regulationsshall, if the case demands, be liable to pay compensation. Such parties shall be responsible for all acts committed by persons formingpart of its armed forces." As the resultof such a breach,whetheror not an individualvictim can pursue compensationdirectlyfromthe warring nation poses another question. There is no precedent, at least in the Japanese courts, and opinions among legal scholars are divided on this point. Under traditional international law, postwar reparationshave been deemed a matterbetweenthe warringnations.Yet the statusof theindividualhas improvedremarkablyunderinternationallaw since World War Two, influencing the practice of postwar compensation (the compensation offered by West Germanyto Nazi victimsor by the U.S. to JapaneseAmericanspursuantto the Civil Liberties Act, are examples).15 Recently, one school of internationallaw has argued thatbilateral treaties signed between warringparties do not affectthe legitimacy of individual claims unless she/he is fullycompensated.AWF was founded,not forthe purpose of addressingthese legal questions,but to practicallyassist survivorsin need. Filipina Comfort Women In this section, the author wishes to discuss sexual enslavementby theJapaneseImperialArmy in the Philippines during World War Two, an incident less known to the public than that of Korean women. On 8 December 1941, the day the JapaneseNavy attackedPearl Harbor,the Japanese Army firstlanded in Davao City, on Mindanao Island, and thenon Luzon City two days thereafter. With the outbreak of the Sino- Japanese War in 1937, Japan declared that it would found "The

Greater East Asia Co-ProsperitySphere," and in the case of the Philippines,it promisedto liberate the U.S. colony. Japan established a military administration in the Philippines, changed the names of streets and towns into Japanese, and imposed Japanese language in schools. However, Japanwas not able to gain total dominationin the Philippinesbecause of strongresistancefromboth the Filipino guerilla forces and the U.S.. Filipinos were so resistant that some of them stopped attendingschool in protest.A sixty-four-year-old woman, whom the author interviewed on Cebu Island in 1993, said thatshe did not complete high school because she was told by her mothernot to go to school "because Japanese language classes had started." Yet a Japanese soldier named this woman, who worked as a laundry woman at the barracks,"Sachiko" (she stillcan writethename in kanji [Chinese characters]).She was gang-rapedby threesoldiers. In addition to ordinarydisobedience, Filipinos became involved in guerilla activitiesimmediately aftertheoccupation.The most notableorganization that engaged in guerilla activities was the Hukbalahap (People's Army against Japan),which was formed in March 1942. Maria Rosa Luna Henson, who later became the first "comfort woman" survivorto speak out in public, belonged to thisorganizationand engaged in deliveringfood and clothing before she was captured by the Japanese Army. In 1993, the author also intervieweda woman who was sexually torturedby Japanese soldiers. She was strippedand her pubic hair burntby torch,because the soldiers suspected her of shelteringguerillas. She claims thatneither did she have any relationwiththe guerillas nor did she shelterany of them.(The authornotes thatshe referredto theguerillas as "our soldiers,"while she called the Japanese "theirsoldiers.") The Japanese killed a large numberof Filipino citizens between January1942 (during the occupation) and August 1945 (when Japan surrendered). One can trace some of the atrocitiesthroughthedocumentsof the militarytribunals,which took place afterthe war (both the U.S. Military Tribunal and the Manila MilitaryTribunal). Takagi Ken'ichi, a prominent

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Yoko Hayashi human rights lawyer in Japan, who was chief lawyer in the Filipina comfortwomen lawsuit, in contrasting the Korean and Filipino suits commentedas follows: First,while Korean women were either "recruited" or abducted from the Korean Peninsula and then transportedto China and throughoutSoutheastAsia as comfortwomen, mostFilipina women were sexually enslaved in the Philippines. Second, many of the Filipina victims were massacred or tortured and suffered other kinds of atrocitiesas theirhome villages became battlefields. It is said that at the time of Japan's surrender, there were approximately 130,000 Japanese nationalsin the Philippines.The outcome of recent historicalresearchalso indicates thattherewere a numberof comfortstationsforJapanesesoldiers in various parts of the country. For instance, the following are descriptions found in military documents:16(1) In 1943, there were seventeen comfortstations in Manila, where 1064 comfort women were registered. (2) The military kept medical recordsof comfortwomen located in Iloilo on the Panay Island. (3) There was a reporttitled "An Investigation of Military Comfort and Recreation Facilities" drafted by the chief of military police on Leyte Island. However, one cannot obtain a complete picture of the comfort stationsystemin the Philippinesunless the topic is morefullyresearchedand investigated. In December 1991, Korean comfort women belonging to the Association of Pacific War Victims and Bereaved Families filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in the Tokyo District Court. Filipina women, in solidaritywith the Korean movement,supportedthe suit. In doing so, theycame to know theirown historyand of the countless women who were systematicallyraped by Japanese soldiers duringthe war. The Filipina women's group eventuallyswitched theirpurpose from supporting Korean victims to locating Filipina survivors. In July 1992, seven women's organizations in the Philippines formedthe Task Force for Filipina Victims of Military Sexual Slavery by the Japanese (they later changed their name to Lila-Pilipina in May 1994), to provide a

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national support mechanism in the campaign for justice for Filipina comfortwomen survivors.Yet therewere no victimswho came forwardpublicly at the time.The task forceused the media to starta public awareness campaign. It was their radio announcement that finally encouraged Lola (Auntie) Rosa to become the firstFilipina survivor to speak out. The familyof Maria Rosa Luna Henson hid in a cave when the Japanese forces arrived in their village. She gatheredwood to sell as firewoodto supporther family.When she was fifteen,she was gang-raped by three Japanese soldiers and was rescued by a farmer. After she and her family moved to herparents'hometownin Pampanga, she joined the guerilla unit of Hukbalahap, an antiJapan organization. In April 1943, she was abducted by soldiers at a militarycheckpoint,was broughtto the garrisonand forcedto have sex with the soldiers. For threemonths,she was raped from morningto evening; she could only rest when all the soldiershad finishedrapingher.Sometimesshe saw other women being broughtto the garrison. She suffereda miscarriageand contractedmalaria. She was rescued when the rebels stormed the garrison.17 On 30 June1992, Ms. Henson heard a message on the radio about a women's group searchingfor survivorsof sexual victimizationduringthe war. It said, "Do not be ashamed. Please step forwardand come to us. It is not your fault. Let us fight together."Subsequently, in September she heard the voice of Nelia Sancho, a well-knownfeminist of theTask Force, on the activistand representative radio and decided to contact them. In November 1992, Ms. Henson received wide media coverage both in the Philippines and Japan as the first Filipina comfortwoman survivorto finallyspeak out. Her appearance inspiredothervictimsto come forth,and by August 1993, over ninetycomfort women survivorshad contactedtheTask Force. Ms. Henson and seventeen Filipina women filed a lawsuit in April 1993 in the Tokyo District Court against the Japanese governmentto seek twentymillion yen per person in compensation. Prior to filing the case, the plaintiffs,the Task

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Yoko Hayashi Force, and Japanese human rights activists and lawyerscommunicatedwitheach otherintenselyin preparation. Another forty-sixFilipina women joined the suit in September 1993, bringing the totalnumberof plaintiffsto sixty-four. The following are portions of the plaintiff's profiles recorded in the booklet writtenby LilaPilipina, Update on Filipina Victims of Sexual Enslavement by Japanese Armed Forces during WorldWar Two.

Hokumora abducted her and literallymade her his slave. Tomasa endured her fate with the lone officer preferringthe situationto the mess house with the endless assaults. When the Japanese left Antique,Tomasa returnedto herhouse. She continues to live alone on Santiago Street in San Jose, Antique. Her experience at the hands of the Japanese has hurther a great deal. She is afraid that if she marries,her husband will only hurther as thesoldiers did.

(1) Tomasa Salinog18 Sixty-fouryearsold, San Jose,Antique Born on 2 December 1928 in San Jose, Antique In 1942, when Tomasa was just thirteenyears old, the Japanese came to San Jose. Tomasa and her father,among others, were evacuated to the mountains of San Remigio. After a week the governorof theprovinceasked themto come down fromthehills,sayingtheywould notbe harmedby the Japanese. Due to the scarcity of food in the mountains,Tomasa and her fatherreturnedto San Jose. Tomasa's house at Santiago Street was only thirtymeters fromthe Japanese garrison. Aftera few quiet days, soldiers led by a Captain Hiruka climbed into theirhouse to take Tomasa away. Her fatherresistedand was slain. Tomasa was brought to a mess house at Gobierno Street near the garrison. When Tomasa arrived, the place was already full of frightened girls. Right after Tomasa arrived, the captain and another soldier entered the room and raped her. Tomasa foughtthe second rapistand was struckin the head with a blunt instrument, which made her lose consciousness. Tomasa lost count of the number of soldiers who raped her duringher stay in the mess house. She recalls being raped fromafternoonto midnight before she was even old enough to have her menstrualperiod. One day, Tomasa escaped and for a few weeks lived with a Filipino couple. But as fate would have it, another soldier by the name of Colonel

(2) JuliaPorras19 Sixty-threeyears old, Bincungan, Davao del Norte Juliawas seized by Japanese soldiers while she was cooking rice inside her house in Bincungan, Davao del Norte,one fatefulmorningin November 1944. She was loaded on to a militarytruckand takento thetown of Ising (now knownas Carmen) in Davao del Norte. For eight months,she lived inside a huge tunnelthatserved as the town's air raid shelter.With two other girls, she performed household chores and was sexually abused constantly.The sexual slaverycame to an end only when theJapaneseforcein Ising surrendered. (3) JuanitaJamot20 Sixty-eightyears old, 16 Baiubad Road, Twin River Subd., Nangka, Marikina Born on 12 November 1924 in Calbayog City, Samar Juanitawas pregnantat the timefifteensoldiers barged into the rentedrooms where she and others lived in Grace Park and forciblytook all the males they could find. The five women were dragged outside and raped in a nearbyarea. They were then brought to a place called the Oraca Building in Divisoria, where they became sex slaves for the soldiers. Throughoutthe threeweeks thatJuanitastayed in the Oraca Building, she was raped by ten or more soldiers every day. She was raped from morning to evening. During the thirdweek, the soldiers broughtthe women to Intramuros.Juanita had a miscarriage there. In Intramuros,she was sent to a churchbuilding along with otherFilipino

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Yoko Hayashi prisoners. Numerous prisoners died when the Americans bombed Intramuros, but Juanita miraculouslysurvived,by hidingbeneath a pile of corpses. Afterthe war, she worked as a housemaid and in 1968 moved in with a man who worked as a driver. After a year, she left him because he mistreatedher.Juanitanow lives alone. (4) Sabina Villegas21 Sixty-sevenyears old, Arayat,Pampanga Sabina was just seventeen years old in March 1942 when theirvillage in Arayat,Pampanga was raided by the Japanese Army. Sabina's fatherwas bayoneted when he tried to prevent the soldiers fromtakinghis two daughters. The women fromthe village were loaded on a truckand broughtto the forestin Arayat. Sabina and her sisterwere raped thatnightin the forestby two soldiers. The next morning,theywere brought to the town of Magalang where the Japanese had theircamp behindMagalang Municipal Hall. Sabina and her sisterwere placed inside a tent along withfive soldiers,who raped themwhenever they had the urge to do so. Sometimes, soldiers from other tents would rape them as well. For almost three months, the sisters were never allowed to go outside of their tent except to do some cooking and washing. When the sisters fell sick with malaria and became too thin,theywere sent home. They found theirhouse burned to the groundby theraidingsoldiers. Sabina married and has her own family. Her sisterwas affectedso badly by theirexperiencethat she developed a speech impedimentand oftentimes just staresblanklyat thewall. (5) Anastasia Cortes22 Sixty-nineyears old, Sta. Rita, Pampanga Born on 15 August 1923 at Sta. Rita, Pampanga One night in 1943, Japanese soldiers forced themselves inside Anastasia's house and took her and her husband Guillermo, a sergeant of the Filipino Army,and broughtthem to the Spanish quartersof FortSantiago in Intramuros. Inside one of the chambers,Anastasia was first

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made to witness her husband being torturedat the hands of the Japanese. Then, she was subjected to repeatedsexual assaults by thecommandingofficer named Fukishima and by othersoldiers. Anastasia was sexually molested by as many as three soldiers,threetimesa week, forfivemonths. After seven months of incarceration and extreme physical and psychological suffering, of Anastasia was released throughthe intervention her mother-in-lawand a Japanesepriest,Reverend Fujita. She neversaw Guillermoagain. She found herself pregnant after the long ordeal. She marrieda policeman,but was neverbe able to tell him that one of theirsix childrenhad been conceived when she was raped during her captivity in Fort Santiago. She was twenty-six yearsold at thetime. (6) Nenita GertrudesBalisalisa23 Seventy-threeyears old, Legazpi City,Albay, Bicol After Gertrudes's husband was assigned to Legazpi City as districtengineer, Gertrudeswas leftalone in the house withher daughters.One day, a militaryvehicle bearingthe red sun emblem took Gertrudes from her house and brought her to Regan barracks in Albay. Gertrudes and some other women were taken to an outpost and were told what to do with the "visiting" Japanese officers. Three or four times a week, three to four officers would rape Gertrudes and the other women. When at firstshe refused,she was beaten so severely with a walking stick that she could hardlywalk. During "rest" periods, Gertrudeswas forcedto cook meals and wash clothes. The girls were not allowed to communicatewitheach otherduringthe one year and two monthsthattheywere keptat the outpost. When the Americans arrived, the girls took advantageof thefightingto escape. Gertrudeswent home to Legazpi City,but her husband would not have anything to do with her anymore. Her relatives also looked down on her for bringing dishonorto the familyname. Her relativesforbade

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Yoko Hayashi her childrento call her "mother" ever again. Her children,now adults, are in the United States, but have had no contact with her ever since they stopped recognizing her as their mother. Her familyblames her forwhat happened to her during theJapaneseoccupation. Abandoned by her family,Gertrudesdepends solely on herselfto pay for her medical treatment. She suffersfromscoliosis and is in constantpain fromthewaist down. More than two years afterthe Filipina women filed theirsuit for compensation,Asian Women's Fund (AWF) was founded in Japan in July 1995. The premise of AWF is to accept moral responsibility for the actions of the Japanese government as well as its people, and to offer assistance and fundscollected fromthepublic. The Japanese government initiated the inception of AWF and subsidizes all the costs of its operations. In addition, the governmentdecided to disburse approximately 700 million yen (approximately U.S. $66 million) fromthe national budget over a five-yearperiod,commencingin 1996, to fundthe Medical and Welfare Support Projects. The projects aim to improve the living standard of comfortwomen survivorsby providinggoods and services such as housing improvements and medical treatment.Since its inception in 1995, approximately 482 million yen (approximately U.S. $4.5 million) has been donatedby individuals, labor unions, and privateindustryto the survivors as "atonement money." Two million yen (approximatelyU.S. $19,000) per person has been distributedto approximately170 comfortwomen survivors (as of July 2000) in the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan.24The delivery of the money is accompanied by a letterfromthe prime minister, expressing his sincere remorse and apologies to therecipient. NGOs have been sharplydivided as to how to evaluate AWF. The majorityof supportgroups for comfortwomen have been verycriticalof AWF, as AWF itself does not solve mattersof individual compensation. Some activists have strongly denounced AWF as a tool of the Japanese govern

ment to avoid state compensation, and have encouragedKorean,Filipino,and Taiwanese groups notto receive assistancefromthem.In the midstof the controversy,on 6 August 1996, Lila-Pilipina passed a resolution that created a committee to help women who wished to take advantage of AWF's services. The committee has actually assistedmanywomen who are in need to help. The Tokyo DistrictCourt dismissed the claims of Filipina comfortwomen in October 1998 by supportingthe Japanese government's view that neitherinternationalnor domestic laws could be grounds for individual compensation,and that all such claims had already been settled by the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Japan-Filipino Reparation Treaty.The plaintiffsappealed to the Tokyo High Court, and the suit is currentlystill pending. Since the suit was filed, a number of plaintiffshave passed away withoutwitnessingits outcome. It is extremelyunfortunatethatnone of the political parties in Japan have been working seriouslyto solve thisissue throughlegislation. Conclusion The authorvisited Cebu Island in August 1993 and interviewedFilipina comfortwomen survivors as a member of a panel of lawyers representing them.When the Japaneselawyers' team visitedthe Ministryof Justicein Manila, a female bureaucrat who spoke to the team emphasized: "We worked very hard to identifythese victims. The fact that thesewomen are stillalive means thatthemen who raped themare stillalive, too. It is yourturnto find them and have them confess to what they have done. Unless Japanese people dare to take such actions, the facts will remain hidden in history." Her words explain clearlywhy the comfortwomen issue is not a thing of the past but remains a contemporaryissue. Also duringthe author'svisit to Cebu Island in 1993, the author attended a public gathering organized by the local women's group on her behalf. A few women who were rape victims of Japanese soldiers duringWorld War Two came to talk about their experiences. The author gave a speech on the progression of their lawsuit in the

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Yoko Hayashi Tokyo courts.At the end of the meeting,a woman stood up and spoke quietly in the local Cebuano dialect. "Today we talked about women as victims. However, please keep in mind that Cebuano women assisted theirhusbands and fathersduring the Japanese occupation and that they themselves foughtagainstJapanas guerillas." Since the Filipina women filed their suit in 1993, the internationalcommunity has seen the development of certain mechanisms that address

issues involving violence against women. Most notably,in 1998, the Rome Diplomatic Conference adopted the charterof the InternationalCriminal Court (ICC), underwhich rape is definedas a war crime for which perpetratorscan be prosecuted beyond nationalborders.It is now theobligationof our generation to develop and implement these principles that universally protect survivors of sexual violence, which have been gained in return forthesuffering of so manywomen.^5

Notes 1. This testimonyis recordedin JeanneO'Herne, "Reipusaretaonna no sakebi"[Screamof a raped woman],Fukuinsenkyo[Evangelization magazine] (May 1993): 18-39. 2. Lila-Pilipina,ed., Update on Filipina Victimsof Sexual Enslavementby Japanese ArmedForces duringWorldWarTwo (Quezon City,Philippines). Date ofpublication unknown. 3. There has been enormouscontroversyover the numberand survivalrateof comfort women.U.S. Karen Parker once stated that thecomfort lawyer women numbered more than two hundred a view adoptedby some UN documents thousand, Karen Parker and Jennifer F. Chew, (see "Compensation for Japan's World War Two WartimeVictims,"Hastings Internationaland Law Review, vol. 17 [1994]: 498-99). Comparative Yet more recentresearchpoints to the lack of historicaldocumentsand materialssupporting Parker's argument.Wada Haruki has examined variousmethodsemployedby otherscholarsand activistson how to assess thenumberof comfort and the ratiowho safely women,theirethnicity, returnedhome. He concludes thatthe comfort womennumberedless thanfiftythousand,there were moreJapanesewomenthanbelieved today (Koreanswerenot themajority),and theratioof thosewhoreturned safelywas "between25 and 90 percent"(Wada Haruki,"Nihongunno ianjo to to theAsian 'ianfu,"'unpublished paper,submitted Women's Fund's "Roundtable on Comfort Women"(Tokyo,February 2000). 4. In writingthischapter,the authoris indebtedto SuzukiYüko's following works: naisen kekkon: sei no shinryaku. (1) Jügun-ianfii, sekinin wo Sengo kangaeru[Comfortwomen,

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5. 6. 7.

8. 9. 10.

11.

marriage between Koreans and Japanese: thinkingabout sexual invasion and postwar (Tokyo:Miraisha,1992). responsibility] (2) Chõsenjinjügun-ianfii-shõgen Shõwa-shino a danmen[Koreancomfort womentestmonies: cross section of Shõwa history] (Tokyo: IwanamiShoten,1991). naisenkekkon , 52. Suzuki,Jugun-ianfu, 53. Suzuki,Chosenjin jügun-ianfu, Historiansarguethatthe purposeof establishing of stationswas, apartfromtheprevention comfort to have STDs were and (women required rape medical exams), to preventespionage (since foreignwomencould not speak Japanesenorthe languages of the locale wherethe stationswere located,thearmythoughtthattheywould not be SuzukiYüko able to leak anysecretinformation). citesa memoirof an armydoctorwho recallsthat to ease thestressof soldiers,thebestsolutionwas women.Suzukialso to providethemwithcomfort administrative out that the bodywas army's points so afraidof soldiersdeserting,thatit wishedto controlthe soldiers' sexual lives as well. The authorof thisessay sharesthisview. Ratherthan exploring the superficialpurposes of comfort ofrape,"thecontrol womensuchas the"prevention mentallives is exertedoversoldiers'sexualand/or to understanding theissue. muchmoreimportant 20. Suzuki,Chosenjin jügun-ianfu, Ibid.,26. For example,Hata IkuhikochallengesYoshida s credibilitythroughhis fieldworkin the Korean peninsula. Hata Ikuhiko,Ianfu to senjo no sei [Comfort women and soldiers' sex in the 1999). battlefields] (Tokyo:Shinchõsha, In April 1998, the Shimonosekibranchof the

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Yoko Hayashi

Yamaguchi DistrictCourtorderedthe Japanese to pay 300,000 yen (approximately government U.S. $2800) per personforthreeformercomfort women fromKorea, on the grounds that the has neglectedto remedytheir Japaneseparliament Both partiesappealed,and the case is suffering. pending in the Hiroshima High Court. The Japanese courts have dismissed the claims of comfort womenplaintiffs in thefollowing suits: Date of CourtCourt that rendered Plaintiffs Order the dicision

Appeal

9October 1998Tokyo District Court Former comfort women inthe Pending Tokyo Filipina Court High 2December 1998 Ditto Former Dutch comfort and Ditto other male victims 1October 1999Ditto

Former Korean comfort women Ditto who are residents Japanese

12. Kako Senda, Jügun-ianfu[Comfort women] (Tokyo: San'ichi Shisho, 1978); Kim II Myeon, Tennõ no guntai to chõsenjin jügun-ianfu ] (Tokyo: [Emperor'sarmyandKoreanjügun-ianfu San'ichiShinsho,1976),et al. 13. RadhikaCoomaraswamy,Reporton theMission to theDemocraticPeople's Republicof Korea,the Republic of Korea and Japan on the Issue of MilitarySexual Slaveryin War Time (Addendum to the Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence againstWomenin Accordancewiththe Commission on Human Rights Resolution (1994/95)"(New York:UnitedNations,1996). 14. It is theview of theJapanesegovernment thatit has no obligation to submit to the special rapporteur's recommendation (see Kawada Tsukasa, "Kokurenjinken iinkai ni okeruianfu mondai ni kansurugiron" [Deliberationon the comfortwomen issue at the United Nation's Commissionon HumanRights],Kokusai Jinken , no. 8 (1997). 15. For instance,Bundesgesetzzur Enschädigungfür Opfer der natinalsozialistitischenVerfolgung of (RestitutionforWorld War Two internment

JapaneseAmericansandAleuts;1988). 16. YoshiakiYoshimi,Jügun-ianfu mondaishiryöshü womenissue] (Tokyo: [Documentson thecomfort ÕtsukiShoten,1992). 17. Lila-Pilipinaed., Update on Filipina Victimsof Sexual Enslavementby Japanese ArmedForces DuringWorldWarTwo, 20. 18. Ibid.,35. 19. Ibid.,33. 20. Ibid.,30. 21. Ibid.,26. 22. Ibid.,25. 23. Ibid.,23. 24. When AWF was established, the Japanese government estimated that comfort women survivorsnumberedapproximately threehundred in SouthKorea,thePhilippines, and Taiwan.This in NorthKorea, figuredoes notincludesurvivors China,Indonesia,and otherareas. The basis for thiscalculationis as follows:in SouthKorea,the identified former comfort womenand government issuedthemfreemedicalpasses.A similarpractice was implemented in Taiwan. In the Philippines, the Task Force (an NGO) startedregistering buttheMinistry of Justice(MOJ)of the survivors, Filipino government conducted its own identificationprocedures. As the numberof womenwho have been identified by MOJ in the Philippineshas increased,in October2000 AWF launched"Campaign2000" to raise morefunds fromthepublic. 25. The author has had the opportunityto read ChungheeSara Soh's paper "HumanRightsand the'ComfortWomen,"'whichwas firstsubmitted to the Asian Women's Fund's Roundtable on Womenin Tokyo(24-25 February Comfort 2000), and was thenpublishedin Peace Review 12, 1 (2000). Soh's sharp analysis assists the of thepoliticaland social situations understanding comfort womenand theactionstaken surrounding andvarioussupport bythegovernment groups.

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