Priscilla Bartonico shivered and tears welled in her eyes as she
recalled that afternoon in 1943 when two Japanese soldiers barged
into the family's thatched house in the eastern Philippine province
of Leyte and took her away.
The Japanese soldiers brought the then 16-year-old Priscilla to
their garrison, and for the next six months she and dozens of other
local women became sex slaves.
"For decades, I wanted to just forget that episode of my life
but I could not," said the now 78-year-old grandmother, one of
thousands of former Japanese sex slaves who continue to seek
justice for their ordeal 60 years after the end of World War
II.
According to historians, the sex slaves or "comfort women" of
the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II were taken under a
systematic operation that involved the forcible drafting of 100,000
to 250,000 Asian women.
The operation involved the establishment, control and management
of army brothels in all Japanese garrisons in China, Korea, the
Philippines, the South China Sea Islands and Dutch East Indies,
Malaysia and Indonesia.
Historians estimate that fewer than 30 percent of the "comfort
women" survived the ordeal by the end of the war.
Rechilda Extremadura, executive director of a non-government
organization that supports Filipino "comfort women," said the first
Filipino World War II sex slave that came out in the open was the
late Rosa Henson in 1991.
Bartonico, who has four grown children and three grandchildren,
said Henson inspired her to also come out in the open in 1992, even
against the reservations expressed by her husband.
"My husband told me it was better to just forget the whole
incident," she said. "But one of my sons argued that I should do
what has to be done."
Japan still denies war crimes
The Japanese government, however, maintained that it was not
involved in the scheme and individual businessmen were the ones
maintaining the brothels.
In 1995, the Japanese legislature and cabinet established a
US$4.79 million public fund called the Asian Development Fund as
atonement of the Japanese people for the suffering of the "comfort
women."
But Filipino "comfort women" as well as those from other Asian
countries rejected the fund and continued to demand formal public
apology and compensation from the Japanese government.
Unfortunately, the Japanese legal system was not on the side of
the Filipino "comfort women." On December 25, 2003, the Japanese
Supreme Court dismissed a class suit filed by the Filipino women 10
years earlier.
(China Daily August 12, 2005)