The Continued Plight of Filipino Comfort Women

“We have not yet received justice up to now. We lost our dignity. We lost the chance to study. Our President should do something to help us with our sufferings. We are asking for justice and compensation,” Narcisa Claveria said in Filipino in an interview. Narcisa Claveria, 85, is just one of the hundreds of Filipino women who were forced to work as sex slaves for the Japanese military during the World War II.

It is estimated that there are about 400 Filipina survivors of sexual slavery documented since 1992 through various organizations supporting the plight of the Filipino comfort women victims of Japanese military wartime sexual atrocities Around one-fourth of these former Filipino comfort women have passed away without seeing the light of justice for their unimaginable sufferings during the war. [1]

Claveria, like any other comfort women, asked for only three things: official apology, the inclusion of their story in Japan’s history textbooks, and just compensation for their sufferings during World War II. Despite the historical documents, the comfort women have yet to receive an official apology and compensation from Japan, with Lila Pilipina, an organization of Filipino comfort women, victims and survivors of rape and military sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II, criticizing President Aquino’s position that the Philippines and Japan had already settled reparations from the war in previous agreements, among them the Reparations Agreement signed in May 1956, that had Japan providing the Philippines with $550 million worth of goods and services. [2] However, these comfort women and other victims of war crimes had not been covered by this settlement.

For decades, the governments ignored these claims of the comfort women. The current president Noy Aquino even promised in November 2010 that he would task then newly appointed Ambassador Emmanuel Lopez to have the Japanese government come to a compromise on the apology. He said that he would ask Congress to make a law that will ensure that the remaining survivors will be compensated from the funds provided by the 1956 Reparations Agreement. Congress never came up with anything, except for resolutions filed by the Makabayan bloc of lawmakers.

Although, Japan has become to be one of top aid donors and major trading partners of Philippines, still it’s not enough for all the sufferings of all the Filipino comfort women. All these survivors wanted is an official state apology acknowledging all the acts committed by Japanese military during the war and a just compensation. However, Japan has refused to pay direct compensation to survivors.

It is difficult to imagine how the lives of these comfort women were haunted with unimaginable suffering. Hilaria Bustamante, 89, was abducted from her home and raped inside a Japanese garrison when she was 16. She said she suffered psychological trauma growing up and cannot forget the ordeal even today. [3] "It's not easy to forget what happened. We will bring this memory down to our graves, even if they give an apology, it is still difficult to forget. It is already marked in us," she said.

Until the Government does not do anything, Japanese debt to these comfort women will be forever be unpaid. As Claveria asked, “Does our President not have the political will to demand the justice we deserve?”

[1] MEDIA FOR JUSTICE AND HEALING: The Case of Philippine Comfort Women Survivors; (Sancho 2007).

[2] http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/759813/ph-comfort-women-remember-the-horror#ixzz3yp5QJEtP

[3] http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2015/08/14/WW-II-comfort-women-push-fight-for- justice-compensation.html