For more than 50 years the mass rape of over 200,000 women by members of the Japanese Imperial Army had been silenced – not the least by the victims themselves. In the Nineties, women from Asia (namely Korea and the Philippines) tore down the wall of shameful silence by telling the world about their victimization.
As young girls, they were kidnapped, imprisoned in camps and forced to provide sexual services to officers and soldiers. Often they were beaten and some did not survive the camps. In documents of that time, those women were referred to as "ianfu", which can be translated as "comfort women".
In 1995, the Asian Women’s Fund was created by the Japanese government in order to pay atonement money to the former comfort women and historically reserach the issue of "comfort women". In 2007 the fund closed its work. However, former victims in the Philippines feel hat justice was not done. They are still waiting for an official apoloy, for an acknowledgement of their victimization and financial aid. To state their case, the so called "Lolas, meaning "grandmothers", voice their protest.
"Our misfortune was, that we were beautiful", as one of the survivors put it.
"Our misfortune was, that we were beautiful", as one of the survivors put it.
