Japan's wartime atrocities: Japanese Army's Sex Slaves

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[Music] hi I'm Tracy Bowden from the ABCs Washington bureau in February this year an 84 year old Australian grandmother made the long journey from her home in Adelaide to testify before Congress here in DC the congressional hearing was the pinnacle in yarn rough o'herns 15-year global campaign to seek justice for comfort women women forced to be sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War two we first met yarn in 2001 on Australian story now six years on yarn feels she's one step closer to finally achieving her purpose my face has always been backbone for my whole life it's the best way to praise God praise God by song you can't beat that the thing about my mother she's 84 years old and she has an astonishing energy and a sense of love and goodwill about her that is quite special there sometimes God asks of us of late in life to do an amazing task and this has come to me late in life mom always said to us even when we were really small one day I'm gonna write my story and people will be interested and we'd say oh sure you know and of course one day she did tell his story and we were amazed it changed all of our lives really and I'm so glad she spoke out I grew up in the former Dutch East Indies which is now called Indonesia I was born in 1923 and I had the most wonderful childhood [Music] my grandfather took a lot of films in Java in those films you can see my mother as a young girl wearing a big dutch bow in her hair dancing around in a party frock before the war before anything happened that was unpleasant and the future was so positive well she always used to tell us stories of Jaffa always that's goes right throughout my childhood and we used to love looking at the photographs of the beautiful big house and year the servants which people had you noted are you cooking and washing and gardening in a chauffeur and we were always enthralled with these you know to hear these stories and it fascinated us and we were quite happy to think oh well that was the life my mother had but nothing nothing at all no hint to indicate that something as shocking as this had happened to her my mother is a very beautiful woman she's really attractive and there's a young woman she was stunning and in a sense sometimes I think that her beauty has also been her disguise we knew all along that she'd been in prison camp though I've never seen my mother as someone with a terrible past that she was hiding from me not a hint it was a perfectly kept secret there were some things that didn't make any sense like my mother always used to say when it was a birthday or Mother's Day and we'd say what what do you want for a present to sell me flowers just they're such a waste of money don't give me prayers and we couldn't understand that everybody loves faz every mother loves getting fast [Music] when the Worland Pacific started and then the Japanese invaded Java in March 1942 and that is when all the beautiful life finished because the Japanese put all civilians not just the men but all women and children into Japanese present camps and I was with my family I was interned for three half years in a Japanese prison camps starvation torture punishments illnesses you know I saw somebody dying every day all the Java paintings after the war she was located to Holland as were all the Dutch people who'd been interned in Japanese camps this is the end of an era isn't it the end me saying goodbye to a Jaffa then I had to leave there when the war was over but because she'd met my father who was an English soldier she moved to England to marry dead in 1960 my family migrated to Australia the first hint I had a bit was when my aunt from Holland came to stay with us in Sydney and we were chatting in bed one night and my aunt said to me something happened to your mother in the camp but I promised never to tell you and I can't tell you till after she's died and I lay there in the darkness and I iced I didn't want to know what it was really I didn't push her for it the armor rumbled across the Kosovo countryside this morning in 1992 50 years on I remember hearing on the news that the war in Bosnia had broke and women were being raped there are so on television the Korean comfort women the South Korean comfort women we're the first ones to speak out and I watched him here in my living room who doesn't he and they wanted justice and compensation and an apology more than anything else they wanted an apology from the Japanese government and okay they weren't getting anywhere they were getting nowhere and I thought I must back up these women now it's time to speak out there was going to be an international hearing on Japanese war crimes to be held in December 1992 in Tokyo Lois asked would I be a witness but before I could do that because I had to tell my family I had to tell Eileen and Cal you know how can you tell your daughters the shame was still so great you know I knew I had to tell them but I couldn't tell them face to face [Music] one day my mother came up to my husband's shop and gave him an envelope and just mysteriously said I'll give this to Eileen to read tonight so I opened the envelope and there was two articles from Dutch newspapers with headlines about shocking revelations of Dutch women being used as sex slaves during the war and I just couldn't associate why have I been given this to read what is this about this why's my mother giving me this and has I read the articles I just I just got so angry inside I can feel it now I just just anger just surged up inside me could see there was also a large amount of handwritten notes by my mother which is in fact 30 pages with all in mum's handwriting and was called cry of the raped I saw the title and I flicked through really quickly till I found the crucial page is where it actually said the story where she'd written her story [Music] so turned out it was exactly what I had feared and all the time as I was reading I say no not this not this one was throwing the sheets of paper on it and I can't believe the overt is I'm not an angry person tears were just streaming down my face I don't think I've ever cried so much in my whole life I must have used a whole box of tissues and I literally threw the sheets on the table as I read the horrors that were that she had written about what had happened to her and how she was in fact one of these Dutch girls [Music] what I really felt was horror shock and horror that that these things could have happened to such a beautiful person as my mother all I think he was no not my no this is not my mouth that my mother is this beautiful is this beautiful strong person nobody could do that to her that's not what's happened that's not what I've heard that's not that's not the story of prison camp that I know [Music] I've been in a camp two years they gave an order that all the young girls from 17 years and up had to line up in a compound these high military officers walked towards us and started to is up and down looking at all figures looking at our legs and it was obviously a selection process that was going to take place [Music] we were forced onto this open truck and just driven away in this open Tucker's in your cattle and I remember we were so scared we were clinging you know to our little suitcases and clinging to each other and the truck stopped in front of the large Dutch colonial house and we were told to get out when we got into the house we were told they were there for the sexual pleasure of the Japanese military in fact we found ourselves in a brothel that it was a brothel and you know our whole world just collapsed from under our feet and we started protesting straight away we said that may be forced into this you know that that they couldn't do this to us you know I had no right to do this was against the Geneva Convention and that me would never never do this but I just laughed at us you know just laughed them and I said they could do it was what they liked [Music] we will given flower names and they were pinned on the doors you know I can't remember my my Japanese flower name I just didn't even want to know about it they started to drag us away one by one and I could hear all the screaming coming from the bedrooms you know and you just wait for your turn you know and there's to this large fat bald Japanese officer looking at me cleaning at me and I put up an enormous fight but he just dragged me to the bedroom and as I said I'm not I'm not going to do this and he said well I will kill you if you don't give yourself to me I will kill you and he eats and he got out his sword I went on my knees and to say my prayers and I felt God's very close I wasn't afraid to die and as I was bringing me he had no intention of killing me of course he just you know threw me on the bed he got hold of me threw me on the bed and just told off all my clothes and just brutally raped me and I thought he would never stop it it was the most there was the most horrendous I never thought suffering could be that terrible and eventually he left the room and I was in total shock and then I thought through the bathroom only the girls were there we were all there in the bathroom all totally vertical and crying and within one night we lost our youth we lost no innocent or youth we were just such a such a pitiful little group of girls after I'd read the story I drove over to my mother's house and I just put my arms right cries and cries I couldn't speak I didn't I just was told I couldn't say anything - nothing would have been enough there was nothing just putting my arms around her I guess was was words enough all these years I was too ashamed you think what will they think of me you know I can't tell this what will they think of me and then to get that wonderful reaction you know of their embrace it's all told in the embrace the field of fear I'll never forget that fear you know it runs right through your body like the electrical currents and it's a fear that has never left me it's been miss me all my life I can feel that fear sometimes at night when I just sit here in my lounge room look at also the window and it's getting dark because when it's getting dark it means I'm going to be raped or an orphan again and even now when I see it getting dark at night I can still feel that fear coming over me you know it's never really left me [Music] you come to his stage whether you think I've tried everything what can I do what can I do next I cut off all my hair I thought if I made myself look as ugly as possible nobody will want me and I looked absolutely horrible really ugly and the other girls yesterday only what have you done what have you done I said well perhaps they will want me now it turned me into a curiosity object and they wanted me even more because I was the girl that that cut her hair off that you know that the bald girl you know we all want the bald girl it did just the opposite effect for some reason or other you know if so ass didn't do me any good at all one stage I remember sitting in the brothel and it was almost getting dark and and I got this handkerchief out and I asked the other girls would they please all write their names on this handkerchief and they did I wanted to have something of them forever you know I wanted to have something solid to remember them with forever so they all wrote their name on the handkerchief and I embroidered all for this handkerchief [Music] one day we were told to pack belongings again and we were there put in the transit camp I was there you know that was my mother and my two younger sisters and to see my mother again you know after all that time and my mother looked at my bald head you know and she feared the worst and that first night I couldn't even talk or say anything to her I just I can feel it now laying in my mother's arms you know in the in the hollow of her arms you know so arms around me and she just stroked my head you know she just kept stroking my by bald head and I just lay there in the safety of my mother's arms and and we didn't speak me just later and then the next day I told her what had happened to me and so did the other girls you had all these these girls with all these mothers you know and and the mothers just couldn't cope with the story this happened to their daughters you know it was too much for them they couldn't cope with it and they we were only ever to tell our mothers just once and it was never talked about again it was just too much for them [Music] the things that the girls can look back on now after I told him they said Oh mom no I know yeah and also mr. flowers you know we say don't give me any flowers you know now they realize why now I now I love to get flowers you know and because I've spoken out now you know you know I can enjoy flowers the best thing that God did to me is given me Tom it's a proper sort of war romance and one that worked out well he was such a such a lovely gentle person and when I told Tom what happened to me it didn't matter to Tom he loved me for what I was and and to be accepted so totally no matter what you know don't you just love a man like that yeah I wasn't dirty I wasn't soiled I wasn't different nothing Tom sighs I was just beautiful in Tom's eyes and he was beautiful to me yeah when I marry Tom I mean I wanted the house I wanted a husband I wanted the family but I didn't want sex you know and that was the last thing I wanted so Tom had to be very patient with me in the first years of my married life are fairly hard all together I had four miscarriages because my body was was in such a terrible condition you know and I had to have made your operation before I could even carry through it you know and and have a baby and I know I have these two beautiful daughters Arlene and Carol her marriage to my father was really really happy my father had a very bad car accident so she had another cross to bear which went for about 20 years where she had to nurse him when he wasn't a well man it was my deep thank you in God that helped me survive all that I suffered more anxiety came since 1992 when I first spoke out in Tokyo I made up my mind that for the rest of my life I would campaign for the plight of the comfort women and for the protection of women in war because every time there is a war women the victims again her life has 100% changed it's very emotional she has worked tirelessly for the rights of women who have been raped in war those that have experienced the war understand what these name is sustainable look at where your handkerchief is displayed it's not easy I'm not young I'm getting old but I feel it's so important that all voices be heard this is where it belongs you know it was sort of hard to part with it but at the same time you know I've given it back to the War Memorial and yeah this is where it should be it's got such a story to tell that the chief has understood it return would you like me to remove it for you so you could have a closer look I really I really touch it again it was a special occasion that you're visiting it's actually melted honor on a board that and I need to be gloves but on this occasion you know here's my name young there's least I said all the rosaries miss Lee's faculty she was only 18 and better marine early and grace and know his names are forever in my heart it's lovely to hold it again thank you it's really great time is running out for these comfort women they're all getting old there are like my heart and my soul you know we suffered this together we went through this together I will do anything for them since the last Australian story which was I think six years ago Yan has continued her campaign and she's also received an order of Australia and a panic peace prize she's had a knighthood from the Dutch government just a few weeks ago she was asked to go to Washington and address Congress at the invitation of the congressman named Mike Honda he is very supportive of their cause and I think he's been very influential and helpful in getting this issue back into international focus the trip to Washington was the pinnacle of almost speaking out this was mine I was just so excited and I just thought I've got to do this and I've got to do it right I have forgiven the Japanese for what they did to me but I can never forget that authority has never been to opponents issue incident facet of a tragic period I've read testing me given by the Australian lady to the congressional investigation and it's quite Halloween when I heard that mr. Hobart was going to visit Tokyo and that he was going to bring this comfort women issue up mr. Abbott oh I was just so thrilled what my mother wants from the Japanese government is not just an apology another apology has just come through last week sir Morton is an emotional mercy only Nevada Namrata is an anatomist he got emotional see it was so easy to on your parentage Mustafa why we are most happy with all their hands we want the Japanese government to admit that these women were forcibly recruited and press-ganged into these terrible places where these young women were abused for such long periods of their entire lives were ruined an apology is not enough the trouble with people like my mother is that for a long time they've carried a sense of shame because you feel that some have done something wrong and they haven't done anything wrong but that can be righted if someone admits that they were forced we want our dignity back you know it's a small thing to ask and I think if Shen so Abby would do this he would make himself very popular in his own country I think that my mother's message has gone right through to my daughter's generation I'd like to tell Prime Minister obaid that if you can sit out and wait for all these old women to die but then there is another generation of women to follow them and another one after me we will continue our mother's work that's what we do when people hear my story I think the message the great message this is the message of faith and forgiveness and that these things will never happen again that is why I tell these stories I never want any other women to suffer as I did [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Channel: baberioX

Views: 692,135

Rating: 4.470295 out of 5

Keywords: Rape, of, Nanking, Nanjing, Massacre, Unit, 731, Japan, China, World, War, II, Photo, Film, Movies, Atrocities, Comfort, Women, Sex, Slave

Id: CTl66az1nzU

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Length: 27min 3sec (1623 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 14 2012

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