Comfort Women Experience

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Comfort Women Experiences
Introduction
Comfort women can be termed as the women and girls forced into more of what can be termed as prostitution corps derived by the Japanese empire during World War II. This paper therefore entails a concise evaluation of the experience perceived by the comfort women by discussing the life`s experience by a Dutch Comfort Woman Jan O'Herne and some of Korean comfort women's experience. This research paper also intends to discuss how the women, in terms of gender and race, were discriminated against by the Japanese Army and used as sex slaves. It also includes a detailed overview of what the Japanese government has done (an apology) towards the comfort women as well as determining whether there are any statues or laws passed in regards to the comfort women. The estimated number however varies from one researcher to another, particularly with respect to the nationality of a researcher. For instance, majority of Japanese scholars term the number to average on 20,000 victims whereas Chinese scholars claim the number to be as extensive as 410,000 victims. One of my primary resources will be an overview of Jan Ruff-O`Herne`s past experience, who speaks of her experiences of being a comfort woman. Jan was the age of 13 when she thought she was leaving home to work in the factories for the Japanese military. In addition, a concise research on Korean comfort women`s experience will be opted to and the two research findings compared to determine the general similarity and difference.[C. Sarah Soh. The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. p. 215] [Rose 2005, Women and World War II - Comfort Women, p. 88.]
Research on Jan O`Herne
Born in java, in Indonesia (formerly identified as Dutch East Indies) back in the year 1923, O`Herne grew up in a Christian family where got her early education in a catholic school later to join and graduate from Franciscan Teacher`s college. At the age of 19, her town Java was invaded by Japanese troops where Jan together with other thousands of girls and women were captured and secluded in a prison camp for approximately three and half years. While on the second year of captivity, some top ranking Japanese officers joined the camp. The ladies above 17 years were ordered to line up at the assembly grounds for selection process. According to Jan, "They paced up and down the line, eyeing us up and down, looking at our figures, at our legs, lifting our chins. They selected ten pretty girls. I was one of ten. We were told to come forward, and pack a small bag, as we were to be taken away. The whole camp protested, and our mothers tried to pull us back. I embraced my mother not knowing if I was ever going to see her again. We were hurled into an army truck. We were terrified and clung to our bags and to each other "(O`Herne 2007). The destination was in the city of Semarang where all the ladies were welcomed in a large Dutch colonial mansion. The ladies were informed that their main purpose of the visit was to enhance sexual pleasure for the soldiers, Japanese soldiers. Despite intense efforts to protest for their rights, the only feedback they received was just sarcastic words from the soldiers who claimed that they had the right to treat the ladies in any way upon their pleasure. The ladies were given new Japanese names and instructed to be loyal and submissive to the soldiers. Jan describes how horrific the situation seemed to her, "We were a very innocent generation. I knew nothing about sex. The horrific memories of "opening night" of the brothel have tortured my mind all my life. We were told to go to the dining room, and we huddled together in fear, as we saw the house filling up with military. I got out my prayer book, and led the girls in prayer, in the hope that this would help us. Then they started to drag us away, one by one. I could hear the screaming coming from the bedrooms. I hid under the table, but was soon found. I fought him. I kicked him with all my might. The Japanese officer became very angry because I would not give myself to him. He took his sword out of its scabbard and pointed it at me, threatening me with it, that he would kill me if I did not give into him. I curled myself into a corner, like a hunted animal that could not escape. I made him understand that I was not afraid to die. I pleaded with him to allow me to say some prayers. While I was praying he started to undress himself. He had no intention of killing me. I would have been no good to him dead. He then threw me on the bed and ripped off all my clothes. He ran his sword all over my naked body, and played with me as a cat would with a mouse. I still tried to fight him, but he thrust himself on top of me, pinning me down under his heavy body. The tears were streaming down my face as he raped me in a most brutal way. I thought he would never stop" (O`Herne 2007). She further explains how upon the end of the whole exercise how her body was shaking and bleeding due to her loosing her virginity on such conditions. When she left for the bathroom, Jan found some of her fellow girls all crying and in great shock. This was just an introduction; little did they know that this was to be the daily program for the succeeding days, weeks, months to years. Jan and her fellow comfort women tried all possible ways to escape from such cruelty but all was in vain, since security was a 24-hour tight one. According to Jan O`Herne, there was no a particular day that the Japanese soldiers raped her without a fight being approached, that meant that she received much beatings from the soldiers. Ironically, the comfort women were treated more like slaves and prisoners where beating and raping was practiced to them day and night, where even the Japanese doctors raped the comfort women during examination hours. Jan further described how the Japanese soldiers had ruined the lives of many young women through abuse and humiliation. Many young women from Australia had been deprived of their youth, self-esteem, freedom, dignity, and their families among others by the Japanese soldiers. On a recent interview conducted to O`Herne, she claims that she had forgiven the Japanese soldiers for the inhumanity they had shown to her and her colleagues, though she further argues how she would never forget it. On her interview she further describes how for more than 50 years the comfort women had remained silent for fear of shame.
Korean comfort women: Kim Tŏkchin
With reference to "oral histories of the comfort women" an interview conducted to an Ex-comfort women victim, Kim Tokchin, the following can be argued. "It was the middle of January or perhaps a little later, perhaps the beginning of February, 1937. I was 17 years old. I heard girls were being recruited with promises of work in Japan. It was said that a few had been recruited not long before from P`yÇ’ngch`on where we had lived with my uncle. I wished that at that time I had been able to with them, but I suddenly heard a Korean man was in the area again recruiting more girls to work in the Japanese factories. I went to P`yÇ’ngch`on to meet him and promised him I would go to Japan to work. He gave me the time and place of my departure and I returned home to ready myself to leave. In those days people were rather simple, and I, having had no education, didn`t know anything of the world" (Tokchin 42). In her knowledge, all that Kim knew was that she was going to get employment and earn money in a factory. No danger perception was revealed to her in any way. Kim toget...