Japanese wartime sex crimes make curriculum

By Richel Dursin
February 1, 2001

Jakarta - Sex crimes committed by occupying Japanese soldiers during World War II will soon be taught to Indonesian students - a history lesson that is late, but no less needed.

"The teaching of sex crimes perpetrated by Japanese troops in Indonesia is intended to show the truth about what happened during the Japanese occupation," says Ella Yulaelawati, early and primary curriculum development division head at the ministry of national education. "We cannot hide the past," she explains.

The inclusion in school subjects of these sex crimes, including how Indonesian women were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers from 1942-1945, was proposed by the non-governmental Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in Yogyakarta. "It is important that Indonesian students learn the complete history of their nation, including the dark and painful episodes of the past," says A Budi Hartono, a lawyer at LBH Yogyakarta.

Atrocities by Japanese troops are likely to be integrated into subjects taught to elementary, junior and senior high school students, says Suud Karim, head of the National Institute for Research and Development Curriculum Center at the Ministry of National Education. This is likely to happen next year, when the revised educational curriculum is implemented.

Indonesians, including old people, have low awareness about how women decades ago were forced into being "comfort women" by Japanese troops during World War II. Indonesians were among some 200,000 women across East Asia, from China and South Korea down to the Philippines, who were made sexual slaves by the Japanese imperial army for its occupying officers and soldiers.

"We were never taught about sex crimes committed by Japanese soldiers in Indonesia as our history books emphasize the teaching of Indonesian heroines, not women victims," says Hermana Somantrie, educational researcher and curriculum developer at the education ministry. Among the Indonesian heroines being taught in schools is Kartini, who championed women's rights in Indonesia at a time when women were often considered second-class citizens.

"Indonesians never knew about the existence of comfort women in Indonesia until the 1990s when they heard about it from former comfort women in Korea and the Philippines," Somantrie says, referring to women in those two countries who publicly came out to talk about their past. Their testimonies helped pressure the Japanese government to express its "remorse" for its network of "comfort stations" across Asia, after reports of sexual slavery were verified by the now-elderly women victims in the early 1990s.

While Indonesian history books discuss lengthily the Japanese occupation in the final years of World War II, they do not mention the exploitation of Indonesian women as sex slaves. Apart from the fact that wartime sexual slavery came out only in the early Nineties, sex-related issues are considered taboo in Indonesia, the majority of whose 210 million people are Muslims.

Likewise, experts say history books tend instead to convey other negative images of the Japanese. "The use of Indonesian women as sex slaves by Japanese soldiers is not being taught in schools," Somantrie says. "But what is being taught in schools is during the Japanese occupation of the country, the Japanese were greedy and they were thieves."

Indonesian history books mention that during the Japanese occupation of the country Japanese soldiers from the locals goods, including rice, and materials they could use for fighting. "According to history books, the Japanese stole from Indonesia everything that they needed for war," Yulaelawati says.

Even as their countrymen do not know enough about them, many former "comfort women" have died. A total of 1,156 former comfort women now live in Java and East Nusa Tenggara. But the number may even be higher as some women want to bury the past. "Some of the former comfort women in Indonesia don't want to come out because they are ashamed," Somantrie says.

Others, however, have followed other Asian victims and are trying to seek legal redress and compensation. Last year, some surviving comfort women here demanded compensation from Japan, claiming that the initial funds from Tokyo had been inappropriately used by the Suharto regime. They demanded an explicit apology from the Japanese government, echoing views by other Asian victims that an apology has to be categorical and formal. "We want the Japanese government to express its regret for what they did to us," says 71-year-old Mardiyem, one of hundreds forced to become comfort women for Japanese soldiers in Yogyakarta.

In 1996, the Suharto government through then minister of social affairs Inten Suweno received 9 billion rupiah (US$900,000) to help former comfort women. The money came from the Asian Women Fund (AWF), set up by the Japanese government from contributions. Some 775 million rupiah was used to construct five houses for the elderly, but the rest of the fund was never accounted for. "The victims never received any money," says Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, a parliament member from the Indonesian Women's Coalition for Justice and Democracy.

Besides educating students about the suffering of Indonesian women during the Japanese years, education officials say an equally important aim of these lessons is to curb violence against women. "It is vital for Indonesians to know that women should be protected and violence against them is not accepted," Yulaelawati says.

Education officials also plan include Japanese sexual crimes in the ethics subject. Yulaelawati says the lessons should stress "the sufferings and the courage of the women", and must be "carefully taught in order for children not to hate the Japanese".

Meantime, some experts are asking if other wartime crimes should also be taught in schools. "Why should we teach only the sex crimes committed by Japanese troops to students? Dutch soldiers also forced Indonesian women to satisfy their sexual desires when they colonized Indonesia for 350 years," Yulaelawati says.

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