"The Japanese government tries to sweep us under the rug and pretend that we
didn't happen," Bartonico said, as she stood in the rain during a protest in
front of the Japanese Embassy in Manila. "But we are real. We want public
apology and we want compensation."
According to historians, the sex slaves or "comfort women" of the Japanese
Imperial Army during World War II were taken under a systematic operation that
involved the forcible drafting of 100,000 to 250,000 Asian women.
The operation involved the establishment, control and management of army
brothels in all Japanese garrisons in Manchuria, China, Korea, the Philippines,
the South China Sea Islands and Dutch East Indies, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Historians estimate that fewer than 30 per cent of the comfort women survived
the ordeal by the end of the war.
Rechilda Extremadura, executive director of a non-government organization that
supports Filipino comfort women, said the first a Filipino World War II sex
slave that came out in the open was the late Rosa Henson in 1991.
Henson, who died of heart attack in 1997, shocked the country when she went
public about her dehumanizing and brutal experience as a comfort woman to
Japanese soldiers in the northern province of Pampanga in April 1943.
But prior to becoming a full-time sex slave, Henson claimed she was raped by
Japanese soldiers on different occasions starting in December 1941.
Bartonico, who has four grown children and three grandchildren, said Henson
inspired her to also come out in the open in 1992, even against the
reservations expressed by her husband.
"My husband told me it was better to just forget the whole incident," she said.
"But one of my sons argued that I should do what has to be done."
Taking the battle to the streets
Bartonico said she has no regrets about her decision to come out in the open,
noting that her neighbours and relatives have been very sympathetic to her and
the other comfort women's plight.
"The bravery of Lola (grandmother) Rosa to come out in the open has given
courage to other Filipino comfort women," Extremadura said. "To date, we have
documented 173 cases of comfort women in the Philippines, but 45 of them have
died without seeing justice."
Extremadura said the comfort women wanted the Japanese government to come clean
and make a full disclosure of its sex-slavery operations in the last war.
They are also demanding an official public apology as well as just compensation
for the victims and their families.
The Japanese government, however, maintained that it was not involved in the
scheme and individual businessmen were the ones maintaining the brothels.
In 1995, the Japanese legislature and cabinet established a 4.79-million-dollar
public fund called the Asian Development Fund as atonement of the Japanese
people for the suffering of the comfort women.
But Filipino comfort women as well as those from other Asian countries rejected
the fund and continued to demand formal public apology and compensation from
the Japanese government.
Unfortunately, the Japanese legal system was not on the side of the Filipino
comfort women. On December 25, 2003, the Japanese Supreme Court dismissed a
class suit filed by the Filipino women 10 years earlier.
Extremadura said Filipino comfort women remained unfazed by the Japanese
Supreme Court decision, and has vowed to take the battle to the streets.
"We want to remind the Japanese government of the gruelling wait of the
Filipino comfort women for justice," Extremadura said. "How will people of the
world trust Japan as a leader-nation if it continues to evade legal
responsibility?"
