Testimony by ex-Indonesian comfort woman: 'I was taken to a Japanese army tent'
More than 70 years after the Japanese occupation of Indonesia began, victims of the Imperial Japanese Army are telling their stories of being forced to serve as "comfort women" and being sexually assaulted by Japanese troops.
Asahi Shimbun reporters visited Indonesia and met many women who were cast aside by their families and have never told of the circumstances of the harm inflicted on them or had their stories investigated.
A support group for former comfort women, who were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers during World War II, is located on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, which sits just below the equator. Asahi Shimbun reporters asked the group to introduce them to people who had not previously been interviewed. An Asahi Shimbun investigative team spent about two weeks in Sulawesi, where it met 20 or so people who claimed to be former comfort women or witnesses.
The first was Bacce, who lives in Sinjai Regency, an administrative division on the southwest part of the island. At a stilt house built decades ago, Bacce, in her mid-80s, wore a sarong, cloth around her waist, and was hunched back. She is not married and lives with the family of her relatives.
"Did Japanese soldiers do anything frightening to you at that time?" she was asked.
She murmured as she started to speak.
Source: The Asahi Shimbun
Apparently, governments are jerks almost everywhere. But there's still hope in (ordinary) people. I hope these women got the justice and support they deserve :3
stressed
