World War II and the Philippines

(Unpublished… now published)

The talk conducted on December 11, 2007 at Richie Fernando Hall dealt on some historical facts about the World War II and its effects to the Philippines. It has been discussed how severe the oppression was during those times. Thus, the magnitude of the suffering of the Filipinos was highly stressed especially in the hands of the Japanese colonizers.

The most striking about the talk was Ms. Padilla’s discussion on comfort women during the Japanese era. It has been said that her research revealed that even eleven year old girls were abducted and forcefully set to satisfy the sexual cravings of the Japanese. This was actually supported by the book I read entitled Heroic Virgins by Alfonso Santos, which depicted in a really concise and detailed manner how Filipino women were sexually abused, as foretold by the victims themselves. The firsthand interviews of Ms. Padilla have proven the severity of the cases of each woman who has endured the malicious sexual injustice. Aside from the women’s ‘physical service’, they were obliged to do household chores like cooking, washing the laundry, and all sorts of cleaning. At night, they would have to massage their Japanese master (yeah, as if they were slaves) and do basically everything to satisfy their ‘needs.’ It was just so unfortunate to some who served no specific ‘master’ but were sexually abused by several. These unfortunate ones were enclosed in a compartment until each Japanese (there were a number of them) lining up outside comes in and experience heaven in their happy hour…hell knows what happens next after they sneak in!

To put an end to what was happening; some Filipina victims had to think of ways to escape. They, as they shared, could no longer bear living beaten and abused for a single day. As study showed, some victims were locked up with the same situation from 4 days to more than two years. Some victims were successful to outwit the guards and ran back to their homes. Others failed to escape and were severely punished, if not executed. Poor Filipina. I just wish they knew something about Aikido or kung fu. WhaaaPaK!