フィリピンのアマーたちの英文記事が共同通信から配信されました。
Kyodo News
The Japan Times
The Mainichi Daily News
Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011
Wartime rape victims seek redress
Kyodo
MANILA ― A group of elderly women who claim to have been raped by Japanese soldiers in the Philippines during World War II reiterated Wednesday their demand for justice.
Commemorating the end of the war in the Philippines exactly 66 years ago Wednesday when the Japanese conceded defeat, eight of the remaining 46 members of the Malaya Lolas (Free Grandmothers) organization held a rally near the Presidential Palace in Manila, seeing official backing from President Benigno Aquino III in their struggle.
"We are here to air our plea and ask help from President Aquino in demanding justice from the Japanese government. We demand legal compensation, especially now that most of our remaining members are bedridden and sick," said the organization's president, Isabelita Vinuya, 79.
The Malaya Lolas, established in 1997, groups some 90 female victims of mass rape by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army in Mapaniqui village in Pampanga Province, north of Manila.
The group's demand for an apology and compensation from Japan covers not just the "comfort women" but also the entire community, which, it says, suffered torture and massacre under the soldiers in November 1944.
"Our leaders have always put a premium on our country's friendship with Japan over our country's dignity, the dignity of the Filipino women," Vinuya said.
The organization has refused to accept the statements of apologies made by Japanese officials over the years because, for them, they do not come with an admission of the crime that was committed.
Payments made through the Asian Women's Fund, a Japanese government-initiated private relief foundation, was also rejected by some comfort women, saying it did not directly come from the government.
Last year, the group suffered a blow after the Philippine Supreme Court rejected their petition to hold officials from the executive branch liable for not espousing their claims.
What it awaits now is the passage of a bill in Japan that will grant legal compensation to all victims of Japanese abuses during the war.
Vinuya recounted how, at age 13, hundreds of Japanese soldiers stormed the village of Mapaniqui on Nov. 23, 1944, on suspicion that it was a haven of Filipino spies against the Japanese.
She said that after being made to carry away belongings stolen from the community by the soldiers, all of the girls and women were brought to a house in a neighboring province and raped by the soldiers.
She said the village's men were rounded up and taken to a local school, where the soldiers brutally tortured them and then killed them by burning down the school.
"I am not angry with the Japanese people now because they did not commit that crime. In fact, I appreciate the help I get from some Japanese people I know. My demand is just directed toward their government," Vinuya said.
