True victims of WWII

After reading the article "Comfort Women: A Global Perspective" written by Kayo Ichimura in the printed program of The Vagina Monologues, I found the discussion hurtful and misleading. In the play, Kayo showed her compassion to perform a comfort woman who suffered in her life; but in the article which was on the back of the Monolgues' flyer, the same Kayo changed her expression completely. She said, "The plight of comfort women was actually made up. a fiction". a comfort woman was "the person who looks pitiful. 'comfort women' was not compulsion." I was shocked by the double acting. The article "Comfort Women: A Global Perspective" was portrayed by the editor as another perspective that was "important and noteworthy." By negating comfort women and distorting history, "Comfort Women: A Global Perspective" shows the disrespect of women who were victimized by the army and misleads people who are not familiar with its history. As a female who empathizes with violence against women, I am disturbed by the message of the article. As a descendant of a family who was victimized by World War II, I am hurt by the callous attitude that the article revealed. First of all, "comfort women" is not a fiction. In Asian countries like China, Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia, many studies have shown that women were forced to be sexual slaves by Japanese soldiers. It has been estimated that in China alone more than 100,000 women in 22 provinces were forced to serve as comfort women. For instance, in 2000, Wan, a 72- year-old woman of Shanxi Province opened her dusted memories when she faced journalists. According to her words, Japanese soldiers beat her and forced her to be sex slaves days and nights. They did not treat her as a human being at all. After a long period as a comfort woman, her body could not tolerate the torture anymore and she passed out. Then she was thrown away and was found in a river. Although she survived, serious and permanent scars and memories made her suffer the whole life. In front of journalists, with pouring tears, Wan could not control her emotions that she shouted all her energies, "On the year of 1943 (the year which she was forced becoming a comfort woman) I was only fifteen years old!" There are countless other testimonies by other Korean women who suffered as comfort women.

More importantly, "comfort women" is part of the war crimes committed by many nations in the Second World War. In addition to the comfort women, there were other atrocities such as the Nanjing Massacre, the 731 Unit Bacteria Troops, and the use of other biological and chemical warfare by the Japanese military in WWII. Some right wing groups in Japan still deny some or all of these war crimes that have ever happened. These neo-nationalist views ignore the suffering of victims in many countries invaded or colonized by Japan. These actions continue to impede relations between Japan and other Asian countries. It is unfortunate that "Comfort Women" employs a misleading title and subscribes to the view of the right wing nationalists.

In my hometown Chang Chun, China, the capital city of Manchuria during Japanese invasion, tens of thousands of innocent residents were killed by bio-chemical weapons including my grandparents. They were killed at that time by polluted water. I am not blaming the descendants of Japan for the crimes that their ancestors committed. Yet for promoting the justice for innocent victims and speaking out against violence towards women, I feel I have the responsibility to tell the truth of history.

-Ren Li, senior