As job titles go, it is hard to think of coarser, more cynical as "comfort women." For the uninitiated, it evokes images of girls just perhaps with a flower in her hair, white smile Standing, bend the needs of a weary traveler perhaps in an airport lounge or in a high-end club or hotel.
the reality is very different, of course, and it is a reality that a small Dutch carried with her, buried deep in his soul almost 50 years before it can finally tell the world what being a "comfort woman" meant to her.
He was the privilege of living a colonial master could wait until the most wonderful person could imagine. ". She recalled the smell of coils to repel mosquitoes, geckos sounds and affection shown to her by local staff who did chores for the family.
weekends and holidays were spent in cooler climates of Bangunan where his grandfather owned a resort and family used to enjoy climbing the slopes, looking over the Gedung Songo, ancient Hindu temples that dotted the countryside.
There was a nearby farm and called Ampel Gading which they enjoyed visiting. The Japanese farmer and his wife would always greet them warmly and treat hikers tired to fresh milk from their cows. Little Jeanne and her family did not know at the time but the farmer was a spy. A sleeper sent to blend in the region and provide critical information to military planners back in Japan working hard to develop their conquest of Southeast Asia.
The Second World War began in distant Europe, but despite the saber rattling and Japanese actions in China, many believed they were far from the scope of the damage. December 8th undermined imprudent attitude. While the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the troops had also piled ashore along the Thai and Malaysian coast.
By February 15 Singapore, impregnable fortress, had fallen. Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies was crucial for Japanese plans for that was where natural resources were she wanted to self-sufficiency.
Java was invaded on 1 March 1942 and fell to 8. The idyllic days were over; gone forever as the Japanese army destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white man in just three months. The British and Dutch Empire seemed their last message against the onslaught of the enemy and despite the tight lines of communication paid the price for the lack of planning and confusion in the ranks before policymakers who refused to believe any threats Japan was real.
who paid for that indecision soon became clear.
first enemy Jeanne and her family saw were those who came to save them. Soon after, they came back with the trucks and took them to a new life in Camp 6 near Ambarawa, they experienced a new life without good, cooks or staff to clean up after them. In the midst of poverty and disease they settled into their routine thinking it was as bad as things would go.
Two years later things were to get worse for Jeanne.
She was emptying the sewage pit with buckets, throwing human waste overflowing into a nearby stream when some trucks pulled up and a roll call was announced. But this was not like any other roll call they had known before.
The girls aged 17 and over were the only known. Little Jeanne knew, but a large well-connected Japanese decided to open a military brothel in Semarang. A license was requested and approved in Batavia dictate that girls who worked in the brothel were volunteers who had signed a declaration stating that they were actually volunteer. Under the terms of the license girls are also entitled to examinations and regular medical payment.
The camp leaders protested. Some girls fled, trying desperately to escape their fate. Before grinning, drooling soldiers girls were subjected to humiliating checks. Some were returned to their friends and family. Ten were not. Jeanne was one of ten.
They drove in Semarang and Jeanne, with half a dozen other girls, revealed in a colonial house now called The House of Seven Seas. In no uncertain terms the girls said they had to provide sexual services for the Japanese officers. "We're your captors we can do with you what we love," they laughed, excited at the thought of what was to come.
For three months, Jeanne and her friends stayed there . his only respite came when, with the help of a friendly member of Indonesian staff, she was able to get a letter to his sister, Aline, who remained at large through his work with the path iron.
Aline has organized a Japanese friend of his to "book" Jeanne all night, every night. for two weeks, she was able to escape the bully, sweaty bodies of a conquering army, but of course it ended. it was. the man in question was being teased by his colleagues on the amount of time and money he spent on a "prostitute".
under the terms of the license, regular medical checks have been provided but in the case of Jeanne that still meant a rape. the doctor just one of many.
Towards the end of April 1st Tokyo colonel was visiting Java. He was responsible for the conditions in prisoner of war camps. A Ambarawa September 1 camp leader was able to tell the colonel of his daughter who had been taken to a camp and his suspicions. The Tokyo officer made inquiries and soon after the Semarang brothels were closed and European women could no longer be used.
At the end of the month, the girls were taken to the brothel, no explanation was given, and put on a train. When they go down, they were transferred to the camp of Paris, near Bogor, where camp officials told them in no case, they could talk about their experiences in Semarang brothel. There was no chance of that, the humiliation was too great.
They were kept in a camp enclosed area and other girls who were similarly evil treated if at least Jeanne has been reunited with her mother. Inmates in the rest of guessed camp where new mysterious girls came and jumped to the conclusion that they had volunteered their services by adding more pain to the victims.
These three months were to Jeanne scar for the next 48 years. After nearly 18 months in the camp in Bogor end of the war, but life does not return to normal as the Indonesian freedom fighters were less impressed by the Dutch desire to keep their colony. But when it was finally over, she moved to England and married an English soldier who had guarded the camp in Bogor. They had fallen in love, she told him what had been done to it in Semarang, he cried, and they married.
In 1992, she emigrated to Australia. At that time, the comfort of Korean women urged the Japanese government to admit, in the face of massive nationalist denial, that Japanese troops forced women to work as sex slaves during the war. For Jeanne, watch TV, all the memories are impetuous. She has not told her children what had taken place, but now others see relive the horror she felt it was time, she faces her own demons down. She wanted to reach through the TV screen and embrace these brave women.
She was invited to an international public hearing in Tokyo in December this year, discussing war and Compensation crimes. She thought it was her time.
Before flying to Japan there was the small matter to confide in his family. How to do that? How to tell your children and grandchildren the old woman 69 years they had known all their lives had spent three months being used as a sex toy for men in uniform? She knew she could not do it. Not face to face. So she wrote it all in a book and gave a copy to his daughter as she boarded a flight to Alice Springs. The girl read the book and cried the entire trip.
In December, she made this flight to Japan with a girl. The noise ads on Japanese airline has shocked momentarily taking his time.
Japan was finally released, she had sought for so long. She met with other comfort women from Korea, China, the Philippines, she was interviewed on both the Japanese and Australian television. When she spoke at the hearing, she told the audience she had forgiven the Japanese for what had been done to her. Forgiven but she would never forget.
She returned to Australia with some trepidation, but she should not have worried. As she says at the end of his book, "I came home to peace, love and acceptance."
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