SYNOPSIS

During the Second World War thousands of women in Asia were forced to work as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers. Some of them were still teenagers. After the war the survivors struggled to continue with their lives, hiding what many considered to be a “shame”. After having been silent for more than 50 years they have started to tell their stories. They are in their Eighties and Nineties now and time is running out for them. This intimate, touching film tells the story of nine comfort women in the Philippines and follows their efforts to find justice before they die.

Program Note

 line-height:115%;mso-font-kerning:0pt\">Forgotten Sex Slaves: Comfort Women in
 the Philippines line-height:115%;mso-font-kerning:0pt\"> is a documentary film dealing with the
 struggle of Filipino forced into sexual slavery as comfort women for the
 Japanese Imperial Army. The film opens with the scene of women in protest in
 front of the embassy of Japan in the Philippines. These women gather
 bi-annually to demand an acknowledgement of the war crimes committed against
 the comfort women, as well as an apology and compensation from Japan. The
 Filipino girls, who had become sex slave between the ages of 12 and 14 by rape
 and kidnapping conducted by Japanese Imperial Army, started to form communities
 to fight against Japanese Imperial Army beginning in the early 1990s. The girls
 grew old and became grandmothers, but they stand up, testifying to the harm
 done onto them and accusing Japan of war crimes with strong voices. Lola
 CORTES, who was confined and raped while being kept in underground for 6
 months, tells that she wants to live long enough to see justice served. Their
 courageous voices are one of the greatest merits of the film. This does not
 mean that these women have not been met with cold-hearted glances, and many say
 that even their children initially felt ashamed. The elderly women keep on
 fighting, because it is only the women who fight who can win in the end. 굴림;mso-font-kerning:0pt\">

 line-height:115%;mso-font-kerning:0pt\">The film also sheds a light on the
 differences between comfort women. ‘The Lolas’ in the Philippines dismayed at
 the lax attitude of the Filipino government regarding the resolution of the
 comfort women issue. They are indignant over the small allotment for Filipino
 victims in Asian Women 115%;mso-font-kerning:0pt\">’s Fund compared to that for Korean
 victims. The disparity between victims discloses the non-homogeneity of
 discourses regarding comfort women, appealing to the necessity for a joint
 struggle to find a solution to comfort women issues. [HEO Yoon]