Comfort Women Comforting Themselves…
I was blogroll diving and stumbeled across an entry on Chinese Chic a wonderfful blog from Down Under written by a talented and insightful Chinese-Malaysian law student.
I wept in awe and admiration for the courageous healing ritual described in Ms Peng’s post:
Taiwanese women forced into prostitution by Japan’s military more than six decades ago put on wedding gowns Tuesday to celebrate the nuptials they never had.
The women are part of a shrinking group of “comfort women” — forced into sexual slavery by Japan’s military — in several parts of Asia during World War II.
After Japan ended its 50-year occupation of Taiwan in 1945, many of the women were rejected as “damaged goods” by their relatives and never found a spouse, said the Women’s Rescue Foundation, the rights group which organized Tuesday’s event.
Six women — ranging in age from 82 to 90 — came together in Taipei to put on white wedding dresses, hold bouquets and have their pictures taken.
“People of our age didn’t dare dream of having a wedding, but now the day has come, and I like it a lot,” said Wu Hsiu-mei, the oldest member of the group.
Taiwan has 28 of the women left, with an average age of 84….”
3 responses so far
I heard about those women and what had happened to them but hadn’t heard about this! Thanks for sharing.
What a really powerful healing ritual for those people…perhaps one sad part is that only a handful of these women lived long enough to participate in this.
Oh, this made me cry too. How wonderful.