Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
IGNORE THE RIGHT-WING CLAP-TRAP BY THE REVIEWER BELOW, June 12, 2004
By A Customer
This is a good book as it illumiinates the horrors of war and the strength of human courage & dignity. Unfortunately, people such as 'Hiromi' who have reviewed it below, in typical right-wing Japanese fashion end up denying or trying to cast doubt on events that undoubtedly took place, but unfortunately there are still a fair number of Japanese who like to deny this, which is why there is still so much mistrust of Japanese in Asia even today. Read this book, it will give you an insight of the good & bad of human conduct in war.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Horrifying and Terribly Enlightening Account of Life in the Phillipines During WWII, September 13, 2005
Hiromi's review of "Comfort Woman" is important to respond to because the book's importance comes from the fact that it is a true story. Not knowing anything about comfort women other than what was presented in the book itself, I believe I can still refute Hiromi's points:
The position of the comfort station, and the "odd" use of the words banzai and baka are no evidence against the authenticity of the author's story. To put it bluntly, most of us were not living in Japan during the 1940s and even less of us were on the front lines. We cannot say with any conviction how odd Japanese behavior would have been in that time period and under those circumstances.
The point that Maria could have easily escaped cannot simply be proved by the fact that one guard stood outside her room. No matter how "nice" he was to her, it's unlikely he'd simply let her leave, and even if he did (or if he could be tricked as Hiromi suggests) it's not as if there was a route, free of Japanese soldiers, leading straight from the garrison to safety. Maria constantly refers to Japanese sentries and checkpoints throughout the region, not to mention guards *outside* the building.
The doubt concerning how many Japanese troops would be available to rape Maria doesn't seem to be well founded. The entire purpose of comfort stations was to increase morale, and a losing battle would require more "comfort". Certainly there were always large numbers of troops present at and around the garrison. If sexual services were considered routine for young men to receive, most of them could free up their schedules.
The "more serious doubts" do not hold any more water. The idea that Maria could not learn complex Japanese military terms from her captors is probably true. But it would be foolish to think that Maria did not hear any simple vernacular from the young soldiers reminiscing about homes and girlfriends in Japan. Besides, she did not claim to be able to speak more than a few words, and coming to understand a language is very possible - particularly under extenuating circumstances. She was completely surrounded by the Japanese language - not being able to speak to any of the other Filipino women - and her young mind would definitely be able to pick up a good deal of it.
The second point - that Maria's inability to admit she was a comfort woman indicates she was a "prostitute" - can be refuted simply by putting yourself into her shoes (as impossible as that must be). She told Domingo she had been raped, referring to the incidents out in the countryside. She never admitted to being a comfort woman because that implies that she was raped by a huge number of men while in captivity. Being raped once was shameful enough to Maria and she could not bring herself to inform Domingo just how frequent it had been. Besides, rape is any sex act that is unwilling on the part of one person. Whether we consider her a "prostitute" or not is irrelevant, because she was forced into it that prostitution.
Hiromi's final point - that comfort women were paid - I cannot argue against without more knowledge. What I do know however, is that many Japanese documents concerning troop activity in Asia were burned - including, undoubtedly, many that Yoshiaki Yoshimi would have found useful. Whether some comfort women in various locations were treated better is up for debate, but has no bearing on Maria's story.
I'm not going to claim like another reviewer that these arguments are simply the words of some right-wing ideologue. Detractors of comfort women's claims aren't saying that Japanese soldiers were right to rape women, they are doubting the severity of the acts. And that is exactly why this book is so important - because it offers a first hand account of just how terrible those acts were. Hiromi's doubt is probably the result of an education system, whether in Japan or America, that glosses over war crimes committed in Asia and one that accentuates the reform Japan underwent after the war's end. Hiromi should not feel a need to defend soldier's actions from sixty years ago just because they share the same ethnic background. The sins of our fathers are not our own. But we run the risk of letting them happen again if we refuse to accept that they happened in the first place.
The present day Japanese government did not commit war atrocities during WWI, and recent backlashes against Japanese citizens in Asia only serves to further intolerance and misunderstanding. However, modern Japan, being built from the wealth and infrastructure of an oppressive imperialist power, has a responsibility to do all they can to compensate those wronged by their predecessor, and to educate their own citizens of the truth. In 1999 this book was published and sold throughout Japan, making Maria's story known to the general public for the first time. It's a start.
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
War crimes, May 3, 2000
By A Customer
This is a very compelling story about the atrocities to which members of the Japanese army subjected a young Filipina girl. It is difficult, at times, to read and certainly not a book I would recommend for young readers. However, it definitely raised my awareness of the issue and the horrors experienced by these "comfort women". It also showed the resilience of women to love and survive again after such deplorable experiences.
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