Veils of Imbai: Unravel the Japanese Comfort Women

It was an unholy hour of three in the morning and the rooster is still snoring. A sixteen year old girl name Tomasa sit still beside the bed, and her eyes with mist. The face of the hopeless nymph stunned the room, and beside her the drunked lieutenant that have just fell asleep an hour ago. She was thinking nothing. Her tears are full of pain. It was just her fourth night on that isolated room and she feel dying.
She is just one of “imbai,” one of the comfort women during the World War II imprisoned in the comfort station of the Japanese Imperial Army. Synonymous to “ jugun ianfu” (military comfort women) who became sexual laborers and were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese troops through coerced recruitment. Young girls were targeted as they unlikely to be infected with venereal diseases. The girls and women were as young as eleven years old and were sometimes taken from their elementary schools.

During the war, Iloilo City did not escape from the hands of the Japanese invasion. The Japanese Imperial Army opened three houses for their comfort women in the heart of the city. They were Asia Hall at Plaza Libertad beside the Masonic Temple-the tallest building in Iloilo on that time and the Panay general headquarters of the Japanese, Bilbao Hotel at the Hughes Street, and Allen Hotel at de la Rama Street.
These women speak Tagalog and Niponggo. The houses were opened for service from 9:00 o’clock in the morning up to 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon for foot soldiers and up to early dawn for high-ranking officers. Once comfort women arrived at the station they were forced to have sex, typically with 20 to 40 men a day - day after day. If they resisted, they were beaten or killed.
Only Japanese soldiers were allowed to frequent the station and were normally charged a fixed price that varied on the woman’s’ nationality. The rank of the soldier determined the length of the time allowed for a visit, price paid, and the hours at which the soldier was entitled to visit the comfort station. At least a portion of the revenue was taken by the military. According to the testimony of a survivor quoted in the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur, from 3 to 7 PM each day she had to serve sergeants, whereas the evenings and early dawn of the next day were reserved for lieutenants.
An excerpt from the story of Pak, a survivor, translated by Caroline Berndt tells the exploits of her experiences under the Japanese soldiers. - “ Whether it was morning or night, once one soldier left, the next soldier came. Thirty men would come in one day…we would try to talk each other out of committing suicide, but even with that, woman did still. There were some women who stole opium and took it. If they took a lot of it, they would vomit blood and die. There were some who died after gulping medicines whose name they didn’t even know. There were some who hanged themselves with their clothing inside the toilet. Because there were women who tried to kill themselves even if they only had some string, we tried to hide strings from each other…Then about six months after I was made a military comfort woman, I told a colonel in the army, “ Do you think we are your maids and your prostitutes? How can you be human being after making us do such things?” I then spat on his face.
From there, that soldier said “It is the command of the army. The country’s order is the Emperor’s order. If you have something to say, say it to the Emperor.” Then he beat me. I was in a coma for three days. Even when I regained consciousness, I couldn’t move. Even now I feel the pain from that time, and scars remain.”
The Japanese rationale for the comfort system was to enhance the morale of the military by providing amenities for recreational sex. The authorities believed such amenities would help prevent soldiers from committing random sexual violence toward women of the occupied territories. Beside its reputation, the military authorities were also concerned with the health of the troops, which prompted their close supervision of the hygienic conditions of the comfort stations in order to help keep STD under control. They imposed medical check-up for the women every Tuesday, the using of condoms, prohibitions on sick women to serve soldiers, and their daily bath.
Many of them become sterile from repeated rapes Women who become pregnant or infected with STD were given a shot of the antibiotic Terramycin, which the women referred to as “Number 606.” This drug made the woman’s body swell-up and would usually induce to abortion.
At the end of the war, survivors who made it home suffered severe physical and psychological problems. Many could not marry. As a result of violent physical and sexual abuse, STD, and drug addictions arising from their war time experiences, many of them suffered serious health effects including permanent damage to their reproductive organs and urinary tract. Many women also found themselves unable to bear child as a result of their mistreatment. Sleep disorders such as insomnia and fearful nightmares are common. They really suffer grievously.
However, after the war, the comfort stations quickly faded from public consciousness, and for years the issue received almost no attention.Tomasa is a symbol of the Japanese history that represents the women’s fright during the Japanese era. She is just one of the thousands of comfort women burned alive in the flame of the Japanese invasion…