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Felt sad reading The Times orbituary column today.

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glammagran Wed 11-Sep-19 19:43:55

I read firstly the one about a Dutch woman (one of thousands) Jan Ruff O’Herne who was imprisoned by the Japanese in Java during WW2 and was used as a “comfort woman” alongside Korean and Chinese women by the Japanese military. A remarkable woman. The journalist who wrote her obituary was herself killed in a road traffic accident in London just days ago at the age of just 34.

My step-father was a POW taken in Java and never really functioned properly thereafter. Just made me very sad.

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Doodledog Wed 11-Sep-19 20:25:58

It is very sad, glammagran. The comfort women are only just getting their stories heard, and they are dreadful tales of inhumanity.

They, and the women who were victimised for apparently collaborating, (when they may have been resistance members, raped, or just trying to get food for their children) were treated terribly.

It is impossible to know whether men were unable to deal with what had happened to the women, or whether they took out their frustrations at their feelings of inadequacy on the women; but the attitude of defeated populations only added to the women's suffering.

I am so sorry to hear about your stepfather. What happened to Japanese POWs was indescribably cruel. Words are not enough to describe the horrors of war, are they?

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tidyskatemum Wed 11-Sep-19 20:41:49

Our son was married in South Korea and we were very moved by the statues to “comfort women”. The one in Dagestan is sitting on a bench with room for you to sit next to her. It made me come over all emotional when I did.

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tidyskatemum Wed 11-Sep-19 20:42:37

Daegu not Dagestan. Autocorrect should be banned!

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