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Transnational and Japanese Activism on Behalf of Indonesian and Dutch Victims of Enforced Military Prostitution During World War II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Article summary
This article considers the experiences of Dutch and Indonesian women in enforced prostitution for the Japanese military during World War Two and the activism of prominent survivors and their supporters from the 1990s. It highlights how and why Japanese activists have continued to support these women and why Dutch and Indonesian women have rarely engaged in joint activism. It analyses how Dutch and Indonesian women's stories are presented together in a 2015-2016 exhibition at the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace in Tokyo and how women's and soldiers' testimonies are used to advocate further redress from the Japanese government and to challenge military sexual violence against women. The article assesses how a sustained focus in transnational activism on Japanese responsibility and the Japanese imperial context potentially leads to overlooking how localised forms of patriarchy and the specific context of this former Dutch colony affected women's experiences and their post war treatment.
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References
Notes
1 On Dutch activism see Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008 and Sidonie Smith and Kay Schaffer, Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. On Indonesian activism see Bradley Horton, ‘Sexual Exploitation and resistance: Indonesian Language Representations Since the Early 1990s of the Japanese Occupation History’ Paper Presented at IAHA, 2004 and Katharine McGregor, ‘Emotions and Activism for Former so Called ‘Comfort Women’ of the Japanese Occupation of the Netherlands East Indies’, Women's Studies International Forum, 54, 2016, pp. 67-78.
2 Bill Mihalopoulus, Sex In Japan's Globalization, 1870–1930: Prostitutes, Emigration and Nation Building, London: Pickering and Chatto, 2011.
3 Soh, The Comfort Women, pp. 9-10.
4 Yuki Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War Two and the Us Occupation, London: Routledge, 2002, pp. 9-10.
5 Cynthia Enloe, Does Khaki Become You?: The Militarisation Of Women's Lives, London: Pluto, 1983, pp. 19-20.
6 Susan Blackburn, Women and The State in Modern Indonesia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 174–5.
7 The key works are Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women; William Bradley Horton, ‘Comfort Women’ in Peter Post Et Al. (Eds), The Encyclopedia of Indonesia in the Pacific War, Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2010; Budi Hartono and Dadang Juliantoro Derita Paksa Perempuan: Kisah Jugun Ianfu pada Masa Pendudukan Jepang, 1942-1945 [The Sufferings of Forced Women: The Story of the Jūgun Ianfu during the Japanese Occupation, 1942–1945], Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 1997 and Hilde Janssen, Schaamte en Onschuld: Het Verdrongen Oorlogsverleden van Troostmeisjes in Indonesië [Shame and Innocence: The Repressed History of Comfort Women in Indonesia], Nieuw Amsterdam: Amsterdam, 2010.
8 divisions of the army controlled Java and Sumatra respectively and the navy run the rest of the territory on the basis of a more permanent occupation.
9 Cindy Adams, Sukarno: an Autobiography as Told to Cindy Adams, Gunung Agung: Hong Kong, 1965, pp. 220-21.
10 On local Korean complicity see Soh, The Comfort Women, pp. 137-140
11 Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Perawan Remaja dalam Cengkeraman Militer [Teenage Virgins in the Grip of the Military], Gramedia: Jakarta, 2001.
12 Soh, The Comfort Women, p. 23.
13 Forum Komunikasi Ex-Heiho [Ex-Heiho Communication Forum], Kompensasi Jugun Ianfu [Compensation for Comfort Women], Forum Komunikasi Ex-Heiho, n. p., 1996, p. 10. For critiques of their activism see McGregor, ‘Emotions and Activism’, pp. 72-74.
14 Report of a Study of Dutch Government Documents on the Forced Prostitution of Dutch Women in the Dutch East Indies during the Japanese Occupation, Dutch Government, the Hague, 1994, (unofficial translation available at NIOD Library), p. 2.
15 Ulbe Bosma & Remco Raben, Being “Dutch” in the Indies: A History of Creolisation and Empire, 1500-1920, translated by Wendie Shaffer, NUS Press and Ohio University Press: Singapore and Athens, 2008. p. xvii.
16 Frances Gouda, 'Nyonyas on the Colonial Divide: White Women in the Dutch East Indies 1900–1942, Gender and History, 5(3), 1993, pp. 318-342.
17 Report of a Study of Dutch Government Documents, pp. 1-2.
18 Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women, pp. 74-77.
19 Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women, p. 52.
20 Robert Cribb, ‘Avoiding Clemency: The Trial and Transfer of Japanese War Criminals in Indonesia, 1946-1949‘, Japanese Studies, 31(2), 2011, pp. 151-170.
21 Carol Gluck, Operations of Memory: ‘Comfort Women’ and the World. In Sheila Miyoshi Jager & Rana Mitter (Eds.), Ruptured Histories: War, Memory, and the Post-Cold War in Asia, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 2007, p. 65.
22 Yoshiko Nozaki, ‘The Comfort Women Controversy: History and Testimony’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, n.d.
23 Vera Mackie, ‘In Search of Innocence: Feminist Historians Debate the Legacy of wartime Japan,‘ Australian Feminist Studies, 20(47), July 2005, p. 209.
24 Ueno Chizuko, ‘The Politics of Memory: Nation, Individual and Self’, translated by Sand in History and Memory, 11(2), 1999, p. 137.
25 printing 1994), p. 137.
26 Ruff-O'Herne, 50 Years of Silence, pp. 66-71.
27 Ruff-O'Herne, 50 years of Silence, p. 115.
28 Marijke Schuurmans, ‘Indies Memories in Bronze and Stone’, Inside Indonesia, No. 103, Jan-March 2011.
29 Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, ‘Dutch Post War Visions’, Encyclopedia of Indonesia in the Pacific War, ed Peter Post et al., pp. 434–435.
30 William F. Frederick, ‘The Killing of Dutch and Eurasians in Indonesia's National Revolution (1945-1949): a ‘Brief Genocide’ Reconsidered’, in Colonial Counterinsurgency and Mass Violence: The Dutch Empire in Indonesia, ed Bart Luttikhuis and Dirk Moses, Routledge: London and New York, 2014, pp. 133-154.
31 Kamila Szczepanska, The Politics of War Memory in Japan: Progressive Civil Society Groups and Contestations of Memory of the Asia-Pacific War, Sheffield Centre of Japanese Studies, Routledge Series, Taylor and Francis: London, 2014, p. 2.
32 De Telegraaf, December 9, 1992.
33 Jos Goos, Evoelloes Op Bevel: Ervaringan in Jappenkampen, [Emotionless on Command: The Experiences of Ellen van der Ploeg in Japanese Camps], Het Spectrum H.V: Utrecht, 1995, pp. 14-15, 104-105.
34 Report of a Study of Dutch Government Documents.
35 Ruff-O'Herne, 50 Years of Silence: Jan Ruff O'Herne, Orandajin ‘ianfu’: Jan no monogatari [A Dutch ‘ianfu’: the story of Jan], Mokuseish:, Tokyo, 1999. Jan Ruff-O'Herne, Rintihan dalam Kebisuan [Suffering in Silence], Progress: n.p. 2003.
36 Carol Ruff and Ned Lander, Fifty Years of Silence, Ronin Films, 1994. Jan Ruff-O'Herne Talking Heads with Peter Thompson, ABC, screened 23 February 2009.
37 On this point and how O'Herne complicated diaspora based activism in Australia see Anna Song, ‘The Task of an Activist: Imagined Communities and the Comfort Women Campaigns in Australia’, Asian Studies Review, 37 (3), 2013, pp. 4-7.
38 Goos, Evoelloes Op Bevel.
39
40 ‘Pengakuan Seorang “Wanita Penghibur”’ [The Testimony of a “Comfort Woman”’], Kompas, 17 July, 1992, p. 16.
41 Kimura Kōichi, ‘The Story of Tuminah the First Victim to Come Forward and Tell her Story about her Ordeal’, in “Military Sex Slaves in Indonesia under the Japanese Imperial Army”, Asia Tsushin, English Edition (4), December 1996, p. 19: Sawega, ‘Pengakuan Seorang “Wanita Penghibur”‘, p. 16.
42 See Terence Hull, Endang Sulisyaninsih & Gavin Jones. Prostitution in Indonesia: Its History and Evolution, Pustaka Sinar Harapan: Jakarta, 1999.
43 Kimura, ‘The Story of Tuminah’, pp. 15-20.
44 Agus Basri and Nunik Iswardhani, ‘Korban-Korban Serdadu Jepang’ [Victims of Japanese Soldiers], Tempo, 24 April 1993, p. 32.
45 Eka Hindra and Kimura Kōichi, Momoye: Mereka Memanggilku, Erlangga: Jakarta, 2007. This paragraph draws on this account.
46 Hartono and Juliantoro, Derita Paksa Perempuan.
47 Eka Hindra and Kimura Koichi, Momoye: Mereka Memanggilku.
48 ‘Moto jūgun ianfu egaita kiroku eiga: Kantoku no Kana Tomoko san ni kiku’ [The documentary film depicting former ianfu: Interview with the director, Kana Tomoko] Asahi Shimbun, Morning edition, 10 September 2003, Osaka. p. 25. The film was entitled Mardiyem: Sex Slave of the Japanese Army, 2001.
49 Soh, The Comfort Women, p. xii.
50 For an account of this from a Japanese official see Nishijima Shigetada, Shōgen: Indoneshia dokuritsu kakumei-aru kakumeika no hanshō, in Anthony Reid and Oki Akira, ‘Introduction’ in The Japanese Experience in Indonesia: Selected Documents of 1942-1945, edited by Anthony Reid and Oki Akira, Ohio Center for International Studies, Monographs in International Studies, Southeast Asia series No 72: Athens, Ohio, 1986, pp. 303-309.
51 McGregor, ‘Emotions and Activism’, p. 70.
52 McGregor, ‘Emotions and Activism’, pp. 71-76.
53 Suehiro Akira, ‘The Road to Economic Re-entry: Japan's Policy Toward Southeast Asian Development in the 1950s and 1960s’, Social Science Japan Journal, 2 (1), 1999, pp. 85–105.
54 For the wording and a discussion of this apology see Christopher Daase et al, Apology and Reconciliation in International Relations: The Importance of Being Sorry, Routledge: London and New York, 2015, pp. 253-254.
55 For the full statement see here. Accessed October 11, 2015.
56 Yeong-ae Yamashita, translated by Malaya IIeto, ‘Revisiting the ‘Comfort Women’” Moving Beyond Nationalism’, in Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow, Transforming Japan: How Feminism and Diversity are Making a Difference, The Feminist Press and CUNY: New York, 2011, pp. 377-380.
57 Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Social Affairs the Republic of Indonesia and the Asian Women's Fund Concerning Promotion of Social Welfare Services for Elderly People in Indonesia.
58 Protecting the human rights of comfort women: hearing before the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, United States House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, first session, February 15, 2007, pp. 43-44
59 Hamer-Monod de Froideville, Genakte Bloem, p. 112.
60 Statement by Jan Ruff-O'Herne in Protecting the human rights of comfort women, p. 26.
61 Phillip Seaton, Japan's Contested War Memories: The Memory Rifts in Historical Consciousness of World War II, Routledge Taylor and Francis: London and New York, 2007.
62 For a list of cases see Lawsuits against the Government of Japan filed by the Survivors in Japanese Courts. VAWW- Network Japan,
63 Yoshiko Nozaki, ‘The Comfort Women Controversy: History and Testimony’.
64 Soh, The Comfort Women, p. 42.
65 Sakamoto Rumi, ‘The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slaver: A Legal and feminist Approach to the ‘Comfort Women’ Issue’, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 3(1), June 2001, pp. 49-50.
66 For a record of Indonesian and Dutch women's testimony used in the tribunal judgement see The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal for the Trial of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery, Judgement on the Common Indictment and the Application for Restitution and Reparation, The Hague, 2001, pp. 64-67, 78-83, 85-90, 96-103.
67 See sections of the film by Kana Tomoko (director) Mardiyem, covering Mardiyem's participation in the tribunal.
68 Lexy Rambadeta (director), The Indonesia Comfort Women: A Video Testimony, 2000.
69 On Filipino activism see Katharina Medoza, ‘Freeing the ‘Slaves of Destiny’: The Lolas of the Filipino Comfort Women Movement’, Cultural Dynamics, 15(3), 2003, 247-266.
70 Ruff-O'Herne, 50 years of Silence, pp. 128-129.
71 Katharine McGregor, ‘The Cold War Indonesian Women and the Global Anti-Imperialist Movement 1946-1965‘, in Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney and Fabio Lanza (eds.) De-Centring Cold War History, Routledge: London, 2013, pp. 31-51.
72 For more on the museum see Watanabe Mina, ‘Passing on the History of ‘comfort women’: the experiences of a women's museum in Japan’, Journal of Peace Education, 12(3), 2015, pp. 236-246.
73 On this point see Mackie, ‘In Search of Innocence’, pp. 211–212.
74 Ethan Mark, ‘Greater East Asia Revisited’ in Remco Raben (ed.), Representing the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia: Personal Testimonies and Public Images in Indonesia, Japan and the Netherlands, Waanders Publishers and Netherlands Institute for War Documentation: Zwolle, 1999, p. 141.
75 On forced labour see Paul Kratoska (ed.), Asian Labour in the Wartime Japanese Empire: Unknown Histories, Armonk: New York, 2005. On starvation see Pierre van der Eng, ‘Food Supply in Java during War and Decolonisation’, MPRA Paper, No 8852, 25 May 2008, pp. 8-25.
76 Watanabe, ‘Passing on the History of ‘comfort women’,
77 Soh, The Comfort Women, pp. 30-36, 40-41.
78 On camp experiences see Elizabeth van Kampen, ‘Memories of the Dutch East Indies: From Plantation Society to Prisoner of Japan’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol. 1-4-09, January 1, 2009.
79 Nakasone Yasuhiro, ‘Nijūsansai de sanzen nin no sōshikikan’ [Commander of three thousand soldiers at the age of twenty-three], in Owarinaki kaigun: wakai sedai e tsutaetai nokoshitai. [Never ending navy: Memories that we want to hand down to young generations]. (ed.) Matsuura, Takanori. Bunka Hōsō, 1978.
80 Nakasone Yasuhiro, ‘Former Prime Minister of Japan, Ever [sic] Set Up ‘Comfort Station’ in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan’, The Global Review, 4 January 2012.
81 The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal, p. 65.
82 Seaton, Japan's Contested War Memories, pp. 202-203.
83 Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ‘Japan's ‘Comfort Women’: It's Time for the Truth (In The Ordinary, Everyday Sense of the Word)’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, March 8 2007.
84 Colin Joyce, ‘Japanese PM Denies Wartime ‘Comfort Women’ were Forced’, The Telegraph, 3 March 2007.
85 Mindy Kotler, ‘The Comfort Women and Japan's War on Truth’, New York Times, November 14, 2014.
86 Kawata Fumiko, Indoneshia no ‘ianfu’ [‘Comfort women’ in Indonesia] Tokyo: Akashi Shoten and Kawata Fumiko (2005) Ianfu to yobareta senjō no shōjo [Girls called ‘ianfu’ in the battlefield]. Kōbunken: Tokyo, 1997 and Kimura, “Military Sex Slaves in Indonesia under the Japanese Imperial Army”.
87 Janssen, Schaamte en Onschuld: Jan Banning and Hilde Janssen, Comfort Women/Troostmeisjes, Ipso Facto (Utrecht, NL/Seltmann+Söhne, Ludenscheid, Germany), 2010. Omdat wij mooi waren (Because We Were Beautiful). Directed by Frank van Osch. Den Bosch: Van Osch Film Produkties, 2010.
88 Hirano Keiji, ‘Photo Exhibition Shows Pain of Indonesian Former ‘Comfort Women’, Japan Times, 19 October, 2015.
89 Banning and Janssen, Comfort Women/Troostmeisjes, p. 5.
90 The two soldiers who testified were Kaneko Yasuji and Suzuki Yoshio, veterans who had served in China.
91 See here, accessed March 20 2016.
92 This testimony is truncated from her testimony at the 2014 Asian Solidarity Meeting in Tokyo. Sri Sukanti's story featured in the March 8-12, 2013 exhibition entitled ‘Nona Jawa’ held at Balai Soedjatmoko, Surakarta, Central Java, see ‘The Grim Portrait Nona Djawa’, The Jakarta Post, March 20 2013.
93 On this point see Hee-Jung Serenity Joo, ‘Comfort Women in Human Rights Discourse: Fetishized Testimonies, Small Museums, and the Politics of Thin Description’, Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 37, 2015, pp. 168-169.
94 The original sources for this quote was Harami Keiji, Gudon heishi no sentōgaiki [A blockish soldier's story of out-of-battlefield], Shinsē Shuppan: Tokyo, 2005.
95 Munakata Tarōbō, Aru gun'i no norakura senki [The idle account of one military doctor]. Munakata Tarōbō (self published), n.p., 1981.
96 Tsurumi Shunsuke, Kitai to kaisō [Gekan [Anticipation and remembrance Vol. 2], Shōbunsha, Tokyo, 1997.
97 Daqing Yang, ‘Living Soldiers, Re-lived Memories? Japanese Veterans and Postwar testimony of War Atrocities’ in Miyoshi Jager and Mitter, Ruptured Histories, pp. 81- 83.
98 Haruko Taya Cook, ‘Japan's War in Living Memory and Beyond’, in Remco Raben (ed.), Representing the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia, p. 51.
99 Kanō Mikiyo, 'The Problem with the Comfort Women Problem“, AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review, 24 (2), 1993, p. 41.
100 Lisa Price, ‘Finding the Man in the Soldier-Rapist: Some Reflections on Comprehension and Accountability’, Women's Studies International Forum, 2001, 24(2), p. 218.
101 Special Exhibition at WAM, Under the Glorious Guise of ‘Asian Liberation’: Indonesia and Sexual Violence under Japanese Military Occupation], WAM Newsletter, Vol 30, 2015, p. 4.
102 Hyunah Yang, ‘Finding the Map of Memory’: Testimony of the Japanese military sexual Slavery Survivors', Positions: east asia cultures critique, 16(1), 2008, p. 87.
103 Ueno Chizuko, ‘The Politics of Memory’, p. 137.
104 Testimony translated from map accompanying exhibition.
105 For a good overview of these controversies see Nozaki ‘The Comfort Women Controversy’.