Sunday 26 January 2014

Brutal Not Comfort

Brutal Not Comfort

The soldiers of Nippon descended upon Asia in a vast horde of death.                              
Fighting anyone who dared oppose them, killing their enemies without mercy. Destroying everything from isolated houses to entire cities.                                       
Decades of looking inwards bred an evil military dictatorship.                                         
Only two atom bombs changed that.                                                                                      
But a story remains untold.                                                                                              
Hidden by silence and silenced by death.                                                                     
Imperial Japanese Army soldiers didn't just fight and kill, they raped as-well.                  '
Comfort Women' stolen from Asia.                                                                               
'Liberated' from Korea, the Philippines, China and elsewhere.                                             
Sex slaves shown no mercy by their unfeeling enemy.                                            
Sexual violence of the worst kind.                                                                               
Hundreds of thousands of women were raped, beaten, abused, tortured, made infertile and murdered at 'comfort stations.'                                                                                 
The Emperor's soldiers taking fully liberty with no reluctance.                                            
Nearly seventy years after Japanese unconditional surrender, no apology has been given.                                                                                                                          
Opposite the Japanese embassy in Seoul stands a statue.                                                                                 
Not of a soldier or tank but of a woman.                                                                          
People dress her whatever the weather and demonstrate there for an apology.                 
She is a reminder and a memorial to women affected by the rape of war.                           
In the private recesses of their minds, what do the Japanese diplomats feel?           
Tension remains at the highest level, almost outliving that lost generation.                       
In South Korea only a few still live.                                                                                        
Tell this story to students of history.                                                                                                    
Put it next to the Holocaust and area bombing raids so this never happens again.

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