Jugun Ianfu-Beauty Leads to Disaster

Have you ever heard about the term “Jugun Ianfu” before? I think most of you who live in Asia will at least ever heard about this once. Jugun Ianfu (JI) has a similar meaning with prostitutes. But the most general term for this is Comfort Women. The difference is that prostitutes get paid for their “services” while JI works involuntarily. In fact, they were forced to leave their houses (most of them were kidnapped) to become prostitutes for Japanese troops in Asia during war 1942-1945 for FREE! Bottom line is these women were forced to be Japanese troops’ sex slaves.
The victims of Jugun Ianfu come from many countries in Asia, such as Indonesia, Philippine, Taiwan, and Korea. Maybe there’s a different about the term/name used for these women in several countries, but actually they have similar meaning. There’s no specific numbers which able to describe the exact numbers of JI, but some researches found 20.000-30.000 victims and some others found 50.000-200.000 victims. It’s difficult to get the exact number because most of these women choose to keep silent and stop talking about their extremely embarrassing experiences in their young ages. Ex-Jugun Ianfu grows old in shameful way and must bear with mockery and insulting from people around them for what they’ve faced through. They were stamped to be Japanese troops’ prostitutes even when the reality ensures that they were actually victims of foreign military rape. That’s why they choose to be silent and conceal their past experiences; it’s to avoid mockery and judgments from other people. There’s no way Japan can pay for what these women had in their young ages nowadays.

But there’s a movement from Jugun Ianfu victims in many countries who decide to break the silence and seek justice for women victims of foreign military rapes. On 1995, Japan Authority made a fund institution called Asian Women’s Fund to help these women. But we both know that no money in this world could make all victims of troops’ sex slaves forget about their dark experiences. They condemn the beauty of their young faces and bodies since it only lead them to disaster like hell! Sometimes beauty won’t give you nothing but dark ages.

Image Source: www.theglobal-review.com; www.amnesty.ca