50 YEARS OF SILENCE

1. Jan Ruff-O-Herne's story; filmed by Jans son in law, Ned Lander, to make the
documentary 50 Years Of Silence. He arranged for Jan to go to Holland, and it was all
arranged there to meet with some of the other Dutch girls that had been with Jan
2. It spans five generations from a colonial life in Java
a. She was just 21 when she was taken prisoner in Java in 1942 and forced into a
Japanese military brothel
b. Spoke out in 1992; in Tokyo, in 1992, there was an international forum on
Japanese war crimes.
3. It shows her extraordinary courage and dignity as she travels to Tokyo to give evidence
at an international public hearing.
4. After making headline news throughout the world, Jan continued to Holland to meet
with other Dutch women who were similarly enslaved.
5. Inspired by her example they too decided to make their stories public.
6. changed recorded history
a. Politics of silencing and taking things public
b. Silencing was socially and politically enforced
i. Dutch officials told them not to speak; society shunned them; Jan went
forward and told a priest that she had held this long-held idea about
becoming a nun, he said "Under the circumstances, I think it's better that
you not become a nun." And that made her soiled, dirty, different, and
not good enough
ii. For the Japanese, they were spoils of war best forgotten; 30mins 13 secs:
Japanese newscasters frame the issue as one of national pride, cut from
Jans interview and immediately into weather section because things were
getting too uncomfortable on TV (revealing too much about the
atrocities)
iii. Mothers knew what had happened but enforced silence in the household
(when she was returned to prison camp, she had threats that her family
would be killed if she revealed the truth about the atrocities inflicted
upon her. "The silence began then and there, the silence forced upon us)
iv. There was silence about the identities about these women as well (when
they were in the brothel
1. Women were given flower names-> to make these women feel
more appealing and more docile, and sexually available to
soldiers (15 minutes 40 seconds)
2. Intermixed with the unwilling, were the volunteers as well (37
mins 55 secs) (then again, how can anything be voluntary, when
war constrains the choices and options of survival available to
people?)
How did speaking out begin?
in the early 1990s Korean women sought compensation for being forced to provide
sex for the Japanese military during World War II
Adelaide grandmother Jan Ruff-OHerne came forward and revealed that as a Dutch
teenager in colonial Java, she and six other Western girls were placed under house
arrest where they were repeatedly raped by Japanese officers acting under tacit
sanction. (also by Japanese doctors)

The language that silences (euphemisms for war atrocities are a common way to mask the
more severe implications of various acts committed)
We were not comfort women, we were Japanese war rape victims
Comfort women conveys warmth, as if the Japanese soldiers NEEDED comfort, and
that the only COMFORT they needed could be fulfilled by WOMEN
o 48mins 48 sec: dutch women complain women and children are always victims
in war, yet the men are never blamed because the argument is that men are like
that in war
War as an excuse for the execution of atrocities, and the language reflect
and enforces such mentalities that men deserve exploit the weak during
war
So coming out was embracing/revealing the truth and shedding the same, shame is the
result of the language of silence (if you dont want people to talk, you make them feel
ashamed)
o "Nobody can imagine what it means to have something within yourself so
terrible that you would love to talk about it to other people but you cannot,
because you feel this terrible shame"

Why did the Koreans start this forum for comfort women?: read below
(http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=GIHcaFVxXf0C&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=1992+tokyo+co
mfort+women+what+started+this&source=bl&ots=DiPkKiCMPb&sig=Pk8bDw5_mqHGADRMsLM
49ukqn94&hl=en&sa=X&ei=B2VkU4SIMdC2uATp2IL4CA&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=
1992%20tokyo%20comfort%20women%20what%20started%20this&f=false)