‘In April 1946, a US chaplain reported that 400 to 1,000 Japs hiding in the Philippines had eaten 151 natives since August the year before…’
QUESTION from The Powerpuff Girls’ leader (HaipÄ Burossamu) is now asked on the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl as well as the 80th anniversary of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s broadcast: “The United Nations have decided to establish the identity of those Nazi leaders who are responsible for the innumerable acts of savagery. As each of these criminal deeds is committed, it is being carefully investigated; and the evidence is being relentlessly piled up for the future purposes of justice. We have made it entirely clear that the United Nations seek no mass reprisals against the populations of Germany or Italy or Japan. But the ringleaders and their brutal henchmen must be named, and apprehended, and tried in accordance with the judicial processes of criminal law.” [White House news release, October 12, 1942]
The brutal henchmen included Nurse Shigako Tsutini (found guilty of serving the livers of eight American airmen at a Japanese officers’ mess), Col. Fumio Suzuki of the 15th Debarkation Unit, and Japanese Lieutenant Hisata Tomiyasu (found guilty of cannibalism at Wewak, New Guinea in 1944). [https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1951/5/15/they-say-you-taste-like-pork] Was there a link between the Nipponese appetite for human flesh and Tokyo’s wartime military sexual slavery system?
- “Germany’s cannibalism was amateur league compared with Japanese cannibalism in the Pacific… On December 10, 1944, Japanese 18th Army Headquarters issued an order approving cannibalism so long as Allied dead were eaten… In April 1946 a US chaplain reported that 400 to 1,000 Japs hiding in the Philippines had eaten 151 natives since August the year before… Young women, captured alive, were forced to live as mistresses until food ran out and then they too were eaten.” [Grattan Gray, “They Say You Taste Like Pork,” May 15, 1951]
- Romeo Capulong of the Public Interest Law Center (who represented 40 Filipino women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops) also sought compensation from Japan for the relatives of 77 Filipinos (45 males, 32 females, six children in Bukidnon province) cannibalized by Japanese soldiers after World War II (between 1945 and February 1947). “Jovita, then 18, and her sister Cresencia, then 15, said soldiers killed their father in October 1946 and forced them to eat his flesh… also claimed the soldiers raped them during a month of captivity.” [Associated Press, September 7, 1993; https://apnews.com/article/61eaf879b3dd907cf2cb48d2fad7455a]
- Attorney Kenshi Nishida of the 18-man Japanese fact-finding mission told a press conference of testimonies of survivors and witnesses of Japanese atrocities (allegations of cannibalism, and rape, including the “comfort women” forced into sexual slavery) in Palawan, Panay in the Visayas and Bukidnon of Mindanao. Jovita Sayam, 68, told the group: “Our father was slaughtered right before our eyes by the Japanese who cooked him using our own kettle”… even forcing her and her sister to eat some, but the girls spat out the bits of their father´s flesh. “Members of the fact-finding mission expressed surprise as to why the gruesome acts they were told about did not attract as much attention in the Philippines as the case of the comfort women.” Ryutario Nakakita and a team from the Japanese Lawyers Panel for the Philippine Comfort Women gathered documents from Manila and the provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, Antique and Negros Occidental. [Union of Catholic Asian News, March 29, 1993; https://www.ucanews.com/story-archive/?post_name=/1993/03/30/researchers-for-suit-on-japanese-war-crimes-told-of-cannibalism&post_id=43057]
These historical facts merit space in Philippine, American, Japanese and Asean textbooks. And educational materials today ought to have space as well for A/RES/66/170 (the Resolution adopted on 19 December 2011 by the United Nations General Assembly designating 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child to be observed every year beginning in 2012). In 2022, more than 1.1 billion girls are poised to take on the future, although 10 million girls will be at risk of child marriage.” [https://www.un.org/en/observances/girl-child-day]
To mark the two anniversaries (IDG+WW2), my students from the University of the Philippines Manila conducted research on the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Philippine Officials (Public and Private) on the Global Comfort Women Issue. Responses include:
- Atty. Kristine Rosary E. Yuzon-Chaves (Executive Director, Philippine Commission on Women): “As the primary policy-making and coordinating body on women and gender equality concerns, PCW fervently advocates for women’s empowerment, gender equity, and gender equality in the country. We are committed in ensuring that the rights of women and girls in the country are protected, and that their issues and concerns are addressed. We recognize the violence and injustice suffered by the comfort women and all other women and girls who were subjected to sexual slavery during the Second World War, and are hopeful that their decades-long ordeal will soon be resolved. The PCW currently does not maintain a formal position on the Coomaraswamy Report (Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1994/45). However, we wish to emphasize that in following the lawful mandate of the PCW, the Commission has always been, and shall remain, steadfast in our commitment against violence and abuse against women and girls. We shall continue to advocate for their rights, as well as for reparations for violations of the same, within the bounds of law.” [Reply to BLG Bagadiong]
- Atty. Krissi Shaffina Twyla A. Rubin (OIC Director, Center for Gender Equality and Women’s Human Rights, Commission of Human Rights): “Statement of the Commission on Human Rights on the removal of the ‘comfort women’ statue along Roxas Boulevard. Statues are built to remember and respect struggles in our history. In this light, the Commission is deeply concerned that the monument intended to honor the pain and struggles of our so -called ‘comfort women’ during World War II was taken down like a thief in the night, akin to equally robbing us of our sense of history and national identity. The relocation of the statue to a private area also insults the memory of our Filipinas who, after years of being silent, mustered the courage to step out of the dark to tell their stories, claim back their dignity, and call for reparations for the wrongs done to their humanity. Although it presents a grim side of our past, the monument also urges us to never again allow the dignity of Filipino women to be trampled and compromised–in any way, form, or expression. It was said, those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. Hence, any form to alter, embellish, or silence our history is an affront to our national identity and should be condemned. It has taken decades for these ‘comfort women’ to come forward. Only a few of them remain alive today. In honor of their human dignity, we must resist efforts to remove them, not only from public consciousness, but also from our national history.” [Reply to EKD Ngo]
