Survivors of Filipina comfort women and descendants of Filipino-Chinese guerrilla fighters pose for a group photo in Mapanique of Candaba, Pampanga province, the Philippines, July 6, 2025. (Xinhua/Nie Xiaoyang)

by Xinhua writer Nie Xiaoyang

MANILA, July 7 (Xinhua) -- As the rain subsided over Mapanique, a quiet village nestled in the rice fields of Candaba in Pampanga province, the Philippines, the air seemed to still carry the dust of the 1940s.

On the morning of July 6, 10 elderly women gathered in a small courtyard under a makeshift canopy. The youngest was 92, the oldest 96. They are survivors, Filipina comfort women who endured unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Japanese invaders during World War II.

Though more than 80 years have passed, tears streamed down the faces of several women as they recalled the trauma they had long carried in silence.

When they learned that among the visitors were descendants of Filipino-Chinese guerrilla fighters who resisted the Japanese occupation, one of the women quietly said, "Thank you for remembering."

At the gathering, the survivors sang a haunting ballad written especially for them, "Please Let the Heart of Grandmother Be Healed." One line stood out with brutal clarity, "We were suffocating, longing to die. Our bodies and souls were torn apart."

These were not poetic metaphors, but painful truths, they had lived through some of the darkest chapters of human suffering.

On November 23, 1944, Japanese forces raided Mapanique, accusing villagers of aiding guerrilla fighters. The village was sealed off. Men were rounded up, tortured, or killed. Homes were burned to the ground. Young women were dragged away and taken to the now notorious Bahay na Pula ("Red House") in neighboring Bulacan province, where they were subjected to systemic rape and enslavement.

The atrocity is scarcely mentioned in textbooks, but its scars remain etched into the bodies and memories of the survivors.

Virginia Lacsa-Suarez, a leading Filipino human rights lawyer who has long championed the cause of the Malaya Lolas, as the survivors are known, has been a tireless advocate for official recognition and reparations.

"These women have waited for over 80 years," Suarez said, "Not a single word of apology, not even a recognition of wrongdoing has come from the Japanese government. That silence is a second wound, one deeper than the first."

Marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Suarez said, "Justice begins with the admission of wrongdoing. You cannot deny what happened to the Lolas. It is important for the Filipino people, and for the world, to remember, because only through remembrance can we prevent such atrocities from happening again."

As the women sat beneath the simple shelter, their voices continued to linger in the air, "Give us justice. Acknowledge the pain we endured."

It was not just a song. It was a decades-long cry for truth.

The issue of comfort women has drawn international attention over the years from Korea, China, and across Southeast Asia, expressed in different languages at different places, but echoing the same cries of anguish.

Yet today, even as the world commemorates 80 years since fascism's defeat, there are still those who try to diminish, distort, or deny what happened.

As Suarez reminded us, "We always say history repeats itself. But history only repeats itself when we forget."

The women under the canopy were outwardly calm, sitting there with quiet dignity. But within them burns a resolve, shaped by sorrow and memory. They do not know how many more years they have left to wait. ■

Survivors of Filipina comfort women gather in a small courtyard to denounce unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Japanese invaders during World War II, in Mapanique of Candaba, Pampanga province, the Philippines, July 6, 2025. (Xinhua/Nie Xiaoyang)

Survivors of Filipina comfort women gather in a small courtyard to denounce unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Japanese invaders during World War II, in Mapanique of Candaba, Pampanga province, the Philippines, July 6, 2025. (Xinhua/Nie Xiaoyang)