Antique honors ‘Lola Masing,’ comfort woman

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By Jo Martinez-Clemente
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:56:00 03/08/2008

Filed Under: Regional authorities

SAN JOSE, Antique – She was born on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Concepcion and died on April 6, a Good Friday. Through most of her 78 years, Tomasa Dioso Salinog or “Lola Masing” suffered in silence, carrying a cross brought upon her by a war she would rather forget but could not. And so, way into her twilight years, she decided to unload her burden, tell her story and recover her dignity.

Lola Masing rose to become an icon for Filipino women for her “undaunting and uncompromising quest for justice.”

On the occasion of her 79th birth anniversary last year, her province of Antique gave her an accolade – the “Lola Masing Center for Culture and Peace.” Set up in a permanent place at the Museo Antiqueño in the capital town of San Jose, it was dedicated to her, “an Antiqueño comfort woman who in her struggle for justice showed the world dignity despite poverty.”

Under the auspices of the Binirayan Foundation Inc. (BFI), the center is envisioned to be a multimedia resource facility that will provide learning and instructional materials and services on culture, gender and peace studies.

“The story of Lola Masing is also a story about Antique,” says Alex delos Santos, executive director of the BFI. “This was how we were during those times and how Lola Masing picked up the pieces of her life in itself is a story of courage and determination that should inspire us. And we hope that through this center, we will share and continue to draw such inspiration.”

Who is Lola Masing?

Lola Masing was one of the so-called “comfort women,” a term coined during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II to refer to those who were forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.

Born in Pandan town in 1928, Lola Masing lost both her parents early in life. Her mother Patria died a month after she was born. Her father Evaristo took her to San Jose where she completed her elementary education.

Lola Masing was barely in her teens when the war broke out – and tore her apart. Evaristo was beheaded while resisting Japanese soldiers who broke into their house. She, in turn, was abducted by soldiers assigned to the Wakamura Detachment and brought to a house near a garrison on Gobierno Street, where she was raped and abused. She escaped several months later, only to be captured and raped again. She was only 13 then.

In December 1943, the garrison was moved to Davao, but those who remained in Antique did not spare Lola Masing. Her captor, a certain Colonel Okumura, and his friends sexually abused and enslaved her, forcing her to do household chores.

Freedom from abuse came with the 1945 liberation of the Philippines, but it was not until 47 years later when she came out to tell her story, that she freed herself from the ugly images of the past.

Seeking justice

In November 1992, Lola Masing heeded a call for Filipino comfort women to come out and demand justice. She first told her story to an Antique-based lawyer, Roberto Operiano, who helped prepare her documents.

She sold her blanket to raise her fare money to go to Iloilo City. From there, the story of Lola Masing and those of others like Rosa Henson of Pampanga would be told over and over, across the country and in other parts of the world, especially in Japan.

In April 1993, Lola Masing, along with 17 other surviving Filipino comfort women, filed a case with the Tokyo district court, demanding justice, apology and legal compensation from Japan for the abuses committed against them during the war.

In a court hearing held in October 1993, Lola Masing explained what brought her to court:

“I decided to file a lawsuit because I know this is one way to obtain justice for the wrong done to me by the Japanese Imperial Army. My testimony, as well as those of other comfort women, points to the fact that a war crime of rape and sexual slavery had been committed against us.

“As a surviving victim of war, I can only offer my experience to serve as a lesson for all governments and the international community that wars bring only violence and women become the most violated human being in times of war.

“I demand from the Japanese government to fulfill its legal responsibility, sincerely apologize and grant compensation to all victims of sexual slavery. Justice cannot be fully served unless the Japanese government faces its responsibility. This is the only expression of justice that I understand.”

In 1998, the court dismissed the case. Paul Kazuyoshi Okura, representative priest of the Catholic Tokyo Archdiocesan Committee for Justice and Peace who was with her, described the scene:

“Lola Masing started crying. She said, ‘I cannot go back to Antique in shame like this. I want to die here now.’ A lot of Japanese people cried with her. I felt terribly sorry because it was the Japanese government and the judges, who do not recognize their own responsibility for the crimes, who are at shame.”

Lola Masing and her group filed an appeal with the Tokyo appellate court, but this, too, was dismissed in December 2000.

On Christmas Day in 2003, the Supreme Court of Japan dismissed the case with finality and nailed it down for good.

While the case was being heard at the Tokyo district court, an Asia Women’s Fund was allegedly set up by Japan from donations of Japanese citizens and intended for the comfort women. Lola Masing rejected the offer.

Says Yuichi Yokota, Lola Masing’s lawyer: “I met Lola Masing for the first time in November 1992 in Iloilo City. I was gripped by the overwhelming severity of the sexual violence that Lola Masing had suffered from the Japanese Army and was taken by deep shame as a Japanese person.

“From the following year in April 1993 through December 2003, for 10 years and eight months, I took on a litigation struggle with Lola Masing claiming compensation from the Japanese government. The Japanese judiciary refused to adopt any legal remedies. As a sole solution, the Japanese government established the Asian Women’s Fund which conceals and hinders state responsibility and tried to impose this fund to Filipina, Korean, Taiwanese and Dutch women survivors.

Human dignity

“In December 2000, amid heightened energy of the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal, Lola Masing rejected this fund, resolutely pronouncing that this fund does not fulfill her sense of justice. Our hearts were overcome. Thanks to Lola Masing, I was able to deeply appreciate afresh the magnificence of valuing human dignity,” says Yokota.

Moved by her resoluteness, concerned Japanese citizens formed a group called the Para kay Lola Masing Network-Japan (PLMN-Japan) to support the Filipina in her struggle there. Members had repeatedly visited her at her home in Antique. Beyond death, the group is supporting the Lola Masing Center for Culture and Peace alongside the Asia Women’s Rights Center-Malaya Lolas.

Lola Masing was a member of Malaya Lolas, which was organized in 1996 by the Filipino comfort women. The group has 102 members whose experiences under the Japanese Imperial Army had all been documented. About 30 of them had already died.

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