Jugun Ianfu

Just imagine when a 13 years old teenager like Mardiyem was forced to serve and satisfy the sexual desire of an entire Japan army in Telawang, South Kalimantan. At the first time, this little girl who came from Yogyakarta was persuaded to go to Telawang to be a dancer. “But when I got there, I was told to serve the Japanese soldiers. In a day, I have to serve more than 10 Japanese soldiers.” She said. No wonder if Mardiyem was suffering both physically and mentally. She was even pregnant at the age of 15. By the Japanese, she was brought to a hospital and forced to kill the baby inside her stomach without proper treatment. The same faith was also experienced by Kartimah, this girl from Cimahi was also been forced to be a Jugun Ianfu, the sexual slave that serve Dai Nipon, the Japanese soldiers in 1942. At that time, Kartimah was kidnapped from her house and was put into a soldier camp with other victims. Mardiyem and Kartimah now have become very old. However, they along with other victims are still fighting to make the Japanese government to admit their sin in the past and pay for everything that they have done to all of the Jugun Ianfu in Indonesia and it seems that their work has almost paid of. As the matter of fact, it turns out that Jugun Ianfu was not only happened in Indonesia, but also in many other countries like China and South Korea. If these 3 countries can cooperate together, they can push The Japanese Government to apologize and thus the struggle of Mardiyem, Kartimah, and many other vitims were not in vain. Nevertheless, we as Indonesian must also support their fight by accepting those people who were used to be Jugun Ianfu as a part of our society. We can not let them to be isolated since they were the victim of The Japanese Government and not just some mere prostitutes.